Monday, June 30, 2014

Harvest Monday, 30 June 2014

My fruit continues to dribble in. This is the first year for the currents. I'm not so sure I'm in love with them. The taste is fine, but the seeds are hard to just eat. Raspberry seeds are annoying too, but not nearly as bad. I've learned to chew them without putting my teeth together so they don't get stuck. But current seeds are huge in comparison. Way too big for me to want to eat them with pleasure. So I think I'm going to collect and freeze them and deseed them all at once. What about the rest of you. Do you eat currents out of hand or do you seed your currents?

The vegetable harvests have been nice and varied this week. No huge piles of one thing that I need to deal with thank goodness. I pick peas every few days and give half of them to my townhouse mates. I tried freezing them again last year, but didn't like them frozen. So I'll just share. That way we can all enjoy them to their fullest. Frozen snap peas taste good, but I've never been able to get the texture to something that I want to eat. I suppose I could puree them for soups or something, but it isn't worth the bother when they are so good fresh.

I picked my first ever fennel. I like it well enough. It may end up being one of those things I fall in love with over time. Like snap peas and broccoli. Or it may be one of those things I enjoy occasionally, like kohlrabi. Time will tell.

And speaking of kohlrabi. I picked the last one this week. They keep pretty well in the fridge, but I suspect they will all be gone in a couple of weeks. They make really good finger food. And the first of the favas are in. I don't think I'll have anywhere near the harvest of last year. But hopefully it will be decent.

And the first broccoli was picked yesterday. It was 18oz, so just over a pound. I ate half last night for dinner and half tonight. I'm neglecting the other veggies in favor of it. The first broccoli is always such a treat.

And this was the week I went over 100 pounds. Whoohoo! I checked how I was doing compared to previous years. I'm just a touch down from last year and just a touch up from 2011. 2012 wasn't really comparable because of the unheard of lack of winter that year and unfrozen soil in February (really in decades gardening around here, I've never had my soil unfrozen then). So I seem to be doing pretty much normally. Except for the late spring start this year I've been very happy with all the vegetables I've been pulling out of the garden. The fruit is another matter. I need to rotate the strawberries more. But I really don't have a great way of doing it. I'll see how they do next year, but I might have to give up a vegetable bed if I want to keep producing them. Then I could rotate. And I've fixed the raspberry watering problem, but it will take some time for them to recover.

  • Alliums: 0.36 lbs
  • Beans: 2.69 lbs
  • Broccoli: 1.13 lbs
  • Carrots: 0.95 lbs
  • Greens: 4.07 lbs
  • Asian Greens: 2.63 lbs
  • Herbs: 1.60 lbs
  • Peas: 2.14 lbs
  • Roots: 0.58 lbs
  • Weekly Total: 16.13 lbs
  • Yearly Total: 104.88 lbs
  • Yearly Tally: $-149.29

  • Fruit
  • Currents: 0.05 lbs
  • Raspberries: 0.09 lbs
  • Weekly total: .14 lbs
  • Yearly total: 3.26 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.

32 comments:

  1. Wonderful harvest this week! I love the current and raspberry photos. They look like jewels. I am not a fan of frozen peas either. When I do grow them, I only grow enough to enjoy fresh.

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  2. I'm no fan of raspberry seeds either, though I think the red ones are less troublesome than the black one.s I've not gotten enough currants to really know how to eat them. I took the small harvest from this year (about 1/2 cup) and mixed them with some rhubarb for a crisp/crumble. They paired well with the rhubarb, but I have no idea what they will be like on their own.

    I've not had a lot of luck growing the bulbing fennel in spring, but I do love it. It is tasty when grilled or roasted.

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  3. Great harvest. Especially impressed with the broccoli head. We are not allowed to grow currants here. As you probably know, they are an alternate host for white pine blister rust, so they are prohibited.

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    1. Massachusetts does it town by town. My town allows currents and gooseberries, but I think not black currents.

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  4. Love your raspberries...we have a mulberry tree and it is not the seeds that are bothersome, it's the stem!

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  5. Your harvests are wonderful. Mine are nowhere near as varied and I am in the middle of a lettuce glut at the moment. I need another fridge.... I've never eaten a current but they do look beautiful. I had no idea currents had seeds. How do they taste otherwise? And I completely agree with you on freezing snap peas - I did the same thing last year and found the texture to be severely lacking.

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    1. They taste really good. They are tart, but not so much that you can't eat them without sugar. I suspect they will be really good with it though. They remind me a bit of cranberries in a way.

