Monday, March 14, 2011

Harvest Monday - 14 March 2011

I have been eating from my stores. Above I used some of my Cherokee Trail of Tears to make a bean and apple salad. I have a few apples left from the fall and am trying to use them up before they all rot. The salad wasn't made using a recipe, but contains 1/2c dried beans, an apple, an orange, half a red pepper, about 1/4c of sweet onion, 1/4 c cilnatro, a couple tablespoons of vinegar, a dash of chipolte pepper, and salt.

I also have been eating my frozen chard every week. I rarely show it or talk about it. It isn't as sexy or photogenic as the beans or the canned items, but it is there and a workhorse of what got saved last year.

What I was really hoping for though was a harvest from my overwintered crops. Everything melted out and thawed this last week. The rock wall bed that had overwintering plants in it had totally thawed. The plastic had huge puddles of collected water weighing everything down.

This is what the support structure looked like after the plastic was removed. Pretty sad right?

And this is what the plants looked like. Now the tatsoi above looks like it will regrow, but those nice rosettes had rotted stems below them. There were only a couple that I thought might or might not survive.

Of the other plants the Fun Jen looks like it is fairly healthy. But I don't have high hopes for it. I see signs of it wanting to bolt. The roots seem healthy as I pulled up a few. Still I'm giving them less than even odds of putting out anything edible this spring. But if they do succeed in only putting out blossoms, you can bet that I'm going to see how they taste. Most of the Asian greens that bolt put out good tasting flowers.

And as for Harvest Monday. Don't those overwintered turnips look good?

Well they weren't. Almost all of theme were rotted to the core. I had two that seemed OK. These were the largest of the turnips. The small ones seemed to have more issues. The smaller the turnip; the larger the brown rotting spot was. I haven't weighed the two nice ones yet. I was afraid to taste them. I will and if they are OK they will be added to the tally. Two tiny turnips won't weigh much, but it would be something.

But the bed got totally cleaned up. I'm hoping but not expecting much.

Interestingly enough, the unprotected things fared better. The tunnel collapse probably helped to rot things out. Above is some of the overwintered spinach. The spinach is spotty here and there along the rock wall garden. It sprouted spotty in the fall. It doesn't look like I had any winter kill at all. I also had two Tom Thumb lettuce plants survive under the protection of the parsley. The parsley will probably sprout, but not in time before I rip it out for the flowers that will go there this summer. And last but not least, my Dwarf Curled Kale all survived. They are still small as they were when they started winter. They might get big enough before they need to get ripped out. So future Harvest Mondays might happen in a month. Time will tell.

And I fixed my fruit tally. I found not all the columns had added up. I also added in the Felco F-6 pruners that I ordered. I have crappy ones, but they just don't cut well. Everyone says that the Felcos will last forever, so in the long run I'm guessing they will be cheaper.

Harvest Monday is a day to show off your harvests, how you are saving your harvest, or how you are using your harvest. If you have a harvest you want to show off, add your name and link to Mr Linky below.

26 comments:

  1. What a shame about your rotted crops, but still it looks as if there are some survivors, and spring around the coner?

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  2. Glad some of your plants survived the winter. I'll need to do some of that clean up soon when the snow finishes melting.

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  3. You always serve up some delicious-looking dishes for Harvest Monday! My post today is about citrus I'm eating that were grown from seed.

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  4. The bean and apple salad looks and sounds absolutely delicious! What an interesting combination of flavors.

    Hopefully some of your overwintered crops will provide you with a few fresh harvests to hold you over until the new crops are in and producing!!

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  5. Oh how disappointing about the turnips. Isn't a a quandry about succession planting that you may need to rip stuff up before its prime in order to get something else in when it needs to be? I stuggle with it every year...

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  6. Beans and apples together! Never heard of that. Looks good.

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  7. That Bean and Fruit salad looks delicious - was it as tasty as it looks?

    The spinach and remaining greens look like they will spring forward with some growth and give you some early fresh greens while you wait for the first plantings to come along. My overwintered spinach came through fine too but they are rather stalled out as we have been getting rain and wind in a steady state for almost a week now - and everything is looking like a drowned rat in the garden. I can hear the rain pounding on the roof as I type this in fact. (sigh)

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  8. I've not had much luck with overwintering turnips here. The greens may stay edible, but the roots usually rot like your did.

    Hopefully the greens that survived will give you a taste before it's time for them to go!

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  9. I would never have though to combine beans and fruit and tomatoes....what a great combination. We freeze kale and beet greens but I have never frozen chard, I will have to try freezing that as well...especially since it has not overwintered very well the past couple years.

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  10. Are the turnip top still edible? Those spinach still look very green and in good shape.

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  11. Funkbunny, the unprotected survived fairly well. But we had an amazing snow cover this year. On a normal year they would be the lagging ones.

    Emily, It was a great weekend to be outside. Well Saturday was. Sunday it was mostly snowy.

    Grower Jim, thanks. I wish the orange I had was homegrown. It is one of the oranges that my MIL sends me every year. Honeybells. I love honeybells. I have one left, but I think it is getting eaten straight.

    Robin, I'm really hoping that the spinach and kale take off. I'll side dress them when the weather warms up a bit more.

    foodgardenkitchen, I struggle too. I keep trying though. I'm sure I will for the rest of my gardening life too.

