Monday, May 21, 2012

Harvest Monday, May 21, 2012

I had three strawberry harvests this week. The first photo was so blurry that it didn't come out, but it was also tiny. So here is the middle photo. It was a nice few cups of strawberries.

The last one filled a half of one of my 12 cup containers. And they are oh so good. They are Everglow an early strawberry. Seascape, my everbearers, have just started too. I picked just a couple of them. But what I'm waiting for is the Sparkle strawberries. I've grown them in the past and the are so tasty. But they are a mid to late season berry so I'll wait a bit longer for them.

I finally got some beautiful choy sum. Hopefully the warm weather this weekend won't send them into small tough stems. I love the fat juicy ones.

Then I had yet another big komatsuna harvest with a few turnips thrown in.

My biggest harvest by far was the chard. That looks like a small plate, but it is your typical dinner plate size. I had just over five pounds. Most went to my townhouse mates to freeze for the winter.

I ripped out half the spring spinach as it was starting to bolt. This week I'll have to rip out the next half. Then my spinach will be all gone. I froze most of the spinach for winter.

My greens had been piling up over the last two weeks and I gave away greens to four different families so that I would just have a reasonable amount in my fridge. Basically I couldn't fit it all in the fridge and I had to bring out a cooler until some of it was gone. And it looks like the greens don't show any signs of stopping their production. Soon the snap peas will join the fun.

  • Greens 11.85 lbs
  • Turnip 0.12 lbs
  • Weekly total 11.97 lbs
  • Yearly total 78.88 lbs
  • Tally -$380.87
  • Fruits 
  • Strawberries 3.8 lbs

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.

56 comments:

  1. Beautiful strawberries and your greens look lovely as usual. The chard leaves are huge.

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  2. Those are some lovely strawberries. I can almost smell them from here! I've been enjoying the ones from the nearby berry farm, but they're almost gone. We've got blueberries now, so I'm happy about that.

    I didn't grow choy sum this year. It was so finicky last spring. I'm thinking it may do better as a fall crop here.

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    1. It does better as a fall crop here too. It is a very fickle plant. If I plant it at the beginning of September I'll get a fabulous crop. In spring it is really hit or miss depending on the weather.

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  3. My new chard is still quite young (only about 5-6 inches tall) . Tried several varieties this spring. How old is yours? Hoping mine get that big. I am just harvesting smaller leaves from my overwintered, because at a point it wants to start bolting. Also, do you continue to plant Tatsoi during the summer? Going to thin mine this week. They are getting pretty big!

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    1. I have continued to plant tatsoi in the summer in the past. But this year I'm not doing that. I'm rotating my crops differently since I had some disease issues last year. I lost my whole fall Asian greens bed. So I'll have to wait until later in the year to grow more once this has all bolted. With my new rotation it will be interesting to see how the greens pan out over the summer. I will probably be green free except for the chard for a while at some point. But the Chinese cabbage and regular cabbage can keep in the fridge pretty well so I'll be counting on them to fill in the gap.

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    2. do you know what the disease was? It wiped out your whole bed? Chard is a great green to always have anyway. How old is the one in the photo?

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    3. Nope no clue. It just turned them all black. I used to always keep a brassica bed going for the whole year. So spring all the way into fall. When one thing was harvested I had transplants waiting to fill in the gap. But now I'm having a spring brassica bed. Then when I pick I won't replace them. And when the fava beans are done I'll move the later brassicas to that bed. Hopefully I won't get a repeat of the failure.

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  4. I planted strawberries today - last years total harvest was probably as big as one of yours from this week, so I've started again. I hope they do well, my mouths watering just looking at those.

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  5. Those strawberries look delicious. I have lots of flowering and initial fruit set on my strawberry patch but am going to have to wait a while to enjoy ripe fruit like yours.

    Another big week for you in the greens department!

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  6. What a beautiful harvest, Daphne! So incredibly bountiful! And those strawberries look like a little piece of heaven! Mine are a couple of weeks behind yours so I am attempting to wait patiently...which really means I'm just checking on them several times a day ;-)

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  7. What a wonderful early harvest of strawberries! My first ripe strawberry was nibbled on by a bird :( I'm not planning on a good strawberry harvest this year since my plants had to be moved and I also planted some new roots.

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  8. Those strawberries look delicious. I must get a strawberry bed planted. I've tasted homegrown strawberries and I think the phrase 'it tastes much better than store brought' is not over exaggerated at all when it comes to strawberries! Now if I can just get my mouth to stop watering.

