Monday, June 10, 2013

Harvest Monday - June 10, 2013

It was a good harvest week again as spring crops were finishing and making way in the garden for summer vegetables.

First I cleared out most of the carrot patch. I pulled out all of the Deep Purple carrots


There were a few odd characters in that lot, but most of them were long and straight, and deep purple.


Then I pulled out all of the Circus Circus carrot mix patch. These are largest of the lot, there were a bunch of babies from the shady end of the patch that I'm not showing.


And this was the entire planting of Rouge Sang Violette carrots, and they aren't as large as this photo would imply. I had just a few seeds and I sowed them in a shady spot so there's not much to show. These are pretty enough that I'm going to find another source of seeds and try them again.


This is the final  harvest of spinach. I cut all the plants to the ground to make way for the eggplant babies that have been sizing up in pots.


Here's nearly the final harvests of sugar snap and snow peas, another small head of Di Ciccio broccoli, some green coriander seeds and Romanesco zucchini. The peas gave up their final harvest yesterday and I've pulled them out to plant more beans.


And then more zucchini... Romanesco and Ortolano di Faenza. The Romanesco is an overachiever and the Ortolano is an underachiever, I guess they balance each other out.


And yesterday I filled another harvest basket. First the wild arugula needed a trim. And there's the last few snow peas that I found as I pulled the plants out.


I've got three patches of arugula like this one going. I thought I sowed Olive Leaf arugula, but it's not looking like it. Oh well. I cut the patches almost to the ground, the wild arugula is perennial and very vigorous and will grow back in no time.


Then a few side shoots from the Purple Peacock and Di Ciccio broccolis.


Yet more zucchini...


And that fuzzy thing is the first unpollinated Tortarello Abruzzese cucumber.


The rapini was ready to harvest.


And I finally unwrapped the blueberry plants to harvest about 3 cups from my two little potted plants.



I also harvested all the remaining napa cabbages but didn't photograph them because they were looking pretty ratty. They needed a bit of trimming before I stored them away in the fridge. It's a good thing I like a nice fresh napa cabbage slaw, I've had about 4 of them this past week because the cabbage is taking up a lot of room in the fridge. And I harvested a number of heads of lettuce and tossed a few of them that were too mature and starting to bulge out the sides, breaking open, and in general looking bad. I rescued a few heads that hit the tally this week, but the head lettuce season is coming to an end.

The garlic isn't cured yet but I keep grabbing a head or two to use so I weigh each head as I use it. Once it's all cured (what's left of it) I'll weigh the whole lot together and tally the rest of it then.

I didn't really do anything interesting in the kitchen this week as I relied on quick and easy, reliable old standby preparations because I was doing a LOT of work in the garden.


The weather was mild for the most part and the promised heat wave that was supposed to start on Thursday didn't hit the coastal areas. The nighttime temperatures have started to hover closer to 50 than 40 so the newly planted out tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants are happy. I think summer is really starting!




Here's the harvests from the past week:

Wild Arugula - 14.7 oz.
Di Ciccio broccoli - 8 oz.
Purple Peacock broccoli - 1.7 oz.
Little Jade Napa cabbage - 2 lb., 8 oz.
Circus Circus carrot mix - 2 lb., 10.3 oz.
Deep Purple carrots - 3 lb., 3 oz.
Rouge Sang Violette carrots - 2.3 oz.
Lorz Italian garlic - 5.8 oz.
Iceberg Superior lettuce - 2 lb., 13.2 oz.
Rhapsody butterhead lettuce - 1 lb., 2 oz.
Oregon Sugar Pod II snow peas - 12.2 oz.
Super Sugar Snap peas - 1 lb., 3.3 oz.
Early Rapini - 1 lb., 8.4 oz.
Summer Perfection spinach - 2 lb., 6 oz.
Ortolano di Faenza zucchini - 4.4 oz.
Romanesco zucchini - 3 lb., 6.2 oz.

