Monday, July 8, 2013

Harvest Monday

I'm a little late getting my Harvest Monday post up because we are in a heat wave here (nothing like as bad as the west coast has had, but hot enough with high humidity) and the mornings are the time I have to be out in the garden getting the work done. If it isn't done by 10am in this heat it won't get done! After the garden work I had a meeting to go to and then had to wait my turn to get to the computer. But finally: Harvest Monday, hosted by Daphne's Dandelions each week where fellow garden bloggers share what they've been gleaning from their gardens this week. Head on over and be inspired!
It has been a productive week in the garden despite the heat with some of the cool weather crops petering out and the warm weather plants getting ready to ramp up production.  I am still harvesting lettuce of the heat tolerant variety, but unfortunately I accidentally deleted my photo of it. Some lettuce is beginning to bolt and some is getting slightly bitter, but still pleasantly edible. I have a variety called Pablo that is a reddish-pinkish summercrisp type that takes the prize for being non-bitter even in temperatures in the 90s.
 I'm still picking peas, sugar snaps, snow peas and shelling peas, but they are really just about done and I'll be pulling the last of the vines sometime in the next week. Seems like I just planted them yesterday and they're done already.
 This week saw my first zucchini, a Jackpot. I had three others that developed blossom end rot, but today I saw a few that look like they'll be healthy zukes. You can see my first three celery plants, a nice variety called Tango. They don't get terribly large, but have plenty of flavor for soups and salads. I harvested a few sad Kolibri kohlrabis, but they have not done well this year. Earlier in the season I had a fantastic crop of French Breakfast radish and we powered through them in our spring salads. Above are a few much smaller results of a second planting.
 Some shelling peas from a climbing variety called Tall Telephone are shown above and they are still producing, although not a large amount. I am getting side shoots from the Blue Wind broccolis that I harvested last week.
 I have a great beet crop this year and picked a few pounds of them this week. They go straight into the oven to be roasted, then I peel them after they're cool enough to handle. The skins just slip right off. We use them sliced up in salads, or in borscht or I slice and freeze the excess for use in winter salads. I also cook or freeze the nicer looking beet greens. Next to the basket of beets is a basket of my first kale harvest.
 I was curious to see what was going on under the potato plants, so I pulled out three little spuds, two Red Norland and one Yukon Gold. Wonder what kind of overall potato harvest I'll get this year?
 I harvested all my Farao early cabbages this week. They are small but tender and delicious, averaging about a pound and a quarter each.
 And I dug up all my garlic. I think I harvested a little early, but I was concerned that I might be waiting too long with all the excessive rain we had last month. They were a pretty good size and I have quite a heap of them curing in a workshed we have. The blue tape you see on each garlic is a label indicating the variety so I can tell which is which when I eventually save some bulbs for seed. There probably is a more efficient and less tedious way to do this, but for now that's what I do.
 Sometimes the garden likes to surprise us. My bush beans are far from ready for harvest, only just beginning to blossom this week. I had given up any thought of scarlet runner beans, because I planted them late and it became so hot out. I figured I just had a nice ornament for the garden. But today as I walked past them I was thrilled to see some beans that seemed to have appeared overnight! They aren't very big or very many, but at least I will discover what they taste like.
And finally, here is another shot of some of the broccoli harvest. These are Tendergreen and their heads are nowhere near as large as the Blue Wind I harvested last week. I have another variety called Belstar that looks like it'll be ready in a few days and my Fiestas have a ways to go yet.
So that's it for this week's harvest! I'm anxiously awaiting that first tomato and cucumber. There are babies out there that just need to size up and ripen. Hoping for a little rain and a break from the heat in the days to come!

17 comments:

  1. Looking good! You're getting quite a variety now, and I hear you about that heat spell. I had a few plants that just couldn't deal with it, but others that loved it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I hope your hot weather has moderated a little Granny! I think we actually stayed under 90 today.

      Delete
    2. It's 93 in the shade right now (5:30), but that's a lot more tolerable than the 105-112 degree days we had last week!

      Delete
  2. Same heat here, my peas are not liking it. You still have a nice harvest of peas, and the cabbages are beautiful.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks David! My peas are actually about shot. Farao is a great variety of cabbage for fresh eating.

      Delete
  3. Nice harvests! Those cabbage look yummy and the broccoli too. Hopefully the heat and humidity will get better soon!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you! I hope so too, before the various diseases start to take hold.

      Delete
  4. Great looking harvest! How nice to find a surprise you didn't expect in the garden. Love when that happens. Your cabbages and beets look great. I am harvesting one cabbage at a time here the past couple weeks and they sure are good. I haven't harvested any beets yet though.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks! You are wise to harvest one at a time, but I tend to want to free up space for other plantings, also I'm always afraid the longer I leave them the more chance the bugs or critters will get at them. I have mid season varieties out there still.

      Delete
  5. You are getting a nice variety of harvest! My peas have been done and wondering when I can start the fall ones. Glad you are getting a zuke. Mine are just starting so hoping for the best and if I had time to check the beets they may be ready. How do you use them in your salads for winter? We have been having hot and humid weather also and some rain that does not seem to cool it off! Nancy

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I just thaw out the frozen beets and put them on a salad the same way I do roasted ones in summer. They were already roasted before freezing. The consistency isn't quite as nice, but I think they still taste good.

      Delete
  6. Great looking harvest. We are roasting here in the west too. We had temps well over 100 for a straight week. Luckily it has backed off a little this week.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks! I can't imagine how you've dealt with those temperatures! Mid 90s are bad enough.

      Delete
  7. You are getting some amazing spring harvests! Such a gorgeous variety of vegetables!

    Did you end up liking the Scarlet Runner beans? The gardening books sometimes describe them as coarse, but I always thought they were lovely as green beans. And in the fall when it cools runner beans always produced huge amounts for me.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I did like them! Took me aback when I saw how fuzzy they were, but that didn't affect the taste. If the plants survive well til fall it'll be something to look forward to. I do tend to get a lot of disease here in August with all our humidity.

      Delete
  8. Lovely harvests this week! Those cabbages look really beautiful and that broccoli in the last picture is calling to me. Broccoli is one of my absolute favorite veggies. I have not even done one single test foray into my potato patch this year. Exercising some phenomenal restraint as I have two new varieties growing this year and am seriously interested to know if they are going to produce well for me or not. Perhaps I need to do a little nosing around this coming weekend?! :D

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks! Broccoli is our favorite too, so it's good to finally be having some success growing it. My potatoes tend to be something of an afterthought, due to space limitations. It would be ideal if I could get 30 or 40 pounds of them, but about 21 is the highest I've gotten so far. My plants are dying off already so I doubt I'll make that high amount! Good luck with your new varieties!

      Delete