I guess the only place to start is the spinach. I harvested 14 pounds of spinach this week. No wonder I was feeling overwhelmed by it all one day and giving it to my townhouse mates to deal with. Luckily that feeling passed and the next time I harvested, I processed it all.
OK from now on I'll be kind and pare the photos down, just showing you one of each type. I harvested two and a half pounds of kale in two batches.
I harvested bok choy three times for a total of 6.5 pounds. This last time was the biggest as it was starting to bolt. I still have a late planted succession in the soil, but it will need to be pulled in a week to make way for squash. So the bok choy is almost gone.
And how much tatsoi can you fit in a basket? Well quite a bit. I took one head out to show how big it is, but they fold up pretty well. These too were bolting. Since I don't freeze these for the winter, I gave a bunch to my townhouse mates and some friends who I went to a quilt show with yesterday. This weeks tally is 4.4 pounds.
I pulled out some radishes and salad turnips. The German Giant on the left is having mixed review with me. Some are lovely. Moist and crispy with just a bit of bite. But others have had skin that is too tough to bite through almost. And hard on the inside. Ick. Some don't really root up well. They bolt prematurely. I won't grow it again. I'll try another variety.
But the prettiest harvest of all is the strawberries. I could easily eat a pound of them a day, but I'm not getting that much. Almost two pounds in a week isn't all that bad. Not enough to freeze though. Maybe they will pick up as the season progresses. If not I'll still treasure every little one that I pick.
Most of my greens were frozen. Some were given away. I can happily eat about a pound a day, but more is pushing it (and my husband won't eat greens). I still have to supplement a bit for the non greens. I buy lots of onions and some carrots. And of course treats that don't grow here like an occasional avocado. Soon however my green onions will come in and I'll switch to using those for most things instead of store bought onions. I said it a couple of days ago, but I'll say it again now. I love spring. So much growth and everything is green.
- Greens, 16.49 lbs
- Greens, Asian, 12.53 lbs
- Roots 2.83 lbs
- Yearly total, 66.59 lbs, $-59.87
- Fruits
- Strawberries, 1.86 lbs
- Fruit Yearly total, 4.59 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.
A bountiful harvest indeed. I noticed you discarded your spinach stems, any reason? Finally had rain yesterday so my strawberries should do well now.
ReplyDeleteI always leave the stems on the plants (I do all my trimming of browned leaves etc when I pick) and I like the texture of the spinach without them. Just a personal choice.
DeleteLovely harvests there. Wish my tatsoi looked like that. It didn't do well at all.
ReplyDeleteThat is some big tatsoi! All the greens look great. And the strawberries. I know I could easily eat a pound of them a day, and I did when I grew them for sale. I loved the Earliglows but couldn't sell them because people complained they were too small, even though they were the sweetest.
ReplyDeleteThough I didn't say, these are Earlyglows. I don't grow them because they are early. I like them for their taste. I like Sparkle too, but that one isn't hardy enough to live long here. Earliglow is more disease resistant. And when I buy strawberries at the farmers market, I always look for varieties with the smaller berries. Because if someone grows the persnickety small ones that are harder to harvest, they are probably grown just for the taste.
DeleteEspecially after last winter, spring must be a joy!
ReplyDeleteYum! Strawberries, We got our first harvest this week as well!!
ReplyDeleteWow, I cannot get over how much roughage you bring in! I've never been able to get spinach to grow for me, but I think I'm going to try again for my fall garden.
ReplyDeleteYour greens are beautiful. I'm getting some spinach but the tatsoi, while perking up and growing rapidly, is riddled with holes from the flea beetles. I need to grow stuff like that under cover.
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness, have you been busy! That's a lot of greens to harvest and process. Gorgeous strawberries, yum.
ReplyDeleteWow, wow and wow - when you start bringing in the harvests, you REALLY start bringing them in! Everything is gorgeous, as usual.
ReplyDeleteI have to get out there and check on my radishes again - I bet several more have sized up. It will be a while before any Chinese greens start rolling in for me - I know I planted them late, but I still feel like they are taking their sweet time this year.
I can't wait for us to have freshly picked strawberries. That's a lot of radishes do you make anything with them or just eat them raw?
ReplyDeleteI typically just eat them raw. Either alone or in salads. Sometimes I make quick pickles out of them.
DeleteA nice supply of healthy greens! Money saved! Those strawberries looks juicy and sweet. Nice variety of sizes too.
ReplyDeleteBountiful harvest, the vegs are so pretty, I don't have spinach this year, will try to grow it again this fall.
ReplyDeleteWow! 14 pounds of beautiful spinach! Your Asian greens look wonderful too. You must have been busy blanching all these greens last week.
ReplyDeleteWell, I understand now your comment on my blogpost "A Girl and her Greens". That is a mountain of Spinach! Is the freezer full now?
ReplyDeleteNope it isn't full yet. But I had to redo how I store my greens so they pack down smaller. This way I can freeze a lot. Worse comes to worse and I'll start taking the spot that I usually keep frozen meat in over the winter. I hope I don't have to take that space, but if necessary I will.
DeleteOh and as I didn't say, I do have a large chest freezer in the basement where it all goes. So lots of space.
DeleteBeautiful Spinach. Do you also preserve your radish greens?
ReplyDeleteNo not any more. I used to make soup with them when I had a smaller garden and not so many other greens to save.
DeleteAwesome amount of spinach. I'm getting strawberries too this week, not enough to freeze but enough to eat every day. Life is good!
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness, what a harvest! I wish I had your organisational skills to freeze some of my chard, I think I'll just end up using it all. And I was excited to have my first two strawberries today, then saw your crop, wow!
ReplyDeleteI'll be curious how your haul compares to last year same time (not sure if you'll post year over year comparison each month?). This seems like an incredible amount to me, but you had a very good year in 2014 as well. 58 pounds of greens already!?
ReplyDeleteI looked at that earlier today. I don't remember the exact numbers, but it is the second best year to date (from 2011) in the garden so far. It doesn't compare with 2012, but that one was the year without winter. I planted peas in February. That is the only time I've ever done that. This year the garden wasn't unfrozen until well into April. I think last year I was only in the 30 something pound range.
DeleteAmazing ... a never-ending winter and such a terrific haul already!
DeleteEvery one of your photographs is beautiful - and makes me hungry! And those gems of strawberries...I don't know how many I could eat every day but I would love the opportunity to find out ;)
ReplyDeleteGreat harvests! Especially all that spinach. It got so hot so quickly here that mine bolted too soon.
ReplyDeleteGlorious Daphne! Do you preserve tatsoi and bok choy? If so how?
ReplyDeleteNope I don't.
DeleteOMGoodness....my tatsoi has never, ever and likely will never get that big. I am so impressed!! And the spinach...well am harvesting all mine today but you also have such a huge crop! I love it. Can you remember the tatsoi variety you used? please... Thank you and for commenting on my blog as well.
ReplyDeleteIt has no variety. It is just labeled as tatsoi, but came from Fedco.
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