Monday's harvest was a small basket of lettuce. Only 10.8 oz.
Wednesday's harvest was Choy Sum and Chinese broccoli. 5.2 oz.
Saturday's harvest just kept coming. I'd see one thing that needed harvesting. I'd take it in and weigh it and put it in the fridge. Then I'd run across something else. So above is harvest number one. I was planting some green stemmed bok choy to replace what was harvested and noticed the bolting tatsoi. So it was picked. In addition I picked enough of the bok choy to fit in all the seedlings. 19 oz.
The second harvest happened when I noticed the chard leaves had really started to grow huge. They aren't quite at their maximum size yet, but they are getting there. 7.4 oz.
The third harvest was when I was in the front of the house helping Joel, my husband, with the mulch for our landscaping. The spinach was once again huge. 7.5 oz.
The fourth and last harvest of the day was for lunch when I wanted to make a salad. I was sure there must be some radishes ready. I wasn't particularly happy with what I saw under the row cover. Many of them had died like the spinach had. But when I pulled some seemingly healthy plant up, I found the roots had been eaten by ants. Ants? I've had them eaten by slugs before, but the evidence was conclusive. I have a new pest to deal with here. I wonder if it wasn't death by damping off for the spinach in the same bed. Maybe the ants ate the roots? I'll have to savor the few radishes I do get this year. 3.8oz.
Red Sails, Deer Tongue, and Paris Island
Sunday's harvest was because I was in need of more salad greens for dinner. My container in the fridge was empty. So out I went into the rain. This time it wasn't a small basket of greens. My lettuce was really taking off. A lot needed picking. 22.8 oz. I still need to pick one more Paris Island romaine head to finish thinning out that row. Then they can grow into large heads. After that I'll move on to the Little Gem romaines which have already sized up and are ready to pick. My summer lettuce replacement plants have just started to germinate. In three weeks they will need a space to go in the lettuce bed. So far I'll I've done is pick the edges of the leaf lettuce and thinned out some romaine. I'll need to eat a lot more in the next few weeks to open up some space.
Chicken soup with egg and bok choy
I haven't been taking a lot of photos of my meals as there are so many harvest photos which take priority. But I figure I'd leave you with a photo of yesterday's lunch. I woke up to a sore throat and a headache. Oh how I hate being sick. So on Saturday I made some chicken soup. I had broth in the freezer. I defrosted a couple of cups of it and added some soy sauce, bok choy, leftover rice, and an egg. In addition there was a touch of left over chicken soup from Thursday's dinner, so I tossed that in too. It must have worked as this morning I'm feeling tired, but much better. Or maybe it was all those zinc lozenges. Or all the gallons of tea I drank. Or all the vitamin C I took. Or the Epicor I'm always on. But I think I'll rest today and take care of myself. No heavy digging in the garden.
- Greens 4.6 lbs
- Radishes 0.14 lbs
- Weekly Total 4.74 lbs
- Yearly Total 13.88 lbs
- Still in the hole $-444.72
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.
Yes, rest up. Nothing is worse than a spring cold. It is so frustrating to be inside feeling horrid when the garden is calling.
ReplyDeleteOh, btw, nice harvest!
Me too - spring cold - YUK! Beautiful harvest - sorry about the radishes!
ReplyDeleteDaphne nice harvest as usual. Sorry about the radishes. I sometimes get wire worms in mine but don't recall a problem with ants.
ReplyDeleteI had the cold and sore throat last week but seems to be gone now. With this rain who knows. Want to till the garden but we have a full week of rain expected.
Those are some lovely looking greens and lettuces. Odd about the radishes. Ant control could be tough. They've been bad inside here this year, due to all the rain. Hope you get to feeling better soon!
ReplyDeleteGreat harvest, Daphne. My lettuce has really taken off as well. We have so many greens in the fridge - it's times like these that I wish I had hens to feed.
ReplyDeleteI've never heard of ants but once and a while a few of my radishes and carrots will have tiny holes in them.
What an abundant harvest this week. The greens season is really upon us now. I have never heard of ants actually harming crops before - learn something new every day!
ReplyDeleteThe chicken soup looks (and sounds) like it had all the right stuff to kick an emerging cold right back to where it came from.
Nice harvest, Daphne! I hear you about the greens...I'm ready for some more color, too :-)
ReplyDeleteGreat harvest Daphne! Boy all of your greens are absolutely beautiful! I'm not having much luck with my Asian greens this spring. Oh well, there is always the fall planting to look forward to.
