On Seeds, Sex, and an Offer

Lettuce seed on the stem

Every year I try to save seeds. Mostly I save seeds that are easy to save. To know which ones they are you have to know a bit about the plants. Plants tend to come in two types. Inbreeders and outbreeders.

Lettuce seed getting separated

Outbreeders (like brasscas, corn, and onions) don't like to breed with plants too closely related to them. They like to be heterozygus, which means they like to be promiscuous. They don't want to breed with themselves and they don't want to breed with a plant like them. They like a wild sex life. I think all wind pollinated plants (corn, spinach, and any of the grasses come to mind) are outbreeders. The wind can carry pollen for long distances. It is a great way to mix up the gene pool. Other outbreeders are insect pollinated. You may not get your pollen out as far as with the wind, but those bees do get around.

Outbreeders have something called inbreeding depression. If they inbreed too much the seed will become less and less viable over the years. So if you save seed from brassicas, and you don't have enough plants for them to cross, you might not get viable seed. The first year might be just fine if you only have a few plants, but as you collect in future years, you might not even get any seed. I've heard from 40-100 plants or more are necessary to maintain a diverse enough gene pool for the outbreeders.

Since letting that many go to seed is often hard. And isolating that many plants is also hard. I save seed from inbreeders. This means I don't have to maintain quite as large of a gene pool. It is good to collect from more than one plant, but you don't have to. Inbreeders have sex two ways. They use insect pollination and they can self pollinate. If they can pollinate by insects and you (or your neighbors) are growing more than one variety, you have to isolate it in some way. I've done this in the past. But this year I just used the ones that self pollinate.

Beans to be shelled

I have saved seed from beans, peas, tomatoes, and lettuce this year. All self pollinate. All have a possibility that they can cross. Tomatoes usually don't. Most modern tomatoes have short styles, but if the style sticks out past the anther cone then they can cross. With beans and peas whether they cross or not is dependent on where you live. Some insects can get into flowers and pollinate them, but if the insects aren't in your neighborhood you are safe (BTW runner beans are an exception, their flowers are open and can cross readily). Lettuce is almost always self pollinated before the flower opens. I saved both white and black seeded lettuce. The black seeded trait is dominant. So if I had any black seeds in my white seeded varieties, I would know that crossing occurred. It didn't.

Now for the offer. Some people trade seeds every year, but I much prefer just to give them away. Some years I ask for things. Like last year I asked people to send me seeds to trial for dried pole beans if they had ones they liked. But there is no quid pro quo here. And this year I have nothing I can think of that I want to trial. So as long as I don't run out if you ask for them I'll mail them to you. I'll mail the smaller seeds worldwide, but the larger seeds are more expensive to ship so I only mail them to the US or Canada. I tend to put in enough so you can try them, but not enough so you can grow a whole garden's worth of them.

So if you are interested, don't make a comment here. Email me at daphne@alum.mit.edu. Include the following things:

• your name
• your address
• which seeds you want
  

I'll mail them all at once, and a few varieties of bean seeds haven't been frozen (to kill pests) yet so it might be a week or two.

Please note that I'm not taking any more requests.

Pole Beans

I've been offering Cherokee Trail of Tears bean for a few years now. The Cherokees carried this bean on their long march that the bean was named for. Personally I first got this bean from the Ottawa Gardener and have grown it every year since. This bean has world domination on its mind when it grows. It can probably grow 12' high with ease if given something that high to grow on. This summer it was one of the more productive beans at 0.37 pounds per sqft of garden space. The bean is a fairly early bean and can produce every year here even in a bad year.

The Ottawa Cranberry bean was also given to me by the Ottawa Gardener. It is also a very productive bean at 0.33 lbs/sqft. It however stays in bounds. It will grow to 6' but not much more. It is a fairly early bean.

