Monday, March 8, 2010

Harvest Monday - March 8, 2010



The Golden Chard is growing by leaps and bounds lately. I harvested that nice bunch on Sunday. The leafy parts were sauteed in olive oil with green garlic and currants and then topped with toasted sliced almonds and a splash of sherry vinegar. I saved the stems and tonight I'm going to make a gratin with them.

That was the highlight of the harvests during the past week. Here's the totals:

Green Garlic - 2.25 oz.
Olive Leaf Rapini - 12.75 oz.
Frisee thinnings - 7.25 oz.
Butterhead Lettuce thinnings - .5 oz.
Piracicaba broccoli - 3.25 oz.
Golden Chard - 1 lb., 3.5 oz.

Total for the week - 2 lb., 13.5 oz.
Total for the year - 31 lb., 1 oz.

Eggs for the week 10

And there were a few beets that I picked and neglected to weigh, oh well!

Harvest Mondays are hosted by Daphne on her blog Daphne's Dandelions. Why don't you head on over there and show us what you've been harvesting lately!

20 comments:

  1. The chard recipe sounds tasty and I might try it when my chard gets going properly.

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  2. Beautiful chard and yummy recipe, I have seeds but have yet to sow them. I need to get on with the program soon or else miss the growing season.

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  3. The chard looks lovely. Ours is only just recovering from the cold weather, well ... it was, but today we had snow! First time in the village for 30 years apparently.

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  4. Jan, it probably won't be long until it takes off like mine did. Mine seemed to stay about the same size for most of the winter, then suddenly it was on the verge of being overgrown. It's coming on just in time!

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    Mac, I'm not sure if I should sow more chard myself. I suspect that my current plants may bolt soon, but so far they aren't showing any signs of it.

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    chaiselongue, snow! How strange this winter has been... I hope you garden gets through ok.

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  5. Wow that is some pretty chard. I'm going to be so sad when I grow chard this year. I went for the kind I like to eat, but it doesn't include any of the yellows that are so beautiful.

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  6. Michelle,

    I overwintered chard indoors last winter and then planted it out again. It went to seed in this wonderful crazy way with long shoots of strange green flowers. I let it go and saved a ton of seed from it. It might be worth leaving in a plant or two just for all the seed you'd get.

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  7. Daphne, fortunately I love the flavor of the golden chard, so I get to enjoy it for both flavor and beauty.

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    Emily, I let a different variety go to seed a few years ago, it does have a weird looking flower. It got to be humongous and I just don't have the room for that anymore, especially since you should have minimum of 6 plants to keep the line vigorous. I'll probably continue to buy my seeds unless I can't find this variety again.

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  8. I'm sure I"m not the first to say it but 'Wow!' that is one nice looking chard. Imagine what a pretty picture it must make in the veggie / ornamental patch.

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  9. Ottawa Gardener, The chard does stand out in the garden. I would be tempted to grow it even if it wasn't tasty, fortunately I love the flavor.

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  10. No leafminers in that chard. I can't wait for ours to look that nice...or even half as nice would suffice.

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  11. It looks beautiful. I used to like chard more than I do now. Now it's kale which is my true, leafy love.

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  12. Beautiful chard Michelle. The leaves look perfect. I've never been a huge fan of chard but this looks really tasting. I'm growing some Rhubarb chard this year. Hopefully it will be better than the Bright Lights.

    I can't believe you've already harvested 31 lbs this year. That's amazing.

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  13. That chard is just perfect! And I love the recipe.
    I’m growing only standard white chard and just now I’m waiting to see if it will start to grow again after winter or I will have to sow new.

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  14. Well that is a hit of sunshine. They look great. I love chard prepared how you described.

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  15. Mr. H., There were a couple of leaves with leaf miners, but they didn't do much damage. They leaf miners aren't out in full force yet, they usually do a lot of damage to my chard early in the season.

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    Stefaneener, I love both chard and kale, I don't think I could have a vegetable garden without either one.

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    Thomas, the joy of photography is that you can hide a lot of warts! Some of the chard leaves had big chunks eaten away by a caterpillar that attacked the leaves when they were small and a couple of them had leaf miners. But I don't let a little ugliness deter me from enjoying my veggies.

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    vrtlarica, perfectly tasty, yes! White chard is my second favorite variety, and then the red chard. I've also grown the rainbow chard.

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    Dan, it is a lovely sunny color. Now if the real thing would come out and stay awhile...

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  16. I adore chard and actually like the milder flavor of the rainbow colored varieties. I have grown Bright Lights for a number of years now and love the looks, the taste, and the hardiness. I have the spring crop of seedlings growing on in the greenhouse as I type. They are about 2 weeks away from being ready to transplant into the garden.

    Your harvest is beautiful and the recipe sounds quite yum!

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  17. kitsapFG, The rainbow varieties of chard are tasty, I just found that I had to grow too much of it to get a nice variety of colors. It also seems to tend to skinny stems and I do like the fat stems of the Golden chard. Two or three plants of Golden chard supply me with all the chard that I want.

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  18. I loved seeing someone else is doing hoop houses in same manner, I live in Olympia, WA. This winter we had a cold spell down to record breaking 7 degrees and the hoop house saved my raised bed of kale.

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  19. It certainly is beautiful. I grew a yellow variety called 'Canary' last year. I am hoping to grow some more this year, as I loved it for colour and flavour.

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  20. Michelle, I'd love to hear more about the gratin recipe. Just got a shipment from the local CSA and hate to let anything go to waste.

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