Morning Routine

Mizuna ready for picking

I'm starting to set into a routine with my greens now that so many are ready for picking. These greens are what I'm freezing for the winter - mizuna, spinach, kale, and soon to be chard. I pick them as soon as I get up in he morning. I only pick one bed, which so far ends up being a bit over a pound and a half. It has been cold in the morning recently. I keep forgetting to wear my coat so my hands get a bit numb with the moisture on the leaves. I bring them in. Photograph and weight them. Clean and blanch them. At this point I love standing over the stove as it makes me so much warmer. As soon as they are blanched and in their ice bath, I bring up yesterdays greens from the freezer to package up. I save some of today's greens for the evening meal and fill my now empty mini silicon loaf molds with greens and freeze them. I toss the wash and ice bath water onto the raspberries - though tomorrow it might be the strawberries. And let the hot water cool on the stove to heat the house a bit as it cools down. Then I make breakfast. It is a very calming and happy routine.

Mizuna after picking

I cut the leaves from one side one time, and the other the next

In other years I've done larger bouts of preserving of greens. This way is easier on me. I don't spend so long over the stove and the chore is done before breakfast so doesn't take up my day. This routine will only last for another couple of weeks as then the spinach and mizuna will get ripped out. Then I'll be left with just chard and kale. It will be hotter. I'll want to do larger batches if I can to avoid heating the house up so often. But my current routine is nice while it lasts.

Two sisters bed starting to be planted

And as to yesterday's garden chores, I planted up another batch of corn seed that I soaked for a day before planting. You can just see a corner of the one I planted a week and a half ago. It is up. The squash I planted on the end of that bed came up, but one damped off, so I'm chitting some more seed. The squash for this new bed will be butternut. I've got the seed soaking in a paper towel. As soon as it starts to send out roots, I'll plant them. I might need to put a cutworm collar around the seeds as I found two cutworms when I prepped the bed.

Kohlrabi starting to form

I also got under the row cover to the bed with the kohlrabi, Michihili cabbage, and some turnips. The bed needed weeding. I lost one kohlrabi to something. Since it was big and wilted and died I'm guessing root maggots. But the rest look great, so I'll have a lot of kohlrabi this year.