The Tarbais Alaric bean came to me through the Seed Savers Exchange yearbook. It is the classic French bean. It is usually picked as a shelling bean. Sadly the productivity I can't tell. I have in my hand 0.37 lbs/sqft, but some were given away as shelling beans and not dried beans and those are not in the total. So this was my most prolific bean. Like Trail of Tears the vines could grow very tall if given a chance. However it is a later bean than the proceeding beans. By August 5th only two pods had set so far. It really ramped up later on though. Since it is usually picked as a shelling bean, the lateness wouldn't be an issue for eating. But it might not be long enough to save seed every year.

Mexican Pinto was offered through the SSE yearbook by SSE (SSE BEAN 1025). They keep a large variety of seed in storage and occasionally grow it out. This was seven year old seed. They asked that anyone that grew it offer it up. So I'm doing that. The vines were fairly in control. So maybe 6'-7' tall at the most. About half the plants died early on. It was still fairly productive at 0.30 lbs/sqft even with the missing plants.

Rattlesnake was given to me by Mike H. Early on it looked like it would produce well. But what happened was that it produced one quick flush than stopped. So it was early enough but only came in at 0.28 lbs/sqft. Which isn't bad. And all the beans were early which is good in a bad year. The vines got to the top of the trellis, but didn't start taking over its neighbors. So it plays well with others.

Turkey Craw came to me from Michelle. It is a really beautiful bean. It is however later than most of the other beans I grew. Not late enough to keep it from producing though as I got 0.33 lbs/sqft. The vines were the most aggressive in the garden. They will take over their neighbors. So be warned.

Apache Red came from the SSE Yearbook. It is a very vigorous vine and the pods set very late. I could see this not producing in my area in bad years. I don't have the yield figures because not all the beans have been removed from their pods. I still have a bag left to do. I find the beans a little ugly. They are not in the least a smooth color. They have a lot of bumps and ridges and a lot of not bred out weirdness to them. I would love to know their history.

Tomatoes

Market Miracle (70) is a tomato that seems to be able to handle some adversity. I gave a plant to a friend who put it in a spot with about 5 hours of sunlight a day. It still produced about 20 tomatoes. I've found it produces better in shade than other tomatoes I've grown. It makes 6-8oz perfectly round red tomatoes. The tomatoes do have a tendency to fall of the vine prematurely.

Cherokee Purple (80) is a delicious tomato. Black, round, beefsteak type.

Not quite ripe Amish on left, Heinz on right

Amish Paste (75) is a very good tasting paste tomato, but is one of the few pastes that is good raw. It is heart shaped and red.

Heinz 2653 (68) is a very early determinant paste type with an elongated shape. It produces a lot over a 2-3 week period then it succumbs to disease.

Lettuce

Redsails and Paris Island

I have three types of lettuce seed to offer. I have Red Sails, a red leaf lettuce. Paris Island is the typical romaine. And Little Gem is a mini romaine.

Others

I have a few other seeds left that don't fit a category:

• Caribe cilantro - slow bolter
• Borage
• Ground Control Marigold (2010 seed)
  

Harvest Monday - November 14, 2011

You are expecting a big harvest from me aren't you? Well not this week. Above is my one and only harvest. I don't even have to tell you the weight as the scale shows you. It isn't even enough to make me update my sidebar tally. The parsley was picked for ham and bean soup.

I've eaten a lot from the garden, but it was all picked on previous weeks or from storage. I had so many Asian greens, chard and carrots I never got through them all. I still have some in the fridge. With the CSA over and my townhouse mates away on vacation last week, finishing up my greens is all on me. And really how many pounds can I eat in a week?

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.

Asian Greens

I was very disappointed when my main Asian greens bed all died from some kind of disease back in late August. Brassicas were planted in this bed for spring and fall which is usually a bad idea. Crops should be rotated But I got away with it at my last garden. Soil born diseases were fairly uncommon there. Here I lose a lot of plants. Next year I'll have to make a new rotation where the brassicas move from spring to fall. Maybe I'll put some bush beans in where the spring brassicas come out. Or maybe that is where the fall carrots will go. Or maybe some late zucchini.

Rock wall garden

At least I have my last minute Asian greens bed. It was put in at the beginning of September to replace the lost bed and started picking the bed by thinning at the end of September. All the greens here are fast growing greens. This section of the rock wall garden is 9' long by 2.5' deep. It provides more greens that I could possibly eat.

