Monday, July 4, 2016

Harvest Monday - July 4, 2016

Whoa! It's July already, summer is starting to fly by. I cleared out most of the spring veggies last week including the last of the carrots.

Purple Sun and Nelson Carrots
Rotild Carrots

There's a few heads of lettuce left to size up. The weather has cooled off quite a bit the last few days so I may get to wait a bit longer to harvest the last of them and they are also getting a bit of protection from the sun under a tunnel of lightweight Agribon fabric.

Ruby Gem Romaine and Manoa Crisphead

And the spring sown (March 2) celery is producing lots of big crunchy stalks that I harvest on a cut and come again basis. The celery plants are in a part of the garden where I don't need to clear them out so they get to stay until they bolt or don't produce good stalks anymore. I really enjoy the crunch of the stalks in salads. One salad that they livened up this week was made with some Purgatory beans and roasted sweet red peppers from the freezer. I used one of the last Zebrune shallots from last year in that salad. I'm really impressed with the keeping quality of the Zebrune shallots.

Pink Plume Celery
The bush snap beans have started producing a nice steady flow of beans.


The first varieties to produce were Roc d'Or and Red Swan.


Then Royalty Purple Pod, Rolande Filet, and Slenderette joined in. There's only a few of the Slenderette beans coming from the single plant that germinated and survived.

Red Swan,
 Rolande Filet, Roc d'Or, Slenderette, Royalty Purple Pod,
Romanesco zucchini
The Romanesco zucchini is producing some beautiful large firm fruits, one every few days so the quantity is quite manageable.

Romanesco Zucchini

I keep finding an occasional bolting onion like this Rossa Savonese which was very nice in spite of the tough central stalk. I used this in a stir fry done in a basket on the BBQ along with some zucchini and beans.

Rossa Savonese
These two onions were showing no signs of bolting. I pulled them to roast them whole on the BBQ. I cut them nearly in quarters, cutting down to the roots but not through, put a fresh bay leaf and a pat of butter  inside, wrapped each individually in heavy duty foil with sprigs of fresh thyme, olive oil, salt and pepper. They they roasted until they were bubbling hot and buttery tender.

Tropea Rossa Tonda and Rossa Piatta d'Italia Onions


Mouse Melons

The cute little Mouse Melons are barely starting to produce, just a few and I'm not sure if I'm sharing with critters or not. I would love to get a lot more of these, they are crunchy and taste like lemony cucumbers. They would be a great addition to a salad or just for munching raw.

Ripe Coriander Seeds
The coriander seeds aren't in the tally, but it's nice to show some of the harvests that don't get into the tally. I let cilantro volunteer around the garden and allow it to bolt and set seeds if the plants aren't in the way. I think the seeds have far more flavor when they are harvested ripe but not dry. The can be used while they are still green or allowed to dry. Dried green coriander has a lot more flavor than seeds that are allowed to dry on the plants.

There were a few harvests that didn't get photographed including a bit of broccoli, a lot of capers, and more celery and zucchini.

Here's the detail of the harvests for the past week:

Red Swan beans - 6.6 oz.
Roc d'Or beans - 10.2 oz.
Rolande Filet beans - 5.2 oz.
Royalty Purple Pod beans - 6.1 oz.
Slenderette beans - 2.2 oz.
Batavia broccoli - 5.9 oz.
Apollo brokali - 2.1 oz.
Capers - 1.2 lb.
Nelson carrots - 12 oz.
Purple Sun carrots - 8.9 oz.
Pusa Rudhira Red carrots - 1.1 oz.
Rotild carrots - 1.6 lb.
Pink Plume celery - 15 oz.
Mouse Melon cucumbers - .3 oz.
Manoa Crisphead lettuce - 7.9 oz.
Ruby Gem Romaine lettuce - 11 oz.
Rossa Piatta d'Italia onion - 15.6 oz.
Rossa Savonese onion - 9.5 oz.
Tropea Rossa Tonda onion - 1.4 oz.
Romanesco zucchini - 1.3 lb.

Total harvests for the week - 13.5 pounds (6.1 kg.)
2016 YTD - 342 pounds (154.7 kg.)

Harvest Monday is hosted by Dave on his blog Our Happy Acres, head on over there to see what other garden bloggers have been harvesting lately.

8 comments:

  1. Gorgeous harvests this week - so colourful! That BBQ onion preparation sounds delicious - I (and my kids) would love that...a must try. Looks like it will be a coriander seed free year for me again as I doubt I'll get around to sowing them in time.

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  2. Beautiful harvest this week. That's a colorful assortment of beans. Your onion recipe is something I might try when I get the red onions in. I use a version of my SIL's recipe for Vidalias, where they are filled with brown sugar with splashes of soy sauce, Worcestershire, and Pickapeppa.

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  3. That is a great assortment of beans. I love grilled onions but I don't usually wrap them in foil. Your treatment sounds great. I have a couple of onions bolting here too. Those mouse ear melons are so cute! I can see it would take quite a few to make a 'mess', but if they taste like lemon cucumbers then any amount would be useful.

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  4. Beautiful harvests! Carrots here, though planted in the spring, don't come in until summer. That's interesting about the green coriander. I will try that, since all I seem to get from cilantro is seeds.

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  5. Your beans are really starting to come in and that is a gorgeous array of carrots. Wow, and that is a lot of capers that you've harvested. It's amazing all the different things you're able to grow in your temperate climate.

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  6. I love the colors of your beans! I've been grilling almost everything out of the garden recently and it is delicious. I will have to try onions the way you describe. And those mouse melons are adorable!

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  7. The things you call Mouse Melons seem to be called Cucamelons here. I'm trying them for the first time this year. So far my 2 plants are very thin and small. Red onions are definitely on my Grow List for next year, especially after reading about how you cooked yours! I'm intrigued by what you say about the flavour of coriander seeds. Why do dried green ones taste better than ones naturally ripened on the plants? That is counter-intuitive.

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    1. The Mouse Melons seem to have a number of common names, Mexican Sour Gherkin is another. I'm not sure why the dried green coriander seeds have more flavor, certainly the fresh green ones do as well. I've found it to be true for fennel seeds too.

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