Last of the tatsoi and bok choy
Last of the mizuna
Last of the spinachThere were a lot of lasts this week. My baby Asian greens bed was ripped out to make way for corn and squash. Ditto for the last spinach bed. The photo below shows the last of my basil taken down by mildew.
I still had plenty of old favorites like chard, lettuce, and kale. But some new crops came out. I harvested the garlic scapes. I think I have them all picked. Some hide and are hard to see.
Also in the new category were the first raspberries and snowpeas. My townhouse mates will be the recipients of the peas as I can't eat them. The raspberries are just starting. We have a tiny little patch between the bulkheads of the two townhouses. I don't get to weigh them all as whoever is out gets to pick and eat them. They often don't make it inside. Sometimes though there are ripe ones in the morning and I'll snag them for breakfast.
And then there were the Michihili cabbages. This form of Chinese cabbage gets really tall. I was introduced to them by Mac years ago (thank you Mac!). This variety, Green Rocket, gets to be about 20" tall. I picked five of them this week for a total of 19 pounds. One went to my townhouse mates. I may freeze some for soups in the winter. But not a lot as I find I don't use a lot. I think I might try my hand at a non spicy kimchi.
You might notice that I trim my Chinese cabbage a bit strangely. The outer green leaves are course (though they do make good soup) and I trim them off. But the white rib is still wonderful for eating raw or cooked. So only trim the outermost layer off then keep the rest of the ribs. The ribs really are my favorite part.
The last major harvest was my strawberries. I picked a lot of bowls of strawberries this week. I think this is the peak week at 11 lbs. I froze some earlier in the week and today I'm thinking of making a strawberry chutney/sauce. I used up the last of my plum sauce yesterday and I need a replacement until plum season. Strawberries might fill the gap.
- Alliums, 1.98 lbs
- Greens, 5.55 lbs
- Greens, Asian, 22.54 lbs
- Herbs, 0.34 lbs
- Roots 6.29 lbs
- Weekly total, 36.86
- Yearly total, 128.33 lbs, $141.08
- Fruits
- Strawberries, 11.06 lbs
- Raspberries, 0.11 lbs
- Fruit Yearly total, 8.09 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.
Those Chinese cabbages are enormous! Preserving them will be a big challenge.
ReplyDeleteI think the cabbage would be good fermented. I was hoping to try Tokyo Bekana that way, but all mine bolted before it really made many greens. I will have to try again in fall. I will be watching my basil this year as it seems the mildew is spreading all over the U.S.
ReplyDeleteI gave up growing Michihili cabbage too difficult to store. So envious of your strawberries. I am thinking a beef stew with those radishes would be delicious, love cooked radishes.
ReplyDeleteWow! You are pulling in the produce now. Lovely. No harvest post for me this week. Forgot to take photos of the snow peas or scapes. Too busy with other things.
ReplyDeleteNice harvest. If you make kimchi you could shred some turnips and add them to the cabbage.
ReplyDeleteI am admiring all your greens, but mostly the garlic scapes. Good to see that you have strawberries this year too.
ReplyDeleteWonderful harvests, and so colorful too! Those cabbages are really something.
ReplyDeleteHmm...underplanting brassicas with turnips. Lettuce is my usual but never thought of turnips. Are those a smallish variety? Are you transplanting?
ReplyDeleteI use Japanese turnips that never get very large. I plant a row between the two rows of Chinese cabbage. They seem to do OK even when they are shaded out. But they do size up sporadically. I pulled the Chinese cabbage and a lot of turnips, but a lot of turnips are still in there to size up. And I transplant the cabbage, but the turnips are direct seeded.
DeleteThanks.
Delete11 lbs. of strawberries - now that is impressive! And the basket of mizuna with the roses really caught my eye - I've never cooked with roses before as it seems like they would make the food taste too florally. I'll be interested to see what your impressions are.
ReplyDeleteBoy do I feel like I'm really running late on things - other than the spinach, I haven't even had my first harvests on any of the other Chinese greens, and here you are on your last! I can't recall, but do you continue to grow them during the summer? I've grown Joi Choi over the summer for a couple of years and it does just fine, so I'm wondering if the other greens would be more or less the same.
If you can get a hold of some Eleonora basil, it is supposed to be BDM resistant. I'm growing some this year and so far so good, although the plants themselves are really not growing as quickly as I would have liked; I do have many things in the same boat, so it's likely condition related not the basil itself.
Thanks for the basil recommendations. Next year I'm going to have to try to get that one. Sadly HIgh Mowing is out of them for the year. I like them for last minute things as their shipping isn't outrageous for one packet.
DeleteI've grown them over the summer. They tend to bolt much more quickly obviously, but the smaller ones do well. Yokatta-na was a pretty good one for the summer. And Komatsuna does pretty well then too. But my rotations now don't include summer harvested Asian greens (unless I can get a small patch of mizuna in somewhere). I switch beds from carrots to brassicas and brassicas to carrots from spring to fall. So when the carrots are harvested I'll get in some more Chinese cabbage, but it will be harvested in fall if I get my timing right. I really have very little greens being harvested over the summer. Chard. Yup lots of chard. I'll store the cabbages and eat them slowly. But come mid August pickings will be very thin in the greens department. It is one reason I think I should try amaranth. It grows well over the summer and it isn't in the brassica family - I grow way too many brassicas already.
I ought to try the Michihili cabbages again. The earwigs seem to have taken up residence in my garden and really feasted on my napa cabbages this spring. I remember you mentioning that the earwigs do less damage to the Michihili. That's an incredible bounty for the week, really beautiful! Especially those strawberries.
ReplyDeleteWow great total for the week!! Almost 50 pounds, wow! We are trying our hand at some napa type cabbages this year but we are still several weeks away from our first harvest.
ReplyDeleteSeeing your harvests each week makes we want to grow more edibles. Mine are on a much more limited scale. I will be planning better next year to make more use of the areas not in shade.
ReplyDeleteWow you are still picking strawberries? Mine stopped a week or so ago but this is their first full year. My everbearing raspberries are just started too. None of them make to the house.
ReplyDeleteGardenvariety-hoosier has stopped picking strawberries?! I don't have a single one on my plants yet - but lots of flowers! Amazing harvest, oh my gosh, I can't wait to start getting even a 10th of that produce if I'm lucky. I should have some garlic scapes soon - will be looking for your dressing recipe as everyone else seems so fond of it!
ReplyDeleteAmazing harvests once again, Daphne! Are you sad to see the end of some of your greens? I am hoping that this cool spell keeps my going for a little while longer but I know the end is near.
ReplyDeleteYes and no. It was a lot of work to harvest every morning and blanch and freeze. I'll be glad that it is slowing down for now. I've still got kale and chard to work on, but a lot of it will be eaten fresh as the other greens are gone. Well not the cabbage and kohlrabi. That is coming on strong. So much to eat and process.
DeleteYou are way ahead of my zone. Greens are just coming up, not even close to being ready for harvest.
ReplyDeleteIt's incredible how your seasons move so quickly....the first sowings already cropped and over! I had a good strawberry week too, yummy.
ReplyDeleteI had garlic scapes for the first time last night! They were amazing. You always blow me away with how much harvest you how. Wow!
ReplyDeleteHi Daphne, Everything looks so luscious. My hubby is not a very big greens eater so I wouldn't be able to use all that! Picked snow peas today. Nancy
ReplyDeleteWhat a great harvest. We have lots of fruit set on our raspberries but so far no ripe fruit
ReplyDelete