One of my favorites growing in the rock wall garden is the Shanghai bok choy. I love it grilled with a bit of oil, vinegar, sugar, salt and pepper sprinkled on it before cooking. I have a white stemmed bok choy that I like too. It is milder and bolts faster than the green stemmed one. I tend to use that one in stir fries.

Then I have my tatsoi. I eat it in soups and stir fries. One of my favorites and certainly the easiest way is to just season some chicken broth with a bit of soy sauce. I get it boiling. Put the leaves in your soup bowl and pour the broth over the leaves. This cooks the leaves perfectly. They really don't need a lot of cooking.

The last of the greens in my rock wall garden is the Fun Jen. The slugs love it since it is so mild, but it makes a great Asian salad. The last one I made had carrots, red onions, Fun Jen, and apples in it. It was dressed with a mustard and soy sauce dressing. No recipe, but use a basic vinaigrette recipe and add a bit of Dijon mustard, some soy sauce, and a little honey.

Harvest Monday - November 7, 2011

I've been picking carrots in bunches and them using them up over a week or two. I had run out so I picked another batch. These really aren't quite full sized, but I don't think this bed will ever get there this year. So I've been picking out the ones that seem big enough. I'm leaving the really good carrot bed for Thanksgiving dinner and winter storage.

Earlier this week I wrote about my dried beans. Well when they are dry enough and ready to be stored I weigh that variety. So far I have three all weighed up. I don't store them in bag, but in glass airtight canisters.

The chard was looking worse for the wear after all the frosts and freezes we have been having. I figured it was just going to go downhill from here, so picked it. I only kept about a quarter of the leaves as the others were wilting and dying. I should have picked earlier. I'll have to remember for next year to keep it covered or pick it earlier.

Yesterday for lunch I wanted a salad. So I went out and picked a full sized Fun Jen head. I paired it with some carrots and onions from the garden, and an apple from the farmers market.

• Beans 3.80 lbs
• Carrots 1.38 lbs
  
• Greens 2.08 lbs
• Weekly Total 7.26 lbs
  
• Weekly Spent $0
  
• Yearly Total 545.44 lbs
  
• Veggie Garden was worth $1204.31
  
• Fruit 1.87 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.

Dried Beans

Dried beans have got to be one of my favorite things in the winter. I love bean soups. I love hummus made from any kind of bean. I love beans done in any Mexican fashion. Now as a garden crop they are really easy. I plant them and then just let them grow all season long until the pods are dry on the vine. But they aren't very productive. They take the bed for all season and the pounds per square foot is pretty small.

Green beans are different. I had a 5.5'x1' section of Kentucky Wonder green beans. They yielded just over two pounds of beans per square foot. Which for any gardening crop is fantastic. But my dried beans do well if they yield a third of a pound per square foot. And since I was trialing so many kinds, I don't expect to get that yield from much.

I don't start to weigh the beans until they are fully dried. Then I take a hammer out and smash a few of the beans. If they shatter they are done. If they smoosh they need more time. Then I stick them in my deep freeze for a few days. Drying them will make sure that the seed doesn't die while frozen. And freezing them makes sure any pest eggs that are on them die so my beans don't get eaten in storage.

So far I have three types that are dry enough to weigh. Cherokee Trail of Tears, Ottawa Cranberry, and Mexican Pinto. The first two yielded the expected third of a pound per square foot. They are my tried and true beans (originally from the Ottawa Gardener years ago). The Mexican pinto was just under half that. Since half of the vines died unexpectedly early on, it was to be expected. I'll keep them, but I thought the Ga Ga Hut pintos yielded more. I can't really tell though as only one Ga Ga Hut bean plant survived the unexpected cold spell in late May. I had enough Mexican Pinto beans to replant, but I had no extra Ga Ga Huts. In addition the beans of Ga Ga Hut are larger. I might do the same trial again next year. We will see. I might try a bush pinto instead.

