Monday, May 23, 2011

Harvest Monday - 23 May 2011

This week featured purple. On Thursday I pulled a whole mizuna plant (middle) to make more room for the others to grow. I love the purple mizuna since it is so pretty. I also pulled the first purple kohlrabi (left). I hadn't had this vegetable since I as a kid. I don't remember it then, but I do remember the funny looking plant. I ended up liking it as it tastes like a cross between a radish and cabbage. On the right side was a Fun Jen that was starting to get shaded out by the Michilli Chinese cabbage (seeds from Mac). Also picked in this batch was a Shanghai bok choy (top), a head of Yakatta-na, Komatsuna, choy sum, Chinese broccoli. The last four items were buried in the bottom of the basket. The basket was way overfilled.

Also buried in the basket was the first turnip. I had to take a photo of just it as I love salad turnips. Like radishes they come early in the spring and are something I can add to my salad besides greens.

Saturday's harvest was lettuce. I was out and needed my huge salads. I picked two heads that were getting crowded. One of Paris Island and one of Red Sails. I should have taken the time to pick some Deer Tongue too, but that is leaf lettuce that I pick the outside of and I was just too lazy to do it this week. I'll get to it. Really I will.

Sunday's Harvest was spinach. The winter spinach (no photo) got pulled as we were mulching the asparagus bed and it was in the way. In addition I saw the first leaf miner eggs on the back of the leaves this week and this spinach was not protected from them. So it is now gone.

Also the spring spinach was finally big enough to pick. If you remember this bed had a lot of damping off. Many of the plants died, but there was still more than enough for a good harvest.

This is the pile that I picked. There is over two pounds here. I needed three trips with my basket to pick it all. That table is my kitchen counter and is over two feet wide. Some of the spinach is Gigante D'Inverno (seed from Granny) so the leaves are very large. About as large as my overwintered spinach leaves were.

Also in the spinach bed are some radishes. The ants are really doing a job on the roots, but I can get some good root by cutting parts out. In addition I get one of my favorite spring meals - Radish Top Soup (Chop one onion and saute in 3T butter. Add a full colander of washed radish tops with ribs removed. Cook down. Put in a blender and blend with 4c of chicken broth until smooth. Add salt and pepper to taste. Optionally add 1/2c cream. Heat through.). In years past radishes have been one of my first harvests so it was always a welcome meal. This year I have so many other things to pick and eat that it didn't have quite the allure, but it was still good. I'll probably freeze some for the winter.

Before I get to the tally I want to remind people of the mushroom growing giveaway. I'll pick a winner on Friday, so make sure to have your name on the list by Thursday.

  • Greens 6.86 lbs
  • Radishes and Turnips 1.84 lbs
  • Weekly Total 8.70 lbs
  • Yearly Total 22.58 lbs
  • Still in the hole $-412.04

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.

42 comments:

  1. Yes, the ants always seem to impact my radish harvest too so I always over-plant in anticipation. And since we love radishes nothing ever gets wasted. Your radish green soup seems like a good way to use the greens. They don't really work very well in salads, too spiny.

    http://www.media-organic.com/garden-week-in-review-7

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  2. What great variety! I should try the purple mizuna. I enjoy the green but didn't get any in the ground this spring. I'll have to wait for fall.

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  3. What a coicidance, we also harvested our first turnip. We are also growing purple kohl rabi for the first time but ours is just 1 cm at the moment. I have never eaten one. Glad that it is cold hardy. Colourful harvest Daphne.

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  4. What a nice harvest for the week! Almost 7 pounds of greens should keep you eating for a while :)

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  5. That is a beautiful harvest! It is an inspiration to either get out and dig in the garden or put one in!

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  6. Everything looks so great! I'm loving the purple, I think I need to try the mizuna and the kohlrabi. Where do you get your seeds for all the Asian veggies you grow?

    We are having a good spring for anything that likes cool and damp, unfortunately.

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  7. Maybe one day I'll try to grow some of those different named greens you and Emily grow. I bet though I'll be the only one to eat them. My husband doesn't even like chard. He does like stir fry so maybe the bok choi.

    Thanks for hosting this as always.

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  8. Daphne your greens always look so wonderful :)

    And that soup sounds delicious; I will have to pick up some turnips from our farmer's market.

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  9. Bountiful harvest week for you and the splash of color (purple and red from the radishes) makes it visually more interesting. Great harvest of spinach too!