ReplyDeleteWow, that's alot of lettuce for the week!
ReplyDeleteLovely greens as always. Weird about the radishes. Like villager we've had them in the house lately with the rain.
ReplyDeleteOh i should make chicken soup too as this week most of the family member are feeling unwell. Ants don't like turmeric powder.Nice greens.
ReplyDeleteYou'd better hurry, I've almost caught up with you! You're just a few ounces ahead of me now.
ReplyDeleteAnts ate my radishes, too. A first for me, so what's going on? They were teensy-tiny black ants, and they swarmed all over the tops, and chewed them up good.
Take care of yourself, you have lots of work ahead and can't afford to get sick!
Beautiful harvest! I am so jealous!! Hopefully the lettuce starts I just planted will take off soon!!
ReplyDeleteHope you feel better!
I dream of getting the lettuce you are getting. This year the lettuce just isn't growing like it did last year. We have had so many rainy gray days I just don't think we are getting enough sun.
ReplyDeleteThe soup looks wonderful and I bet it was soothing on a sore throat. Rest up and get better!
ReplyDeleteOh I wish I had some of that soup right now! I swear I can SMELL it! YUMMMM!
ReplyDeleteI actually have a second harvest for the season so far!
ReplyDeleteAll your greens look so beautiful! And the soup looks yummy!
Your harvest looks beautiful, I hope you feel better soon!
ReplyDeleteHope you feel better soon.
ReplyDeleteDidn't know ants eat radish, I haven't got around to plant them yet.
Ali, at least this week is rainy. I won't feel much like going outside either way.
ReplyDeleteMelissa, I'm just hoping the ants don't like the white icicle radishes. They take bit longer to size up. So I'll find out soon.
wilderness, I've never had ant problems before. Yes they were annoying and farmed aphids on occasion, but they never ate my crops. But a new house means new issues. Hopefully I'll figure them all out.
villager, I wouldn't have any idea how to control ants without killing the soil. So I'll probably just put up with them. Last year they ate my zucchini blossoms. I never had these issues at my old house.
Thomas, I have so many greens in the fridge too. I keep wondering how I'll eat them all, but I'll do it.
Laura, it was a really nice harvest this week. With the larger garden I'll have trouble eating it all. I wonder if my townhouse mates will get sick of all the veggies after a while.
Bee Girl, I keep wondering what the next thing on the menu will be. I'm guessing peas. But not until June. I have a few more weeks of greens green and more greens. With a few radishes or turnips thrown in.
Robin, last year my Asian greens didn't do well. It was just too hot and everything bolted prematurely. We had a lot of weather swings last spring. Though this spring has been cold for us - it barely made 50F today - it is great for the greens. I hope my tomatoes live through it all.
EG, yeah but not nearly as much as Granny has. How can you eat 6lbs of lettuce?
Emily, I haven't seen them in my house much yet this year, but they will come. I've seen them a lot in the back yard though. I think they have colonized my compost pile.
Laura, maybe next year I should put turmeric powder down in the rows. I've heard they don't like cinnamon too. But in my house they would just walk right over it.
ReplyDeleteGranny, I guess we both have mutant ants. Mine are the tiny black ants too. Mine weren't in the tops though. They stuck to under the ground and in the root.
Cantor Craziness, I hope your lettuce does well too. I'm really enjoying mine.
Vanessa, usually they like the rainy weather, but there is such a thing as too much. We are getting a lot of rain this week. I'll be glad when Sunday comes and the weather clears at least a little.
Deb, thanks
Barbie, I had it for lunch again today. I love chicken soup when it is cold out or I'm sick and right now it is both. Our high so far has been 50.9 and now the temps are dropping. Brrrr. It doesn't feel at all like May.
Shawn Ann, thanks and yay for a second harvest.
Nartaya, thanks
Mac, its getting late to plant radishes or are you cool in the summer? Or maybe you like them hot. I usually only plant one wave of them in the spring and then try to remember to plant in the fall, but I should plant them now too. I have plenty of space around the squash for it. They won't come up for a while.
Never knew that ants would eat radishes! Your greens look tempting!
ReplyDeleteOh, you've opened my apetite with that yummy looking soup! I love your lettuce, the Paris looks particularly good. I may have to try it.