Harvest Monday - October 31, 2011

As you have probably read about on so many blogs in the eastern US, we got snow. But it wasn't as much as Robin who lives in Pennsylvania or Thomas who lives in eastern Massachusetts. We are so urban, and the city holds a lot of heat. We only got about two inches. And as you can see on the brick path, much of the snow melted as it hit. The plows didn't even come out in our town.

Last week was the last of my CSA so this week I was just picking enough for myself. I brushed the snow off the Asian greens row cover and picked a few plants. Some tatsoi, white stemmed bok choy and some Shanghai bok choy. I like to pick for the week when it is so cold outside. In the morning especially I won't go out in the cold. If I make eggs and there are greens in the fridge, I"ll use them. If not I'll eat them plain. So I have to make sure the fridge is stocked.

The Asian green patch is now in a new mode. In the last few weeks I thinned it out, making sure I picked enough from every row that the other plants had room to grow. I sent the extras to my CSA and to my townhousemates. This week I tried to pick what I would eat for the week. It has become cold and in a couple of weeks the ground will freeze. Recently this has been happening around mid November. Last night was a freeze (as I write the temp is 27.8F). It will unthaw during the week, but I'll soon have to get the plastic hoop up. The cold weather means the plants will stop growing. They will hold in the ground just fine for a month or two. At least that is the hope.

Last week was also clean up week. I got all the bean trellises taken down. There were two varieties that had some beans that hadn't dried on them. So they were shelled to be eaten fresh. These were runner beans and Cherokee Trail of Tears beans. The smaller green ones are the same varieties, but the beans just hadn't matured yet.

• Beans 1.31 lbs
  
• Greens 1.70 lbs
• Weekly Total 3.01 lbs
  
• Weekly Spent $0
  
• Yearly Total 538.19 lbs
  
• Veggie Garden was worth $1178.81
  
• Fruit 1.87 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.

What's Growing in the Fall Garden

Though I've ripped out most of my plants in the garden, I still have a few producing. Or in the case of carrots I have tons. Above is a spot about 2'x8' section of my circle garden filled with carrots ready to pick. Since the circle garden is surrounded by bricks and brick path and close to the kitchen door I want to save these and cover them when the ground starts to freeze. I want to bring carrots to Thanksgiving. BTW the netting on this bed is for the almost gone lettuce. The birds would eat it down to the stubs if I didn't do this.

Then there is the main part of the garden that is lower in sun. These carrots were planted earlier than the ones in the circle garden, but with the lack of sun they are small and many aren't even big enough to pick. Over the next few weeks I'll be eating the ones that are large enough. I'll leave the rest and see if they make it to spring. This area is a massive area of carrots. I've probably got over 30 sqft of carrots in this bed, but only if they can mature in time.

The Argentata chard did so much better than the Ruby chard. There seems to be some disease maybe that is distorting the leaves of the Ruby chard, but the Argentata is fairly immune to it. I never knew anything could affect them besides leaf miners. Live and learn. I'll grow the Argentata exclusively next year or at least as long as Fedco offers the seeds.

Also in the Chenepodium family is my spinach. It has been struggling this fall. The leaf miners did a number on it earlier and rotted out their leaves. So I picked all the dying rotting leaves and they have recovered somewhat, but at this point it will be spring spinach and not fall spinach. I'm sure it will overwinter just fine.

My kale is growing so fabulously. I used to have a row cover on it, but in the last couple of days I haven't seen any of those white butterflies. So I'm guessing it is safe to uncover. Which is good since I wanted to stake them for fall and they were getting too tall of the cover. I'll leave them unprotected this winter and harvest the leaves in January maybe. I want to see which ones survive the winter. These are a mixed batch. I'm not sure which ones they are, but hopefully I'll be able to narrow it down. If they all survive, well then I want to find the tastiest and best growing for next year.

And last but not least are my herbs. I so love fresh herbs. I chop them up in the mornings for my eggs. I toss them on a slice of bread and melted cheese. They have finally filled out their circle. Now my chore will be to keep the English thyme from invading the French thyme. I like the French better, but the English seems to survive better. I also have some Rosemary in this bed. It is supposed to be hardy to zone 6 or 7. I'm hoping it survives. I also have two along the foundation of the house. One that is a hardy one like the above and one that is Tuscan Blue, which is one of the best tasting. I don't have high hopes for the survival of Tuscan Blue, but I had to try.

