Monday, July 1, 2013

Harvest Monday July 1st, 2013

This week had a couple of firsts. These are the first of the carrots - Mokums. They aren't huge carrots, but they sure were sweet. Usually my summer carrots have a bitter edge to them. They usually aren't as good as the fall carrots but this year they are. Though I didn't photograph most of them, this week I had raspberries with my granola every day. The poor plants almost died last year due to the unusual lack of rain. So the harvest this year is very, very small. Sadly the spring rains didn't come either, so I think our fall harvest (as these are everbearers) will be small too. I ought to water them when the weather is dry, but I really think of raspberries as weeds that can't be kept down.

It was also the first of the brocooli. Those heads were not quite a pound each. Most of it was frozen for the winter, but I had a couple of meals of broccoli last week. I expect to pick more broccoli this week.

I dried my lavender for the first year. I had thought about doing it past years, but it always flowers before I notice. This year I was a bit late. Most of the buds were open, but I figured, better late than never. And I'm kind of stuck on what I would use as a price for these. I put it as the cheapest of the other herbs. I might have to wait until it is dried and then figure it out and change it as no one sells fresh.

The first gooseberries were picked. I've still got some on one plant that I want to let ripen. Hinnomaki Red is so tasty eaten out of hand.

This week saw the end of the first flush of snap peas. I don't think I'll be here when the next set ripen. I'm leaving the plants up. I have one section that will be my seed for next year and I've told my townhouse mates they can pick the other section if they want.

And yet more chard. The section of chard that I mulched is getting shredded. I'm assuming by the slugs. I'll have to sluggo that spot. So as is typical, mulching fails. We just are too wet and have too many slugs and snails. We had 8.9 inches of rain in June. Next year I will leave off the mulch so I don't have to kill the slugs since they won't be there in such quantities.

I picked some more favas. And I finally got a decent sage harvest. Last year my sage plants died. This year I planted two, but then a whole bunch came up from seeds the old plants dropped. So I had little sages all over the garden. Right now sage is growing in five separate spots around the garden. I won't keep all of those spots, but I'll see what lives. I really missed my sage last year.

And this is the week that my tally went positive it also broke 100 pounds. The two often go hand in hand. Last year it was a month earlier, but last year was an amazing year in the garden because of all the heat we had. This year won't be nearly as good.

  • Alliums 0.99 lbs
  • Beans 1.63 lbs
  • Broccoli 1.86 lbs
  • Carrots 2.08 lbs
  • Greens 3.89 lbs
  • Herbs 1.79 lbs
  • Peas 2.78 lbs
  • Weekly Tally 15.02 lbs
  • Yearly Tally 111.85 lbs, $40.15
  • Fruit
  • Raspberries 0.33 lbs
  • Gooseberries 2.58 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.

28 comments:

  1. Very nice carrots and gooseberries! And good harvest of greens and fava too. Love the pretty flowers.

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  2. Very colorful harvest. I envy your carrots and the lavender is just so pretty. I bet is smells heavenly. Congratulations on breaking 100.

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  3. Beautiful and varied harvest. Haven't had fresh gooseberries since I got rid of my plants some years ago. I do miss ripen fresh gooseberries.

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  4. Ooohhh...gooseberries?! I don't believe I've ever tasted a gooseberry! They look quite juicy, so I'm sure they're delicious!

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  5. We have been getting a lot of rain too. The garden seems to be loving it for now. Your harvest is looking great this week! It is nice to have some surprises around the garden sometimes!

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  6. Beautiful harvest. Your carrots are perfect looking.

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  7. Your lavender flowers looks amazing, my mother in law gives me lavender flower every year and I love to add them in biscuits and cakes

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  8. Beautiful carrots! I'm jealous! Mine are so very far from producing anything at all. I had to replant a lot because the seedlings either died or were eaten by birds. Everything looks great and I really like how lovely your lavender looks.

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  9. I really love Mokum carrots - they are so crisp and sweet and on top of all that they are fairly fast maturing too. I have some that are almost ready to harvest from but I am going to wait just a while longer. Your sage is really lovely as is the rest of the harvests this week. I don't think I have yet to have eaten a gooseberry but would love to try some.

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  10. Your harvest looks so delicious. I have never tried gooseberries, but they sound delicious. My Swiss chard is always a nice surprise in the garden because it just keeps on giving. Thank you for hosting.

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  11. You are so far ahead of us...our weather has been wild, today is looking at maybe hitting 75 (this time last week was 95) and more rain. sigh...

    Things are looking good, and I hope you have a great vacay!!!

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  12. Thanks for the garden tour last week. What harvests!

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  13. Your harvests look so good! I wish I still had peas and favas but those are long gone. I think I should harvest the last of my carrots before they get bitter, but it's so nice to harvest something other than zucchini, cucumber, and broccoli on occasion that I might just let them sit a while longer.

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  14. Nice harvests! You are already harvesting so much...

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  15. You have tons of great stuff harvested! My greens have all been eaten by caterpillars, now sowing some more. I would love some of those raspberries and the thought of frying sage leaves makes my mouth water! But right now i have lots of papayas and peppers.

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  16. Oh, man....you really outdid me on the carrots! That's OK, I took the prize on the raspberries, LOL!

    Have a great vacation!

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  17. A very nice week. Congrats on breaking the 100 pound mark. I'm still at zero so I'm very jealous.

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  18. You always have such lovely looking harvests.

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  19. Your spring crops are producing so well! Love all the varieties of harvests.

    Gardening is such a joy!

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  20. The rains have at least made for a great crop of peas this year. Your gooseberries are an inspiration, hope we can find some stock to grow from!

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  21. I love your carrots so beautiful! My gooseberries are not producing, wonder it's too hot and dry for them.

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  22. What a bountiful harvest! I've never had a gooseberry, but they look delicious! My spring carrots also lacked the usual bitter taste, but we've had a relatively cool spring here.

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  23. I am happy to hear that you tally is positive! A couple pretty baskets of produce and your carrots looks good. I haven't tasted mine yet! Most of my lavender I picked smaller but since it is past that stage I am thinking of picking some in full bloom like you and see what happens. Nancy

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  24. I love Mokum carrot, that's the variety I like best, but this year it's not performing well in my garden. Never had gooseberries before, I always thought they were too sour to eat fresh. They look juicy from the photo. I'm going to have to look for a source for the Hinomaki Red. Nice harvests!

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  25. I think Malaysia also has our own variety of Gooseberries. It grows wild and we rarely eat them.

    What we can cook with gooseberry?

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    1. I made gooseberry pie. Gooseberry pie is the reason I decided to grow them. I've heard they go well with pork, but never tried it.

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  26. My sage I planted last year died too - and didn't leave any seedlings. I will try again!

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  27. Belatedly... I forgot to link my post /o\

    Your harvest, as always, looks amazing. So weird to see all these northern hemisphere summer goodies when we're entering the depths of winter here.

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