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Monday, June 6, 2011

Harvest Monday - June 5, 2011

Here's the first beet harvest of the year - Golden Beets from Renee's Garden Seeds and Chioggia Beets. The Golden Beets from Renee's are the best golden variety that I've grown in the last few years. The seeds germinate well, the greens are tender, the roots size up quickly and are well shaped, and the beets are golden to the tender core. Most importantly, they are mild tasting and delicious - winners! The Chioggia beets have been favorites for a long time and I've gotten good results with seeds from a variety of sources.


The leaves from this harvest were incredibly pristine and tender and I used them right away to make individual crustless beet green quiches. Yum, those were really good - I really need to write up that recipe before I forget how I did it. Once I get around to it I'll post the recipe. The beet greens are accounted for separately in the harvest totals shown below.


The snow peas are starting to produce in relative abundance now. I do love the snow peas but I think that sugar snap peas are my favorite pea for their sweetness and incredible yields. In my previous post about how I use snap peas I showed a 3.75 pound basketful of them that I harvested on May 31. And then I harvested another 2.75 pounds of snap peas on June 3. In that same period of time I harvested about 1.3 pounds of snow peas from an equal number of plants. In terms of just sheer volume the snap peas win hands down, but I also love the sweet crunch of snap peas and I treasure the delicious pickles that I can make with them. Four pounds of the snap pea harvest have been turned into pickles so far. Neither the snap peas nor the snow peas are showing signs of powdery mildew yet, and the pea shoots are also PM free but unfortunately are becoming infested with spider mites.


Here's the harvest totals for the last two weeks:

Renee's Golden Beets - 10.9 oz.
Chioggia Beets - 11.2 oz.
Beet Greens - 1 lb., 10 oz.
Piracicaba Broccoli - 13.8 oz.
Pixie Baby Cabbage - 8 lb., 7 oz. (3 heads)
Caper buds - 4.5 oz.
Fava Beans - 15 lb., 3 oz. (the final harvest)
Super Sugar Snap Peas - 9 lb., 7 oz.
Oregon Giant Snow Peas - 1 lb., 10 oz.
Snow Pea Shoots - 7.9 oz.

The total harvests for the past two weeks were - 39 lb., 6 oz.
The total harvests for the year have been - 183 lb., 10 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.

19 comments:

  1. Those beets look beautiful!!!

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  2. How do you know when you have spider mites?

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  3. Beautiful beets and snow peas. I don't have enough snap peas to pickle, the birds graciously left me with 3 green snap pea seedlings and I'm so happy them, next year I shall coverup my peas until they are tall enough to fend for themselves.

    On a happy note, the crimson favas are setting pods, yippee!

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  4. The color of the beets is fantastic! Great photos. Hope they taste as good as they look.

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  5. Beautiful beets! And yes, please post that beet green quiche recipe. Sounds delicious.

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  6. I've never tried golden beets. If they are mild tasting I need to give them a try. My wife is not fond of the entire beet family (including chard). I do grow a few red beets for me though. And chard, lots of chard.

    Now peas are another story. Better grown in the fall here, but it seems every critter in the county likes them. I'm glad you are enjoying yours - it sounds like the snap peas are a big winner in your garden!

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  7. Here in England we call them beetroots. I just love the way you have arranged the colours!

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  8. Sorry about the spider mites- but your harvest is still looking great~

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  9. Peggie, the leaves of plants that are infested with spider mites get a fine white stippling and may start to yellow. If you look very closely (a hand lens helps) you can see the tiny red mites (less than 1/20 of an inch), usually on the undersides of the leaves. Sometimes they will spin a fine webbing. Eventually the leaves get brown, dried out and they die. Here's a link to a website with lots of good info about them : http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7405.html

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  10. BayDirt, I'll have the recipe posted sometime tomorrow!

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  11. Thanks everyone for the great comments! Now I need to get out to the garden and do some catching up...

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  12. Seems there's always something 'sharing' the harvest. For me, it's flea beetles: a new friend for a new garden. I love your rainbow beet presentation.

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  13. Lovely harvests! I enjoy the golden beets more than the red beets but seem to keep planting both :)

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  14. Your beets and photos are absolutely beautiful! That is one great harvest! Boy I wish that I had that many peas to harvest.

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  15. Beautiful beets, Michelle! I love chioggia as well and I'm looking forward to trying my golden beets this summer. Last year, I couldn't get them to germinate but luckily, this year they did.

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  16. Nice harvest, lovely photos!

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  17. Those beets of yours are beautiful..I only harvested two of mine..it's the first time I got a beet harvest and I'm so proud and they were good. I'm planning on planting more of them. :o)

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  18. I've had Mammoth Melting (a snowpea) out produce the two snap peas I was growing that year. That snow pea can produce amazing amounts, but it does take over the world. And its peas are larger than many snowpeas. I'm not sure if Mammoth is a description of the pea or the plant. I quit growing it because I couldn't walk down the path whenever I grew it. Productive, but annoying.

    And your beets are beautiful. I so wish I liked them, because I love the look of beets. But sadly I hate them. I am growing some for my neighbors this year though. But they aren't very happy.

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  19. These pictures are gorgeous! I love how you arrange your harvests! :) I don't eat beets very often, but those pictures make them look amazing!

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