The total harvests for the week came to - 23 lb., 14 oz. (the fridge is bulging)
Which brings the total harvests for the year up to - 148 lb., 2.5 oz.

Harvest Monday is hosted by Daphne on her blog Daphne's Dandelions, head on over there to see what garden bloggers from around the world have been harvesting.


15 comments:

  1. You can't possibly get that many blueberries from a single stem, can you? That rivals your Meyer lemons, I think. I saved that photo of the lemons, makes me happy looking at it. And how do you like the taste of the purple carrots? And the wild arugula, and the fuzzy cucumber? I have so many questions for you, since I also like unusual plants and veggies. Wonderful, just wonderful, Michelle!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Not all the stems were like that one, but that one was so amazing that I had to document it! I like the purple carrots, they aren't as sweet as orange carrots and I think a lot of people don't like them because of that. You have to appreciate them for the unique vegetable that they are. The wild arugula is quite spicy. I like to mix it with lettuces, or it is good wilted, and it makes a great pesto which is what I have in mind for this bunch. The fuzzy cucumber is an interesting thing, it's botanically actually a melon, but not sweet, it tastes like a cucumber but there is just a hint of melon-something there. The fuzz rubs off easily and leaves a nice smooth skin. It's similar to an Armenian cucumber but I think the skin isn't as tough (if memory serves, I haven't had an Armenian cuke in a while).

      Delete
  2. I really enjoyed looking at your harvest. The carrots is so much fun and interesting. Many varieties are new to me.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Nice, varied harvest. You are definitely way ahead of me (I just planted my Romanesco and Sunburst seeds Sunday, for example). But I do have flower heads forming on my broccoli. Meanwhile I have the same bulging refrigerator problem and my wife reminds me she has a lot of vegetarians in her office if I need an emergency outlet.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Beautiful harvests. And those are some amazing blueberries. I wish mine would put out that many berries.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Great harvest! Love the carrots! See, always good ideas to be found on Harvest Monday! I picked a few carrots today too, but most are far from ready! How did you get your blueberries to grow so well? I will be lucky to get 2 cups total from all six plants for the season.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I wish I knew the secret to my success! They are growing in pots in a 50/50 mix of potting soil and peat moss, but I don't remember what fertilizer I put in there to begin with. I need to figure that out again because I want to add a couple more plants to the collection.

      Delete
  6. What a festive bunch (or bunches I should say!) of carrots! That purple is really gorgeous. I prefer the taste of the orange varieties, but I love the look of the multi-colored and the purple varieties. The blueberries are beautiful too. I am trying not to covet your zucchini, as I know soon my young plants will grow big and start producing and I will quickly grow weary of zucchini, zucchini, zucchini, and more zucchini. ;) But at the moment, it would be lovely to have some to harvest.

    ReplyDelete
  7. What a great harvest, a little bit of everything. Just love those different types of carrots! the one veggie I don't seem to have much luck with.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Fab harvest. I want blueberries like that! Everything is looking sensational - particularly those peas which I am coveting most because my plants are doing really badly. I really should work a lot harder to protect them.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I purchased olive leaf arugula seed from Seeds of Italy and had the same experience as you — it looked more like selvatica than what was on the seed packet... Beautiful harvest!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Gorgeous carrots and varied harvest, I failed in the blueberry department, did you grow it in semi shade or it gets full sun? So mixing in peat moss is the secret, I'll have to give it one more try, thanks for the tips.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The pots are in full sun, although I was careful to keep the pots away from the wall of the house where they might get too hot from reflected heat.

      Delete
  11. That is a nice Tortarello Abruzzese cucumber. Much like the picture I had on my Tortarello Abruzzese seed package when I purchased some. Did the fruits grow to become light or dark Armenian Cucumbers?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It looks like they came out light and dark striped. There's some photos on later posts that show them and one close up shows the stripes. In general they were a bit darker than the Armenian cukes that I've grown.

      Delete

Thank you for taking the time to leave a comment. I value your insights and feedback.