I also have my Asian greens bed producing, but I'll take photos of that another day.

Planting Garlic

Tuesday I got my garlic planted. I like to plant it in the last week of October, which is usually about the time of our first frost. Most years I plan ahead and prepare the garlic cloves, but this year I just picked the largest bulbs, took them apart and used them as is. I'm being such a lazy gardener this fall.

I like to plant my garlic six inches apart in a grid. I plant them four inches deep, then mulch with an inch of compost. In past years I've mulched deeper, but our city climate seems pretty mild. I think that will be sufficient.

Cleaning Up

I know over the last two months I've been not blogging except to keep Harvest Monday going. All my extra energy has been spent trying to keep the garden up. But I've been feeling much better over the last week and figured I ought to get back into the swing of things. Or maybe I want to start again because my townhouse mates took down all the solanum crops for me. Seeing them every time I went out into the garden was pretty depressing. They offered to take them down as soon as I got sick from them, but I figured they ought to be enjoyed even if I couldn't. Now that they are gone, I'm much happier.

I've been working over the last couple of weeks to take all my trellises down and get all the beans into the compost. Yesterday the last of them came down. The overhead view shows that there isn't much left in the garden anymore. I'll show you all that is still producing in another post, but for now it about taking them down.

My compost is over flowing. I had to get the finished compost taken out of that almost empty bin. I've spread it over parts of the garden that have been cleaned up. Now I finally have room to turn it. I'll probably get to it during the next non rainy day. But today is raining and tomorrow it might even snow. Wow. Snow. We have had such a warm fall it is hard to imagine weather that cold. But Thursday night we might get our first frost and snow. Maybe.

It is pretty empty. I put the tomato trellises on the surface of the cleaned beds because otherwise the cats leave me unwanted gifts. We have about 5-7 cats that regularly visit the yard. So any empty soil is always kept covered. But I do provide for the cats. I have a spot that they can use when they want. I clean it every month. It is under the chimney to my gas fireplace so it is even a dry spot for them. I'm hoping with all the cats I won't get too many mice and voles.

Harvest Monday - October 24, 2011

The cold weather really has moved in. We haven't had a frost yet, but as I write this our temperature is at 37F. So I was out removing things from the garden. My townhouse mates were too. They removed the eggplants, picking as they went. And they removed all the pepper plants and harvested a huge amount of them. They were going to make some hot pepper sauce with the spicy ones. None of these were weighed, but they picked a couple of huge bags of peppers and quite a few eggplants.

I was out picking the last of the celery. This doesn't look very big, but trust me it is. I had to cut them in thirds just to fit them in my fridge. There are six pounds of celery in that pile. What I kept I'll clean and chop up and freeze. I'll keep a little fresh as it is truly soup season now. I made two different soups last week.

I picked the last of the leeks. If you see the one on the bottom is is perfect. I don't think I've ever grown one that has been as huge as the ones you find in the supermarkets. Mine tend to be an inch wide or less. Also in there is probably the last zucchini. I never pulled them even though they stopped producing and lo and behold, the strongest of them put one more out. A tiny one, but still a zucchini toward the end of October here is really unusual. I picked more carrots. These were smaller than last weeks. I picked them over in the shadier part of the garden. Some have sized up OK, but not great. I figure I'll pick all the ones big enough at all over there first. When it gets colder the carrots outside my kitchen door will be easier to get to and have a tendency to freeze less as they are surrounded by bricks and not wood.

Every week I pick Asian Greens. I thin out the largest of the baby boc choy (both white and green stemmed) and the tatsoi. Every week they fill in the gaps and get bigger. I tipped one up in the corner so you can see how big they are getting. The biggest are just under half a pound which is huge for a baby choy. Every week before harvesting they look so beautiful in their beds (I really need to take a photo) and every week they look so sad after harvesting. But the holes left in the bed give me a chance to put down some sluggo. There are slugs in this bed and I pull some off the greens every week, but with the sluggo the leaves aren't shredded at least.