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  6. Great harvest! I have never ate a currant. Are they sweet? I do not think my broccoli is going to do anything this year. It is big, but is not making any heads. Not sure what is up w/ that! I am envious of your broccoli LOL

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  7. Beautiful harvest, as always! I tried to grow fennel here but the bulb would not develop; but the fronds were nice enough to have - I am a huge fan of fennel anything. I've never had a fresh currant, don't know about the seeds.

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  8. I’ve never tried currants, but I don’t think that I would care for the seeds either. We have wild blackberry bushes and the one berry I did try this year was quite seedy. The blackberries took a beating this winter so we aren’t going to get many.

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  9. Your red currants are a little ahead of mine. I'm not a huge fan of eating fresh currants though they're nice sprinkled on top of a fresh fruit tart along with other fruit - adding a bit of tartness to balance out the other sweeter fruit. I usually make jellies/jams with them or make a flavored syrup to add to seltzer water.

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  10. If you have the old Victory Garden cookbook, there's a great recipe for fennel cooked in dry vermouth. Its meltingly delicious!

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  11. I've never eaten a currant, but they do look awfully pretty in that picture. Those raspberries do too. This year our only fruit will be the wild blackberries. Hopefully next year I can get some berries and other fruit trees planted. Your broccoli looks perfect and delicious!

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  12. Wonderful harvest! I love currants, especially in a jam but I'm happy to eat them fresh :) ours are very tiny this year so not even counting as harvest. that broccoli and carrots look fantastic, and raspberry and greens look very lovely too.

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  13. Nice varied harvest, my currant plants were dead only 2 gooseberry plants left, but the birds got the fruits before me, not sure it's worth growing it.

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  14. Great looking week! I'm jealous of the broccoli, I just can't get heads to grow that big. I'm switching varieties for the fall. What type do you plant?

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    1. I'm growing Arcadia and Fiesta. So far Arcadia is doing a lot better. That is where the head came from.

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  15. You really did have a nice assortment of veggies this week. That head of broccoli is impressive. It's funny how fennel grows on you. My husband was not very fond of it to begin with, but I keep serving it to him and now he loves it, especially when it's thinly shaved and served raw.

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  16. Hi Daphne

    Can I join even though I'm really late to the party? I really like the idea of a round the world trip to compare harvests! (Mine are pretty puny at the moment but they're improving...)

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    1. Heck it is still Monday here. Sometimes I get people joining on Tuesday when they are slow about it. I don't have a lot of rules. It is just about enjoying your harvests in any way. So join in.

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  17. Your varied harvest is just what I strive for. I'm not a fan of frozen veg (with one or two exceptions) so it doesn't make sense to have any gluts. You are always writing about giving stuff to your townhouse mates - what do they give you in return?

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    1. Companionship? lol I never ask for anything. One of my neighbors thinks I'm crazy and should sell my excess, but I really don't need the money. And I love to grow it but hate when I have to toss it on the compost pile.

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  18. What a beautiful variety in your harvest this week! I have to be in the mood for fennel - - it has that taste of licorice that I am not sure if I love or hate.

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  19. I grew red currants when we lived in Michigan. I didn't care for them much but made currant jelly once. My raspberries are not ready yet so you are ahead of me there. If kohlrabi is a finger food, what flavor does it have? Beautiful carrots and head of broccoli! Nancy

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    1. It has a very very mild cabbagy flavor. Mostly it is crunchy and wet which I like. So it is the texture I love most. I do hate the smell though even if I like the taste. Not sure why, but some in the cabbage family don't smell all that good to me.

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  20. Pretty currants and raspberries!!

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  21. Another really nice harvest Daphne. I had the same question as you just answered for Cozy Thyme cottage. I have never tried Kohlrabi so I was interested in your thought on it and how you use it. Thanks again for hosting. I am thrilled to have finally harvested something to share.

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    1. My favorite way to use it is just raw, cut up into sticks. Sometimes dipped in something. Though it makes a good stirfry too.

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  22. Wonderful to see your garden coming in full, especially fruit, seedy though they may be!

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  23. When I was a youngun my mother made current jelly, both red and black, enough to last the year. It was really good jelly nice and tart, and no seeds. I've baked fennel and sweet potatoes together. The flavors combine well.

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  24. I've mostly eaten currants in cakes (where the seeds have never bothered me that much) or as jelly. Which I'm planning to make for the first time this year, with the wild currants I found this weekend.

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