ReplyDeleteWe've never had a problem with ants chewing on our radishes, how strange. And I think Florida is the world's ant capital...
Hope you feel better soon!
Ants on radishes? Last year I got caterpillars in the onion stems. Insects are amazing. But mostly not in a good way.
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear about your radishes. Funny how things differ so much from garden to garden. My radishes are the only thing that I haven't had trouble with! Ants, hunh? Wow, I didn't know they could be harmful! I saw several ant hills I better go give them the water hose! LOL! Hope you are feeling better soon!
ReplyDeleteAll your green are gorgeous! , sorry for the radishes,
ReplyDeleteWE had hail yesterday!! I will post up some pictures in my blog and I made a spinach smoothie with my harvest.
I lvoe your garden and all your raised beds are so well organized, Congrats!
Andrea, from California
http://howisitincalifornia.blogspot.com/2011/05/harvest-on-mondayscleansing-smoothie.html
I meant the ants ate the tops of the root, not the green tops. I finally just pulled all of them, and haven't seen the ants around since. I Googled the problem, and most say ants do not eat plants. That's like sow bugs and earwigs don't eat plants. Baloney! I watched the ants, they were definitely dining. One person (who was also having her radishes eaten) said cinnamon repelled them.
ReplyDeleteAnts do eat vegetation. The worst is the fire ant so if you have serious damage be careful and find out exactly what kind of ants they are. Fire ants sting and it isn't nice.
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear bout your radishes. A few years ago I lost all my cabbage to ants. I had never seen ants do that before. Curiouser and curiouser...
ReplyDeleteYour greens are beautiful, they definitely outweigh the unfortunate radishes (sorry you won't be enjoying many this year!)
ReplyDeleteThanks again for always hosting Harvest Monday! :)
It's always fun to see the ways people use what they've got!
I want some of that soup...cold here and I need to get warmed up.
ReplyDeleteposted my havest...
http://cortinacreek.blogspot.com/2011/05/harvest-monday_16.html
Nice harvest Daphne! I have fire ants here and usually I only see a problem if they make a nest(hill) in the actual bed which displaces the plants roots. One time I had a smallish kale plant growing and they completely covered it with the dirt they were unearthing to form the hill. I proceeded to drown them out!!!
ReplyDeleteEverything is looking great Daphne! And your chicken soup smells heavenly :). Hope you feel better soon.
ReplyDelete~dianne
Little brown ants took about 1/3rd of my White Icicle radish shoots and some of my broccoli seedlings. It's just something that we build into the planting plan. Give a little to the ants, keep the rest for ourselves.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.media-organic.com/garden-week-in-review-6
RandomGardener, thanks well for the greens not the ants
ReplyDeleteMary, Paris Island is the romaine typically grown for the grocery stores. So far it is still my favorite along with Little Gem.
Gardenvariety-hossier, last year the cutworms got into my onions. I couldn't believe it. I thought they hated onions.
Deb, I'd never have them be harmful either, well except for biting me when I turn over their nest.
Andrea, Ack hail is terrible. I'm glad we don't get that often around here.
Granny, ah the tops of the roots. I know for a fact that sow bugs eat plants. They love strawberries too. And the earwigs cut all the silks off my corn one year when they were really bad. I tried cinnamon inside the house, but they just ignored it. I usually only use it for damping off. If it becomes a cronic problem I'll have to buy some industrial cinnamon jars.
wilderness, luckily fire ants are just a southern thing. I don't think they do well in cold weather. That is not to say that ants up here don't bite on occasion, but it doesn't hurt nearly as much.
Ed, I hope they didn't come back and do it again. Then maybe I'll get radishes this fall. Maybe.
Megan, thanks. I love showing how I use it too, but most of the time it is just steamed (or boiled for spinach and chard) and eaten plainly. I'm not a big fan of fancy vegetables, for a lot of veggies.
Lynda, It has been cold here too. We barely made it to 50 yesterday and today I don't think it will get that high. Brrrrrr.
Katrina, I never see nests here unless I dig. The ants here nest underground and don't make those piles. I've never considered them a pest before. I figure they just aerate my soil.
Tervy, thanks
mediaOrganic, ouch. I was hoping mine wouldn't come back, but maybe I'll just have to learn to live with them.
Your photos always look like they should be in picture frames. They're always so sharp, pretty and rich in color. You take great pics!
ReplyDelete