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    1. Strawberries are kind of like tomatoes in that way. At least here in New England. The shipped in ones taste like cardboard. Though if you can get them from a local farmer they are very tasty. But Sparkle is one of those that can't ship. It is too soft and very sweet.

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  9. This is my first time participating in Harvest Monday! So far this season I've only harvested spinach and some strawberries--though not as many as yours. Your greens look great too.

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  10. What a feast of a harvest! I have strawberry envy...

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  11. I don't think most of us realize how quick greens add up; I know I never did until I really started growing lettuce and greens. If you are short of space they are one of the best producers. Of course I'm beginning to get a bit tired of eating greens now! The peas are gone in the heat and while there are beans and tomatoes coming they are not ready just yet!

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  12. Lovely to see those first beautiful strawberries. Mine are just blooming so I have some to look forward to next month.

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  13. Lovely harvests. I love the strawberries. They are on my list for next year.

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  14. MMMM... beautiful... the strawberries and the greens- I'm thinking strawberry salad!!!

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  15. I miss my greens already! Looking good!

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  16. Those strawberries look so gorgeous!! No chard for me this spring, hoping to grow a fall crop of it though.

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  17. Wow what a great harvest. Your totals are really impressive. You can grow greens like no one else. We had our first strawberry harvest this week as well!!! Great to have fresh fruit again from the garden!

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  18. Great harvest & amazing strawberries!!

    Our strawberry plants are dying, seems they have some sort of bug since the leaves are full of holes. :/

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  19. Wow, nice strawberries and greens, I'm choy sum envy!

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  20. Amazing how much food can come out of one garden! I have two questions I wanted to ask you: 1. How many square feet are in your garden and 2. What number do you use to calculate your cost vs. production? (what is your price/lb. and why?)
    Posting my first Harvest Monday today, and my harvest is pathetic in comparison. ;)

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    1. I have about 570 sqft of raised bed. This doesn't include the two small herb/flower beds. Nor does it include the rock wall garden along the road. The rock wall garden has my asparagus and three fruit trees and my strawberries under the fruit trees (two figs and a plum). Nor does it include the landscaping which includes four dwarf trees (two apple, two peach) some lowbush blueberries, the cranberries that are just struggling or the raspberries. Oh and a border of alpine strawberries in the front of the house (dang pretty plants). Three gooseberries by my front door and two taller blueberries by my townhouse mates door.

      If you notice on the right sidebar have have a tally. I keep the fruit (which is mainly landscaping) separate from the veggies. Fruits are strange since their costs are mostly all up front. I've got trellises and the trees and bushes. This is year two of the landscaping. So I won't get any fruit from the trees, but the strawberries and raspberries will be pretty much in full production. We might get some blueberries and gooseberries, but not many. The landscaping is owned by both townhouses so we will split the harvest and a lot won't get counted. For instance we both just usually eat the alpine strawberries out of hand in the yard. A lot of raspberries are like that too. So my tally won't be very accurate for fruit.

      Vegetables are more accurate. The garden is mine, though I share a lot. Though technically the land is shared, they didn't want the responsibility of a veggie garden so the reality is that I pay for it all and get to plant what I want and share if I want or not if I don't.

      I use a price per pound which is determined by my farmers market. If I didn't grow it, that is where I would buy it. Most of the costs are from IPM produced veggies since the farmer I frequent the most does that style of farming. I do occasionally buy things from others too. There is an Asian greens seller there. There is a conventional farmer there where you can get just about anything. And there is an organic farmer there that you can get a few select things. They aren't very varied. I use the price that is their standard price. Not their early prices that are higher (ie tomatoes at $5/lb for early July) and not their prices when they are in a glut (ie $3/lbs for tomatoes at the end of August). I use their typical price. It is too hard to change the price each time I harvest so I just use one price. And if I can't find the produce there or at Trader Joe's or Whole Foods where I also shop, then I hit the internet and try to find a price. I'm not always successful for somethings since who sells Komatsuna? I haven't found it anywhere. But it is an Asian green so I guess.

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    2. Thanks for the response! I have been trying to work out the calculations and show my husband that all this effort, and money, is worth it. I've been calculating closer to $1-$2/lb. because that's what I'd pay at the grocery store for non-organics. But I like your system better! The payoff is more obvious when you calculate based on local organics, rather than grocery store standard.
      My goodness, your garden is HUGE! It's no wonder I feel so outdone by some of the harvests I see other people collecting. You have 5 times the space I do, AND all the fruits too. It really puts into perspective that I'm doing just fine with my little garden space. :) Thanks again.

