My caper plants are continuing to provide new buds. Here's one of my largest harvests so far this season.
I hope that the current heat wave will really put the caper bushes into high production mode. So far I have harvested only 12.5 ounces of buds, well behind the 21 ounces that I had harvested by this date last year.
I spent far too much time schlepping back and forth to the SF bay area last week to have the rat damage to my car repaired so I haven't gotten around to harvesting the crappy garlic crop otherwise that would be included in this week's post as well.
Oh, I almost forgot, my scraggly little patch of Autumn Bliss raspberries produced a handful of berries that never got near the scale nor the camera. My husband is really lucky that I didn't scarf them all down while standing out in the berry patch, I was a really sweet girl and shared them with him.
Here's the harvest totals for the past week:
Piracicaba broccoli - 4.9 oz.
Pixie Baby cabbage - 4 lb., 10.5 oz.
Caper buds - 2.9 oz.
Super Sugar Snap peas - 1 lb., 15.3 oz.
Oregon Giant snow peas - 3 lb., 9.5 oz.
Strawberries (Seascape and Mara des Bois) - 2 oz.
Yellow Wonder strawberries - 1.5 oz.
The total harvests for the week were - 10 lb., 14.6 oz.
The total harvests for the year have been - 204 lb., 4.3 oz.
Harvest Monday is hosted by Daphne on her blog Daphne's Dandelions, head on over there to see what other garden bloggers have been harvesting lately.
Nice Harvest! Do you put the capers into some kind of brine?
ReplyDeleteEverything looks good and that's quite a harvest :o) I'd stick my chest out too :o)
ReplyDeleteAllison, thanks! I put the freshly harvested capers in a brine solution for 4 weeks and then they get packed into jars with some coarse sea salt and refrigerated where they will keep seemingly indefinitely.
ReplyDelete---
Gingerbreadshouse7 - Thank you!
Hey Michelle, Gardening is a challenge in a suburban lot just north of Toronto so I am pretty sure capers are out of the question up here. Most.promising this summer are some Tom Thumb peas and Bountiful bush beans. Trying out a few new Tomatoes this season- Bear Claw and Egg Yolk. Hail (ping pong ball size) didn't help the plants.
ReplyDeleteThose strawberries are pretty cool. Do they taste different?
ReplyDeleteI didn't get much of a raspberry harvest this Spring here in the Bay Area (RWC). I hope my Fall crop is better. Loving the heat and so is the garden :-)
ReplyDeleteYou pulled in more than I have.
ReplyDeleteYou're blessed.
Those pixie cabbages are pretty sweet. I am growing a small headed variety myself this year and the appeal of a little more manageable harvest sized heads is quite high for me since my daughter moved away to college last summer.
ReplyDeleteI am always in awe over your caper success.
Caper envy as usual, your dedicated hard work paid off handsomely.
ReplyDeleteNice cabbages and peas, none of my cabbage and broccoli have head up, I think our temp is too hot for them even under shady condition.
I dream of harvesting capers like those! My plants are doing really well, but it will be a while before they produce buds. I hope yours respond to the heat. We have real summer here too, at last. Will the Autumn Bliss raspberries produce again in autumn?
ReplyDeleteLovely harvest. I'm not sure the raspberries we get will see the scale this year. Since it is their first year they won't produce all that much. They are fall bearers though so will produce something at least.
ReplyDeleteHey Judi! Yeah, it might be just a tad too chilly for capers. :> Those are some interesting sounding tomatoes. Yikes, ping pong ball hail! At least you don't have an overpopulation of rats... Give my best to M & A. XOXO
ReplyDeleteShawn Ann, they do taste different, not as sugary sweet as regular strawberries and more aromatic, really tasty and easier to grow than regular strawberries.
ReplyDelete---
Liisa, I think our weird weather didn't help much with the raspberry harvest. The heat is nice for a change, the tomatoes seem to be growing by leaps and bounds now.
---
ZZ, I certainly am blessed. :)
---
kitsapFG, The Pixie cabbages have been real winners, quick to size up and very tasty, they have made excellent cole slaw and veggie braises.
---
Mac, I think it's more hard headed persistence so far as my capers go... That's disappointing that your cabbages and broccoli aren't producing. I have one broccoli variety that refuses to grow even though it hasn't been too hot (I wonder if broccoli can be day length sensitive, I'll have to do some research).
---
chaiselongue, Your plants are still babies, the harvests will come! I do believe that the raspberries will bear again in the autumn, so long as the rats don't attack the plants again...
---
Daphne, That's the most difficult part of starting a new garden from scratch, waiting for the fruit trees and vines to mature. I remember your berry harvests from your last garden, they were something to envy.
Is it a 15% brine solution and do you change it weekly? Richard did that last year and then we stored them in vermouth instead of sea salt. Tasty. I also love the beautiful flowers on our caper. Then we get the berries which we processed the same way.
ReplyDeleteHi Bracey, It is a 15% brine solution and this year I'm skipping the weekly brine change. I've been draining the capers from the brine after 4 weeks or so and then I pack them in some coarse sea salt and keep them in the fridge. Every time I brine a new batch (about twice a week) I shake the older batches a bit since the capers floating on the top of the brine don't cure as quickly as the ones fully immersed.
ReplyDeleteWell, as of today it appears the heat has receded, so I'm looking forward to non-bolting lettuce and kale again. I hope the tomatoes don't pout.
ReplyDeleteRat damage? Ugh ugh ugh. If you'd let us know you were down here, we could have gotten together.
Stefaneener, It would have been fun to get together, one of these days we'll have to manage it. The weather here today is just about perfect today, sunny but not too warm.
ReplyDelete