The only thing new in the harvest lineup last week was some shoots from the red fennel. I noticed one shoot was starting to develop a flower stalk and the rest of them are quite crowded with multiple shoots from the crown of each plant so I cut the bolting shoot and did a bit of thinning. I cleaned them and put them in the refrigerator and when it came time to put together a pot of soup with some freshly harvested vegetables and leftover duck confit, I forgot to use them. They'll keep until I put together another pot of soup, which I make frequently at this time of year.
So here's the harvest totals for the week:
Red Fennel - 5 oz.
Olive Leaf Rapini - 1 lb., 5.5 oz.
Diamante Celery Root - 2 lb., 4.75 oz.
Romanesco Broccoli - 16 oz.
Garlic Shoots - 1 oz.
Chervil - .5 oz.
Fava leaves - 1.75 oz.
Golden Corn Salad - 2.75 l oz.
Cutting Celery - 1 oz.
Red *Scallion* - 8 oz.
Total Harvest for the week - 5 lb., 14.25 oz
Total For the year - 24 lb., 8.25 oz.
Eggs last week - 11
Daphne is hosting Harvest Monday on her blog Daphne's Dandelions, so if you would like to see what other garden bloggers have harvested lately, head on over and check it out.
Michelle,
ReplyDeleteNice harvest 24 lbs this year, we have not planted anything yet....
New to me is this red fennel. :)
Nice !
ReplyDeleteMy harvest was a bit of a flop last year but I'm trying again this year (same three varieties). Fennel is so lovely and delicious !
Nice to see the Red Fennel. I am growing some this year but have yet to actually see any. So it is pretty much like bronze fennel?
ReplyDeleteLots of fennel grows wild round here, but no new growth is visible yet!
ReplyDeleteThe red fennel is really pretty - bet it smells good too.
ReplyDeleteRandy, The red fennel is new for me also, I started it last year and harvested the seeds. I cut it down to the ground this winter and now it's supposed to form bulbs like florence fennel. I'm not so sure that they will ever get that fat though.
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miss m, Thanks! I think timing is everything when it comes to growing good fennel bulbs, I still haven't quite figured it out myself. The red variety sounded promising because you're supposed to harvest the bulbs the second year. But like I said to Randy, I'm not so sure...
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Dan, It looks a lot like bronze fennel, but I've not grown bronze fennel before so I can't make a comparison beyond that. The seeds of the red fennel have been delicious, more potent than seeds that I've purchased.
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Jan, Fennel grows wild around here also, although it's not a native, Italian immigrants brought it and it escaped and naturalized. The wild type doesn't make nice bulbs though.
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kitsapFG, The red fennel smell heavenly. On a warm day I can smell it all around the garden. When you brush past it it gives off a huge burst of scent. I love it just for that.
It looks like you are still getting plenty of veggies. At five pounds for a week, I have trouble eating it all, but then I don't get help most of the time from my hubby.
ReplyDeleteDaphne, I get plenty of help from my husband, there's hardly a vegetable that I can grow that we both don't love. We're not big meat eaters either, our meals tend to revolve around vegetables, although, we are eating more eggs these days. :>
ReplyDeleteSounds good! I need to update my totals. Looked at strawberry plants today online. . .this is going to be fun!
ReplyDeleteDan was nice enough to send me some red fennel to grow this year. I can't wait to give it a try! I love the look of these thinnings. I'm sure they were tasty.
ReplyDeleteThis is interesting, I've never grown fennel before. I'll have to try it one of these days.
ReplyDeleteBTW have you try to grow Rocoto hot peppers before? I've gone through half a pack of seeds already and nothing germinates, I got the seeds fro SSE and it says 65% germination rate as of 2009. I'm about to give up, few more seeds left to go and I'm done.
Nice looking fennel plants, ours never do that well but we keep growing them. The grandson thinks that is where licorice comes from and loves to nibble on the fronds so we call it the licorice plant.:)
ReplyDeleteMac, Hmm, actually, Rocotos are one of the few chiles that I haven't grown from seed, I've always been able to find live plants, so I don't know if they are any fussier than other chiles. All chiles like heat to help them germinate, about 80F to 85F. I found a great website that has lots of great tips for starting chile plants - http://www.ecoseeds.com/Pepper.growing.tips.html. They say you should avoid potting soils that are high in peat moss, apparently the peat moss may inhibit germination. And you might also want to use distilled water since the chlorine in tap water or the minerals in well water may damage young seedlings. I've been using rain water and my potting soil is one that they don't like, but so far my chiles are doing ok. I think the water is important though, I ruined a lot of chile seedlings last year because I used softened water on them.
ReplyDeleteMr H., It is a pretty fennel plant and well worth growing just for that. I've found it to be more aromatic than other fennels I've grown so if you love that licorice flavor you might like the red fennel. I wonder if the Red fennel would do better for you, it's a Danish variety that is supposed to be very cold hardy. I got my seeds from Adaptive Seeds.
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