Monday, June 13, 2011

Harvest Monday - June13 2011

This week didn't quite reach the heights of last week Though it was still a good harvest. My first spring greens are starting to be over with. All I have left from that first planting is one kohlrabi and some mizuna. The second set isn't big enough to harvest except the baby bok choy. It is about time to start the seedlings for the greens for the fall harvest for the long maturing greens and third wave of the more quickly maturing ones. The summer crops aren't quite there yet though I have seen my first female zucchini bud. It will be a while before it is big enough to open. The first wave of lettuce is almost over. The second wave was planted and is about four inches high. The third wave will be planted this week I hope. I should really do waves of lettuce more often. I think I waited too long before the second. Though the real problem is the heat. That area gets hotter than the rest of the garden and we have had two weird hot spells already.

So on to the harvest. Above is Tuesday's harvest of kohlrabi, mizuna, choy sum, broccoli, and turnips.

Wednesday's harvest had the first of the snowpeas - Golden Sweet and Blizzard. Golden Sweet is so much easier to pick because you can find the pea, but Blizzard so far is out producing it and has a slightly better taste, but just slightly. I also harvested the first of the chamomile and some more cilantro.

Then came the huge pile of lettuce. I wanted to get most of it picked before it got too bitter. The heat has been really hard on it all.

Thursday's harvest was small. It was just a quick trip out to pick some celery and some herbs. I had the first of the basil. I decided to pinch it back before the heat hit that day. It was a good decision because it doubled in size that day and it made the plants more bushy.

Friday's harvest was peas. They needed to get picked. I harvested two containers like this but the Golden Sweet I forgot to take a photo of. OK I forgot for both, but pulled this one out of my fridge.

Saturday's harvest was a mass of greens, kohlrabi, and broccoli - mostly the last two of the early spring planted Yakatta-na. They are very slow bolters, but still the largest of them started to bolt in the heat so I took out the remaining two.

Sunday's harvest started with a couple of pounds of Swiss chard.

And ended with a few herbs and some celery. I didn't pick them for me. I picked them for a friend of mine. I'm going to give her a partial CSA share every week. I have way too much to eat on my own, even with my townhouse mates help and have been looking for what to do with it. She is making me a huge dragon for my office area. So that will be part of how I pay her back. I figure I'll put some things in every week. Herbs and celery seem a good thing to have little bits of every week. I was going to only plant two celery plants for me, but I'm glad I put in more as now I'm feeding three families.

  • Broccoli 1.85 lbs
  • Greens 9.71 lbs
  • Herbs 0.88 lbs
  • Peas 1.41 lbs
  • Turnips 0.35lbs lbs
  • Weekly Total 14.19 lbs
  • Yearly Total 64.67 lbs
  • Weekly spent $0
  • Still in the hole $-277.74

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.

43 comments:

  1. Wow! Another impressive harvest! I sure wish we had some heat here. Even just a little!

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  2. I love all the herbs you're getting already! None of my herbs have done anything (except for my basil)! It was a weird spring with zero rain and now it's just hot and smokey from the fire in Arizona. Stinkin' weather! Oh well, fantastic harvest, once again, Daphne! Cheers!

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  3. Nice harvest Daphne. I started my second wave of lettuce too late as well. The thing I dislike about growing lettuce is that it can turn on you on a time. One week, it can taste perfectly sweet, and the next - bitter city.

    It looks like you still have a good amount of greens. I'm starting to miss mine already.

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  4. Looks like you had a nice variety of stuff this week! I need to do better with my lettuce too. I had way too much to harvest at one time.

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  5. Looks great as always Daphne. Someday my turn will come. Do you really have to plant to harvest? LOL

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  6. Very nice, Daphne....I'm intrigued by the kohlrabi.

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  7. May we hope for a photo of the dragon?

    That's my problem with CSAs, way too much for a single person if you have no neighbors to split with.

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  8. That was a great harvest week and how wonderful that your garden is providing for three families! I have more lettuces coming right behind my current patch which is good because I suspicion I may get some bitterness starting soon myself. Yours turning bitter is most likely a function of the the heat extremes you have experienced, but my experience is that as the plant get's older it also wants to get bitter (no matter the weather conditions) so there is only so long a planting can provide really sweet lettuce anyways.