The slugs like the Fun Jen the best. I think it is because it is such a mild Asian green, but they are still doing well. Only some heads have tattered tops. I think this plant really acts as a trap crop for the rest of the bed. Most are looking pretty good though. So I'm pretty happy with them. I pick the largest of these each week too. Almost everyone thinks these are lettuce when they see them, and in fact that is how I use them. They make very good salads.

• Alliums 1.49 lbs
  
• Carrots 1.23 lbs
  
• Cucurbits 0.21 lbs
  
• Eggplant unknown
  
• Greens 11.39 lbs
  
• Herbs 0.18
  
• Pepper unknown
  
• Raspberries unknown
  
• Weekly Total 20.50 lbs
  
• Weekly Spent $0
  
• Yearly Total 535.17 lbs
  
• Veggie Garden was worth $1164.01
  
• Fruit 1.87 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.

Harvest Monday - October 17, 2011

I was gone all week long to visit my parents in Colorado (last Harvest Monday was scheduled). When I got back the Asian greens had filled in the spaces that I had thinned out. So they needed to be thinned again. The Fun Jen will get a lot larger, but the bok choy is pretty much at its adult size. There are a few little ones hiding though. I cut the larger ones out to give them a chance to grow up.

Yet more Asian greens from my little 2.5 x 8 foot patch. Along with carrots hiding under the tatsoi and some huge bunching onions. The fall garden by the kitchen - my circle garden - is growing well this fall as is the rock wall garden. But the main garden where my spinach is is stagnating. It just doesn't get enough sun to let things grow well. I have a huge patch of spinach there, but I won't get anything this fall. I'll have to wait until spring when all the leaves are off my neighbor's tree and the sun comes out from behind his house. I get lots of sun in the spring, but not enough in the fall. The carrots show this too. The carrots in the circle garden are already being picked, but the carrots in the main bed are still very small and struggling. I hope they have time to bulk up, but I'm not counting on it. I should have planted peas there since at least the peas are tall and can reach for the sun. I'll remember that for future years and make sure to have the shorter fall crops in the circle bed and any tall fall crops in the main bed.

My dill has self seeded everywhere as has my cilantro. The cilantro is just an inch tall (again it is in the main bed with little sun and the bad part of the main bed at that), but the dill is growing well and I have lots to pick. Last night I made carrots and dill for a dinner. They were very good.

• Alliums 0.86 lbs
  
• Carrots 1.99 lbs
  
• Greens 3.60 lbs
  
• Herbs 0.34
  
• Lettuce unknown
  
• Pepper unknown
  
• Raspberries unknown
  
• Weekly Total 6.79 lbs
  
• Weekly Spent $0
  
• Yearly Total 514.67 lbs
  
• Veggie Garden was worth $1101.49
  
• Fruit 1.87 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.

Harvest Monday - October 10, 2011

This week I broke 500lbs of produce. I'm sure I broke the number earlier, but since none of the tomatoes and peppers have been weighed since the end of August I can't count them. I did a better job of photographing what I picked, but still am falling down on the job. This week the Asian greens really started to come in. Everything I'm picking in that category is just thinning out the patch.

The August sowing of carrots is starting to produce. The Mokums and Purple Haze are huge now. The Sugar Snax need more time and may or may not size up totally. But this basket really features the leeks. It is time for leek and potato soup. Well not for me since I'm still not allowed to eat potatoes, but my CSA friends got leeks and potatoes. Maybe they will eat soup.

The potatoes are about two thirds picked right now. The yields have been about half what I would like. I planted about five pounds of seed potato. I'd love to pull out ten times that or 50 lbs, but I think the total will end up being about 25 lbs. Pretty sad. It is hard to get worked up over it though since I don't get to eat them. But I'm saving a few Kennebecs for my husband. When we bake chicken I'll bake him one and me a sweet potato. Hmm maybe I should try growing sweet potatoes next year. My husband won't touch them, but I will.