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  10. mediaOrganic, I'll have to overplant in future years so I'll get more. And no radish greens are only good cooked. Some baby ones could be used in salads, but even small radish greens can be prickly.

    Emily, I grow it all year long. When it bolts I'll replant. I usually have to have three or four waves of mizuna to keep them growing constantly.

    Diana, mine aren't full sized yet, they have a little bit to go, but almost. I think in a week or so. My biggest problem is I don't know how big it can get here. I'll pick it slowly over time and find out I suppose.

    foodgardenkitchen, the funny thing is except for a few things they have been eaten already. I still have almost all the spinach. I'll freeze most of it for winter, but keep a bit for fresh eating.

    Veggie PAK, the funny thing is that when new gardeners ask me how to start, I always say to start small. My garden is huge at about 570sqft of raised bed. And yes it can easily feed a family of four, but takes a lot of work.

    henbogle, I got the mizuna from Pinetree years ago but they don't sell it anymore. Johnny's does. I got the Kolibri kohlrabi from Fedco, but a lot of companies sell it.

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  11. Marcia, my husband doesn't eat any of these things. He is a veggie hater. I get him to eat some things by pureeing them into sauces. It is pretty sad for such a veggie lover and a veggie hater to be married, but other than that we get along pretty well.

    Allison, thanks

    Laura, yes our greens are doing very very well. Our warm weather veggies not so much right now. I'll have to reseed a lot of things.

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  12. What a beautiful and large harvest for you this week! I am hoping that my baby choi will do better then the pak choi did this year.

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  13. Very nice harvest pictures, Daphne. Your new garden is doing great!

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  14. WOW that is a lot of spinach. I'm somewhat jealous. Leaous of the spinach, but not the weather it takes to grow the stuff. LOL

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  15. What a fantastic harvest! I am now, officially, jealous! You are such an inspiration!

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  16. Wow, your spinach looks so great! That's a lot of greens! But, ofcourse, we expected that from your wonderful garden, this year!

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  17. Great harvest! I had never heard of mizuna before, and love your Paris Island lettuce.

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  18. Your veggies always look so nice I just want to HUG them!

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  19. Great harvest. How do you prepare your kohlrabi? I don't think I've ever had it. I missed planting turnips this spring. I will have to remember for fall! Nice spinach harvest. Leaf miners....GRRR!!

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  20. Some great harvest there! I love the purple mizuna, too ... mine has all bolted now so I need to put more in.

    I had several good harvests this week ... including one I'm going to ask for your ruling on as to whether it constitutes a "harvest" ...check my blog and tell me what you think ; )

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  21. That purple mizuna is so pretty, I might have to give it a try someday, it will add a colorful and tasty touch to green salads.

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  22. Gotta catch up, gotta catch up, gotta catch up! You're about 4 1/2 pounds ahead of me now!

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  23. Colorful harvest, the purple mizuna and kohlrabi are so pretty. My spinach are done for the season, I'll have to try the purple kohlrabi in the fall, I have the seeds for 2 years but keep forgetting to sow them.

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  24. Beautiful pics, beautiful harvest, as always! Makes me hungry....

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  25. You have a good looking harvest this week. It always is...

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  26. I love the purple mizuna too. Ants are hurting your roots? Normally I have other root foes. Are they nibbling?

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  27. Haha, and I just planted my first kohlrabi today! Sadly, no purple, as we don't have any at the nursery where I work, and I can't get single plants anywhere else.

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  28. Nice harvest. At this rate you should break even very soon. The green stem bok choi is just as beautiful as the white stem. I've found kohlrabi is also very good in salads.

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  29. That soup is a great idea - I will have to try it (once my radish harvest grows beyond one)!

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  30. I wish I planted more spring greens. I kept thinking that it was too late, but our weather has been perfect for them. I love the purple mizuna (I have a thing for purple and red veggies).

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  31. Well, this post has been most helpful. I was trying to figure out what was chewing up my radishes-the beds are completely covered. I knew no mouse had been in there....but I did see a few ants. Wow-now what?
    Your harvest is very impressive. THe lettuce and spinach --beautiful. You'll have some fine salads there!

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  32. Everything looks like it is coming along nicely. Even the spinach that had some problems.

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  33. I just love sticking purple in the garden whenever I can find it. Which is how we came to plant kohlrabi, then discovered that we really like it.
    ~dianne

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  34. I'm always flabbergasted at the amount of greens you harvest. One year of that would be a lifetime supply for me :-)

    Are these mostly for salads?