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    3. It is hard to compare yourself to others around sometimes. Space isn't the only issue either. You could live in zone 4 and have a really short growing season. Or you could live in a place where you can grow year round. You could have clay soil or sandy soil. Or have bad endemic diseases or insects. Or the groundhog from hell. Or the weather could be bad and rain all the time and you have no sun. I try to get about a pound per square foot in my veggie garden. Mostly I succeed, but not always.

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  21. Mmm strawberries! I am patiently waiting for mine to ripen, I avoid buying store bought ones because I just know they will taste of water and will dampen my apetite for them for the rest of the year!

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  22. OMG, strawberries already! And 79 pounds (to my 14 pounds) already! You just wait, when my gazillion tomatoes come in I'll catch ya!

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  23. wow lovely strawberries and a great harvest!

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  24. Oh, those strawberries look so lovely! They taste so much better when they're still warm from the sun. I hope tomorrow will be a quieter day at work so I can have a closer look at those strawberry plants we sell... hey, you have to "clean up" the fruit before they rot, right?

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  25. I have strawberry envy! I just planted a new bed this spring with the Albion day-neutral variety of strawberries. Now I'm waiting with eager anticipation to harvesting fresh berries later this season.

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  26. I am red with strawberry jealousy

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  27. Your strawberries look great! I really wish I had the room to grow them. I'm considering trying the type with pink flowers, but I'd guess their taste does not compare to the classic white flowered type.

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  28. I'd like to hear about your newspaper tomato pots. Fun to see all the changes in your garden beds as the season progresses.
    We're getting strawberries here too--a bi-coastal thing here in the fog belt. Susan

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    1. They are very simple. Just a ring of newspaper 2 sheets thick 4" tall tacked together with some masking tape. They have no bottom. I compress the soil in so it stays.

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  29. I love your strawberries! This last month, I planted 3, 4x16ft beds of everbearing plants. This is my first year growing strawberries and they don't look good. They seem to be putting out some new growth, but most of the leaves are dying back. I've trimmed them up, but there are new browning leaves. Any tips for growing strawberries? I've been covereing them every night with plastic since its still quite cold here. How much water do they like? I don't know that I'll even get any berries this season and I sure hope the plants make it through the winter.

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    1. Not sure. Some of my plants did the same thing last year. I'll pull them this year and let others take their place. I don't really do anything special with strawberries.

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  30. I too have strawberry envy, my berries are just tiny ones just coming in, how do you keep the birds away?
    Your choy sum is so much fatter than mine I hope the rain we are having will result in some fat ones.

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    1. I have bird netting over the berries. It keeps both the birds and the squirrels away. The squirrels here are worse than the birds.

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  31. Your greens are so luscious! I'm envious of all the greens you have!

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  32. Your strawberries look beautiful!

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  33. We left our komatsuna mostly to itself this week. We'll probably pull it soon and replace it with beets. We are saving one plant for seed... hopefully! It's turning out to be a really great green. Don't you think?

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    1. My only problem with it is that it is too productive. Now if I had chickens to give the extras too it would be great. But it has to be one of the more productive greens. Next year I have to remember to plant less.

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  34. Three and a half pounds of strawberries! Be still my heart!

    http://planetpooks.com/?p=4701

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  35. Hooray for strawberries!! I'm still fighting the critters for my strawberries. I built a cage to win the battle against the squirrels. Then a ripe strawberry still vanished!!! Now I think my battle must be with moles or perhaps a stealthy ninja squirrel!!

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    1. Do you have chipmunks? I couldn't grow strawberries at my last house. The chipmunks would just tunnel under the net and eat them all. Every last one. Here there are so many cats in the neighborhood that chipmunks are not a problem.

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  36. My mouth is watering just looking at your strawberries, and I cannot get over the size of your swiss chard!

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  37. Love those strawberries - that is probably our harvest for the year!

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  38. With your strawberries and my rhubarb - we have a pie!

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  39. Wow, look at all of the people who are logging in with harvests. Awesome. That is a mighty harvest of strawberries, and a glorious amount of greens. Kudos, kiddo.

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    1. I'm kind of shocked about the number this early in the season. Usually July and August are the peak months for people.

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  40. What a wonderful harvest this week Daphne !! those strawberries look so ............yummy!!!!
    Isn't it great to be able to share surplus produce.

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