I've also been picking my beans and pulling out the plants over time. These are the Borlotto beans. I was growing them as a dried bean, but they just took too long. So I picked a lot as shelling beans. The dried beans I've been picking aren't in the harvest totals yet as they are drying in paper bags. I've shelled all that I've picked already. Since it has been so wet over the last couple of weeks I like to get the bean out of the shell as quickly as possible so they don't mold out. I've lost a bit to mold, but not as much as I feared.

• Alliums 1.83 lbs
  
• Shelling beans 0.66 lbs
  
• Carrots 1.21 lbs
  
• Cucurbits 16.36 lbs
  
• Eggplant unknown
  
• Greens 2.74 lbs
  
• Herbs unknown
  
• Lettuce unknown
  
• Pepper unknown
  
• Potatoes 5.64 lbs
  
• Raspberries unknown
  
• Weekly Total 12.09 lbs
  
• Weekly Spent $0
  
• Yearly Total 507.89 lbs
  
• Veggie Garden was worth $1069.62
  
• Fruit 1.87 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.

Harvest Monday - October 3, 2011

Though this was harvested ages ago, I finally had it all dried and weighed this week. I had enough to send to my CSA and my townhouse mates. I still had plenty for myself to use as a spice and for seed. Though the odds of me needing seed are slim. I put the chaff which had a ton of seed all over the place in the garden. I'm sure I'll get a lot coming up next spring. Cilantro (same plant as coriander but called a different name when grown as a leafy herb) really is best self planted. Or sort of self planted like I did. Just toss the seed heads where ever you want them when the seeds ripen. The only flaw is that you do have to plan ahead.

The squirrels have been tasting things this week. I was afraid to leave the butternut squash out any longer. Though the skin is hard to get through if they get desperate enough they will succeed. For now I've got a couple with little teeth marks that tried to get through. I'm sure they will scar over just fine, but they will be the first used. None are terribly large. They average just over two pounds each. I didn't pick any of the Black Futsu. It isn't quite ripe. I have one starting to turn orange, but the others are quite dark green. The squirrels haven't touched them. I have to be honest. With the weird warty black skin and the strange grey cast they get as they ripen, they don't look very edible to me either. I hope they do ripen up though. I really want to try them.

It is raspberry season. Though most of the raspberries are picked and eaten out of hand, I finally took a photo of one day's harvest. This variety is Jaclyn. At my old house I grew Heritage which I loved. These taste just as good and the berries are huge which makes for easier picking. Our Alpine strawberries are getting picked and eaten out of hand too. A photo of them is elusive. The Yellow Wonder are so tasty. I wish I had only planted that one variety. Our red variety Ruegen just doesn't hold up.

Then came the chard. I had to clean it out. I hadn't looked under the row cover and some moth had gotten under. They looked like cutworms - those grey worms that curl up, but unlike cutworms they didn't hide in the dirt. They hid at the base of the plants. Some were out foraging during the day. I had to cut out a lot of too damaged leaves. Boy they did a lot of damage. As I was cleaning the place up I harvested three pounds of the leaves. The chard didn't do as well this year as previous years. I think they do better when I harvest them more regularly. Either every week or every other week. I just let them go this year. And the carrots and onions look so small in this photo, but don't be fooled. That is a pound and a half of green onions there. And almost that amount of carrots. Those chard leaves are huge. I've been really impressed with the Argentata chard this year. The Ruby chard just isn't pulling its weight. I love the red color, but I like the taste of the Argentata and it is way more productive.

• Alliums 1.57 lbs
  
• Carrots 1.32 lbs
  
• Cucurbits 16.36 lbs
  
• Eggplant unknown
  
• Greens 3.00 lbs
  
• Herbs 0.19lbs + lots unweighed
  
• Lettuce unknown
  
• Pepper unknown
• Raspberries 0.18 lbs
  
• Tomato unknown
  
• Weekly Total 22.44 lbs
  
• Weekly Spent $0
  
• Yearly Total 495.80 lbs
  
• Veggie Garden was worth $1037.69
  
• Fruit 1.87 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.