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  9. Looks great Daphne! What do you do with your Kohlrabi? I am interested in the veg, but I am trying to figure out how most people choose to eat it!

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  10. Bountiful! Your cilantro is beautiful, mine just sprouted with the new batch. Have you started freezing your snow peas?

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  11. Everything looks so green and gorgeous! I always forget to take pictures of the herbs I use. That cilantro looks delicious! It's one of my favorite herbs!

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  12. As usual, your harvest looks stunning!
    I continued harvesting a little bit of this and a little bit of that, with the highlight being that I pulled a few green garlic plants and they tasted and smelled wonderful!!

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  13. Your parade of spring greens is beautiful! It's great that your cilantro survived the heat. Mine all bolted before I got a chance to enjoy them. I'll probably still harvest them, flowers and all, but I feel like they are just not the same post-bolt.

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  14. May look like less to yuo, but I think yours mixed with my tomatoes would make some serious dishes!

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  15. GORGEOUS! Hoping to harvest soon . . . so far all I've gotten is chives and carrot thinnings. A few peas appeared yesterday so hoping more will come soon.

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  16. Your harvest is great! Wish my cilantro grew fast and big! It seems to be frozen at about 3 inches height(:

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  17. Once again, I am so impressed with your harvest. I did not plant the greens early this year so I will have to wait for the cooler weather to get those. Peas look great and mine are just beginning to show signs of flowering.

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  18. I wish my chamomile had flowered already! The temperature here dropped recently so I have been in the mood for some tea

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  19. What a large and varied harvest! It's very impressive that you're feeding (at least partially) three families out of your garden.

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  20. You're getting awfully good at photographing your harvests. I'd say you're about equal to Thomas in your picture taking skills now! That's a compliment.

    I have tiny peas now, so maybe there will be something besides lettuce in my harvest next week.

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  21. An edible gift is a nice way to say "Thank You". And you have such a great variety of things coming out of your garden!

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  22. What a great harvest I can't wait fo my herbs to get bigger. Your basil doubled in a day, lucky you! Parsley in everything is perfect for summer.

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  23. You've got such a nice variety of vegetables coming out of the garden now. We've had weird weather also, but the opposite of yours, it just won't warm up here. Perhaps all that heat you're getting will give the summers vegetables a big push and you'll soon be harvesting tomatoes!

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  24. I am impressed with the size of your harvests. I linked up this week, but my harvest is so pitiful.

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  25. Holly, Well I'm beginning to agree with you now. We have been having rain since the weekend started and tomorrow is only supposed to be in the 50s. Last week we had a couple of days in the 90s. This weekend is supposed to get hot again. We are on a rollercoaster of temps.

    Bee Girl, I hope your weather improves. And I hope mine settles down a bit.

    Thomas, We did have some early hot spells. It is hard on the lettuce. Last year it didn't get bitter quite so fast.

    Shawn Ann, me too. We couldn't eat it all. At least I have some in the fridge to keep eating.

    wilderness, yes yes you do have to plant lol And then keep planting.

    EG, thanks. It is the first year I've grown it. And I like it. It is sort of a mix in taste between cabbage and radishes. And I love the crunch.

    Karen Anne, when it is finally done. I can post a photo.

    Laura, next year I'll do my successions earlier. I was hoping they would hold a little longer, but nope.

    Allison, So far I've grilled it an put it on pizza, grilled it and eaten it, and stirfried it. Oh and put it in salads. I love its taste and crunch.

    Diana, I have a new batch that is coming up right now.Some of the old is already bolting. I don't freeze my snow peas. I don't like them once they are defrosted. So they get eaten fresh or not at all. I'll pickle some of the snap peas.

    Megan, I often forget too. But if I'm harvesting other things, they get in the photos.

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  26. Fred, I keep holding onto my garlic as I still haven't used up last year's.

    Thyme, mine is starting to bolt. And like you I'll eat it bolting anyway. But I'll let a lot of the plants set seed.

    Barbie, oh yes it would. I can't wait for the first of the tomatoes. I think I'll get the first in July sometime - usually right at the end.

    Wendy, thanks. I was checking my carrots today, but so far not big enough. They have a long way to go. I thinned them out ages ago when they were tiny.

    RandomGardener, I hope yours starts to grow. They are like that though. They are tiny for so long then they just take off then bolt. Cilantro has such a short season.

    johanna, thanks. I hope you get your peas soon.

