Harvest Monday, July 16, 2012

The bean and sugar snap pea harvests peaked this past week. I wasn't able to harvest the beans in a timely manner the weekend before last so the harvest on Monday was a big one featuring beans that had grown beyond the "filet" size but which are still good tasting. The sugar snap peas have been maturing in quick succession and are almost done now. This is the first time that I've planted snow and snap peas for such a late harvest. I got a good crop from the plants but the peas did seem to come in almost all at once. Next year I'll be able to get back to my usual early spring planting times which will allow a more leisurely paced harvest.

Super Sugar Snap peas and Rolande "filet" beans

The Sweetie Baby romaine lettuces are also sizing up in record time and are just starting to bolt. We've been eating a lot of salad lately.

Sweetie Baby romaine lettuce

The Lark's Tongue kale is growing like a weed! Fortunately, it tastes much better than any weed that I've tried to eat. I used this bunch (three leaves!) in a raw kale salad with a simple dressing of lemon juice, olive oil, salt, and pepper. The salad was fortified with zante currants, roasted salted sunflower seeds, and slivers of fresh sweet Blenheim apricots. I allowed the chopped kale to sit dressed in the refrigerator for a couple of hours to soften a bit before I added the seeds and apricots. The salad was delicious and my husband enjoyed leftovers just as much after the salad marinated for a few more hours in the fridge.

Lark's Tongue kale

Lark's Tongue kale

Rolande filet beans picked at the proper size and
Super Sugar Snap peas

The zucchini is starting to produce! I always get excited about the first zucchini, it's been such a long time since the final harvest from the garden last year and I almost never buy zucchini, even from the farmer's market. This lone zuke weighed in at 4 ounces, big enough to slice and roast with some asparagus and broccoli. The rest of the zucchini and the blossoms will go into the first Scarpaccia (savory zucchini tart) of the season.

There's still a few shoots of the Apollo broccoli trickling in and the caper harvests continue but are starting to slow a bit. The snow peas are gone, I pulled all the plants and gave them to the chickens to peck at, they love it. I hope that I will get to show off the first cucumber in the next week or so, keep your fingers crossed that the rats don't find them first...

Here's the harvest totals for the past week:

Rolande filet beans - 4 lb., 2.9 oz.
Apollo broccoli - 6.9 oz.
Capers - 3.6 oz.
Lark's Tongue kale - 10.8 oz.
Sweetie Baby romaine lettuce - 2 lb., 4.6 oz.
Super Sugar Snap peas - 2 lb., 11.4 oz.
Da Fiore zucchini - 1 lb.
Zucchini blossoms - 1.1 oz.

The total harvests for the week came to 11 lb., 9.3 oz.
Which brings the total harvests for the year to 71 lb., 9.7 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.