    Karen, lol it is a take off from Canyon Ranches salsas. They have a version of bean and apple. Not quite the way I do it. But I've found beans, cilantro, onions and just about any fruit goes well together. Tomatoes being a favorite in season, but this is good too. I pair it with some low fat cottage cheese for lunch.

    kitsapFG, yes very very tasty. I'm a bean and cilantro fan and as I told Karen I do this salad with other fruits too.
    We have been getting enough rain but not much at all compared to usual. I'm sure we will get a soaker sometime soon. We always do in the spring. I just hope we don't get the record floods like we did last year. I normal year would be really nice about now. If there is such a thing.

    villager, the turnip greens were pretty green, but fairly scroungy looking. I didn't want to eat them.

    Mr H, as you might expect chard freezes about as well as spinach and it produces so much over the summer. It is perfect to freeze for the winter. It comes out as tasty as the fresh kind. At least if you eat it boiled like I do.

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  12. Malay, the turnip tops were green, but they were really scroungy looking. I'd much rather eat my frozen chard than those turnip tops. Though in the spring with the fresh turnip greens I'd eat them.

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  13. MMMmmm.... the apples and beans look wonderful together with some fresh made cinsugar tortillas for dipping, yum.
    Can't say the new tunnel was a complete failure yet. Maybe next year will be improved even more.

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  14. The salad looks great...I'm going to try growing beans this year, too. I don't have a harvest this week...but a blog post about emergency preparedness after watching the news from Japan with a heavy heart...

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  15. Wow, that salad looked tasty. Glad it was! Like KitsapFG, it's pouring heavy right now and I just checked my hoop cover. The storm collpased one end and blew in on side. My poor green onions have been flattened one too many times I'm sure, but the salad greens seem to be loveing it. I uncovered them to let Mother Nature water for me today, and I'll fix it tonight.

    I am so jealous that all your put-up harvest from last year is doing so well for you. I've failed at it every year I've tried. Mostly I've found we don't like blanched, frozen beans, and my wife doesn't like the pickles we made her. hehe. Maybe this year I'll get into it more, but with 150 SF of garden space, there isn't much left overs.

    Great post, especially the visually bland greens, you struck a cord there!

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  16. The apple and bean salad look so delicious. I've never freeze greens before except broccoli, I'll have to try it someday.

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  17. YOur poor supports look so sad. That was a lot of snow to hold up. It really is amazing how well the unprotected stuff did, despite the hard winter. You really have to try those poor turnips. The poor things have been freezing!

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  18. Those turnips look scrumptious! all you need is a little butter, forget about the tops :o) I bet they are sweet as all get out.

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  19. Well, I'm going to make up your bean/apple dish for lunch...that looks great.

    Sorry you lost some of you covered crops! It happens...that's how we learn.

    I posted my *special* harvest!

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  20. You always seem to combine things in such interesting ways. Your bean and apple salad looks delicious with all the different flavors and textures.

    So sorry some of your overwintered crops under hoops didn't fair well. It was such a rough winter with so much snow piling on top of each other. The spinach looks good though. I still have almost two feet of snow covering the garden, so I have no idea if anything overwintered yet.

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  21. I'm glad at least some of your plants survived the wicked weather!! That bean salad looks yummers!

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  22. I cannot believe those supports! Glad to see that SOME of your plants made it through all of that snow of yours! Spring come quicker!!

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  23. It's scary to think of the weight that flattened those row hoops. We ordered agribon this year, after the first nasty freeze we bit the bullet and did it; bought the 30 and I'm glad we did; it is sturdier than the 19. I know, Florida and all, what do we need agribon for? Originally I was planning to use 19 as a season extender; the 30 ended up being used as both a season extender and as freeze blankets. So much easier to work with than sheets and blankets. Then last week I found a roll of 15 in the thrift store for $3. Score!

    ~dianne

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  24. Those over-wintered crops look a bit sorry for themselves! I hope enough of them recover to provide a worthwhile harvest for you. I'm trying some Oriental Brassicas this year, but I plan to grow them during the warmer months.

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  25. Barbie, lol no the cinsugar tortillas would destroy the idea of the meal. I've been eating way too much non healthy food recently. I've really got to stop. Eating healthy is so easy during the garden season, but out of season I really slip big time.

    Deb, I've been watching the news too. It is just so sad.

    Sinfonian, I had 200 sqft of bed space last year to put up things, but then again I don't have a family eating it all. Which isn't quite true. My husband just hates veggies (though he will eat salsa and tomato sauce, and dried beans). My kids were here for most of the summer, but really didn't eat all that much. We did however have the best ever weather for growing summer crops. So the crops were spectacular. Much better than normal summers.

    Mac, I'm not a big fan of frozen broccoli, but plain greens I don't mind at all.

    The Mom, Yes I really had to do a lot of bending to get them back to normal. They had a lot of weight on them.

    Gingerbreadhouse7, they probably are.

    Lynda, it is. I keep trying different things and some work and some don't, but I keep learning.

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  26. GrafixMuse, I was walking with a friend the other day and we both agreed half the snow next year would be about perfect. It was just too much this year. I hope your spinach is doing fine under all your snow.

    Holly, thanks

    Megan, if I had known how much snow we were going to get, I'd have not tried to do a skimpy metal hoop. Live and learn i guess.

    tervy, I bought a roll of the 15, which doesn't provide much frost protection. But then it doesn't cut the light much either and I can leave it on over the summers for insect protection (which is my main reason for buying it.

    Mark, I'll be growing my Asian greens all the way through the seasons. I do love them.

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