    Prairie Cat, I love the scent of chamomile. Almost like apples.

    foodgardenkitchen, my family is easy to feed. We are two and my husband doesn't eat veggies. The other families are four (though one is really two with two kids home from college for the summer). Weirdly I can eat as many veggies as my townhouse mates with four. But I think I cook more.

    Annie's Granny, Thomas does have beautiful photos. I ought to use my husband's camera, which is an SLR so takes a lot better photos. But I like mine where I can just toss it around and get it dirty without worrying about it.

    Mark, thanks

    Nartaya, it was a really hot day when it did, and I had just watered. Of course now it is just sitting there in the cold weather.

    michelle, well we have been having wide swings in weather. Tomorrow will only get into the 50s and we have had rainy weather for the whole weekend. Last week had a couple of hot days. Next weekend might be hot again. I wish it would settle down a bit.

    Crafty Cristy, not everyone is insane as I am and has such a huge garden. And any harvest is a good harvest.

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  27. Your havest is lovely. I so envy your peas! None for me this year...lost to spray drift. I'm hoping my husband plants peas in the Fall...a couple hundred acres for seed...I sneak out and pick for my own needs!

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  28. my garden is in brigton, but my yokatta-na (all all asian greens) bolted in May, when we scarcely hit 70; now my next round of greens seems to be NOT bolting, despite the mid-80's. i am all confused. as confused as the boston weather, it seems.

    *stunning* harvest, btw. how big is your garden?

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  29. Lynda, oh how sad to lose your peas. lol yeah if you have a husband that plants hundreds of acres of peas, surely you can have some.

    Donna, if brassicas see temps too low they can also bolt once it warms up. So if you planted early and they saw a lot of freezing temps it pushes them too hard. They don't even need hot weather to bolt because of that. I have eight beds that are about 4'x16' and two beds that are smaller but put together are close enough to that. So I sort of think that I have nine beds each 63 sqft. Which is about 570sqft of raised bed for vegetables and annual herbs. I also have some places for the perennial herbs and flowers. I don't know how big those are but not all that large. Then the rest of the yard is landscaped in the sunny parts in fruits.

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  30. I like the mini CSA idea; I need to talk to a friend of mine about doing the same ....

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  31. Nice bunch of greens, all my leafy veg are gone and I have to throw out those aphid-infested broccoli, cabbages, etc. I don't think I'll grow them again in the spring next year.

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  32. Jealous of your batch of peas ; )

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  33. Mmm, so many lovely peas - I got my first two pods this week, but I was a little too impatient - should have let them grow a little longer.

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  34. I am so impressed with your harvest. Wow! I can't wait for my peas to be producing like crazy!

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  35. What a great looking harvest! Your snow peas look great as does everything else. I'll be looking forward to a picture of Golden Sweet peas next week.

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  36. What a beutiful harvest! I'm drooling over your herbs and peas!I can smell a stir fry!

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  37. I wish I could grow celery. This is the third attempt and it's dying already. Time to throw in the towel. Maybe in earthboxes that are shaded in the afternoon.

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  38. Your crops are so beautiful, and so familiar. It's really that time of year. Since I remembered to take a picture, I linked!

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  39. Thanks for hosting. I love your variety. I don't even know what mizuna is, and I worked in a produce department for 10 years.

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  40. Deb, I figure it is a great way to get rid of my extra produce on a regular basis. Of course now I have pressure to actually produce.

    Mac, I would miss them too much if I didn't grow them in the spring. I know they do so much better in the fall though.

    Brie, thanks

    Ivynettle, that as me last week. I ate a few too early straight from the garden.

    Meemsnyc, I'm sure it won't be too long.

    Ed, I've already take one of all three peas I'm growing. So I promise to have it up next Monday.

    Deb, I have to have a couple of stirfries every week if just to eat up the excess greens.

    Funkbunny, thanks

    Gardenvariety-hoosier, this is my first try. So far so good. I hear it is hard, but then I also hear it likes cool weather. Mostly that is what we have over the summer.

    Stefaneener, that is the hard part. I wish I would already remember to photograph, but sadly not.

    Jody, I grow a lot of Asian greens you don't usually see in the store.

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  41. Loving those snow peas, they look so good.

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  42. Hi! I love your garden & would love to join the Monday harvest! Thanks!

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