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  35. Look at all of those beautiful greens! I wish I had that much spinach! :) Picture perfect Daphne!

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  36. Robin, Good luck with the boc choy. We had been lucky and hadn't had a lot of fluctuating temperatures so the greens did very very well. I'm going to pick a lot today as I think the weather is turning hot. Predictions are for the 80s today so hot not cold this time.

    EG, thanks

    Barbie, yeah it has been a good spinach year. We are finally getting some heat this weeks so I think it will start to bolt. I'm hoping for one more harvest before I pull them all and put the beans and corn in.

    Bee Girl, thanks

    RandomGardener, lol now I'm under pressure to produce aren't I? And Granny has obviously thrown down the gauntlet and is trying to beat me in poundage. I've never come close to her in my old garden. We will see what this one is like. She has the advantage of hot weather over the summer though.

    Liz, thanks

    Lynda, lol I've never hugged my veggies before. Well I've had large armfuls. Does that count?

    Holly, I just peeled it and sliced it up and put it raw in my salad for some crunch. If they get big, I might grate it and make it into a little salad all its own.

    Deb, I need to start more. I didn't start any in the new wave of Asian greens going in. I have to get to that. They will bolt in June.

    michelle, it is colorful. Spring salads are so boring in a way. A couple of root veggies and greens. I like the spattering of purple in the salad.

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  37. Granny, lol you can't beat me in greens Granny. But you can beat me in the summer crops. You get some nice heat out there (well usually) and we are a lot cooler. So our summer crops usually aren't as productive. Last year was an exception as we spent most of the summer in the 80s. Our averages hover just above 80 for the highs in the summer.

    Mac, I think the heat this week will make the last of my spinach bolt. And the spring spinach just got started because of the late spring. Maybe I'll get one more harvest. I hope so.

    Brie, thanks

    Shawn Ann, thanks

    Ottawa Gardener, yes they were swarming over the roots under the soil. You can see them sit there and eat. Though as of now they seem to have stopped (sadly they have already deformed all the roots). They were doing it mostly before the rain started. They might have been going for the water but who knows.

    Ivynettle, I'll probably wait until later in the year to start some more. I don't think I started more in the last batch of greens seedlings. lol I just can't remember. They need to get in the ground though.

    gardenvariety-hoosier, I was noticing that next week I might break the $100 mark for incoming. I think the green stemmed boc choy is the most beautiful. But I like the taste of the white stemmed a bit better.

    zentmrs, I had some radish tops saved from the previous week. I knew I would eventually get enough to make a big batch.

    GrafixMuse, We did have great weather. I grow greens all year long. Yakatta-na is a fabulous summer choy. It really holds up to the heat. Even last year's heat. The others I can grow for a bit, but they have to be picked young. Oh and Komatsuna is pretty good too. It can get big before it bolts.

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  38. Sue, Usually it is slugs that chew on my radish roots (from the top side, not the bottom). Wireworms can too. Root maggots are pretty common foes. But if you pull your radish and the ants swarm on them, you know it is them.

    wilderness, I was pretty happy with the spinach harvest. I was afraid they would all die, but half of the plants lived which is good. Or at least good enough. I have the start of my frozen vegetables for the winter.

    Tervy, it is the reason I picked that out too. I love the purple veggies.

    Karen Anne, no I use the lettuce, mizuna, Fun Jen, and sometimes tatsoi for salads. The other greens I cook. Bok choy, Yakatta-na, Komatsuna, choy sum, Chinese broccoli, Swiss chard, and spinach I cook. Though occasional leaves of spinach end up in salads. Most of the spinach was cooked yesterday and frozen for the winter. I like to have 1-2 1/2c servings of cooked spinach and/or chard frozen for each week I need it over the winter. So about 15-40 servings frozen for the winter. I don't need more. Eating spinach and Swiss chard everyday is probably a bad thing (due to the oxalic acid content), but twice a week is good. And it is an easy veggie to prepare. I can just unfreeze it in the microwave for instant vegetables. One serving of the radish top soup is frozen for the winter too.

    Megan, thanks

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  39. Nice harvest Daphne! The kohlrabi looks healthy. Love the look of that plant.

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  40. Oh swoon! Your blog is always so beautiful!

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  41. Dan, supposedly those kohlrabis can get to 4-6". At least that is the claim when I look them up. I don't think they are getting that big.

    Lisa and Robb, thanks!

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  42. I love all the greens. All mine have bolted because of the heat I picked the last of the lettuce this weekend.

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