Monday, July 30, 2012

Harvest Monday - July 30, 2012

I didn't do a lot of harvesting in the past week because the garden is in a bit of a lull between crops. The sugar snap peas are gone, the filet beans are pooping out, the lettuce is starting to bolt, and there's just a trickle of broccoli shoots forming. Even if it weren't for the lull I wasn't around for much of the week because my husband and I were playing hooky tackling a big hike (forgive me for bragging).


Back home, much closer to sea level, I caught up on the harvests but only managed to take one photograph of a couple of extra large scallions and the first edible Persian cucumber (the first ones became overgrown in my absence so I gave them to the chickens).


The cucumber was sliced very thinly and incorporated into a salad with some of the bolting lettuce (still sweet but perhaps the soak in ice water helped), and the scallions which I grilled and chopped, along with a grilled peach and nectarine, and some smoked local wild salmon.

I also harvested a number of zucchini (thank goodness none of them turned into boats in my absence) and used a bunch of them to prepare one of my husband's favorite zucchini preparations - Zucchini in Agrodolce. We had that along with some deviled eggs my way - with chopped capers, dijon mustard, olive oil, and lemon juice, with a sprinkle of ground espelette pepper. That along with some melon and prosciutto was dinner on Saturday.

The capers keep trickling in, the total harvest is up to 2.7 pounds of buds so far. I hope to be able to bring in 3 pounds of capers this year and then I'll let the plants blossom and set some berries so that I can collect some fresh seeds to share.

Here's the harvest totals for the past week:

Rolande filet beans - 6.6 oz.
Apollo broccoli - 5.6 oz.
Capers - 2.6 oz.
Green Fingers Persian cucumber - 2.5 oz.
Sweetie Baby romaine (definitely not a baby anymore) - 1 lb., 5.2 oz
Parade Scallions - 5.9 oz.
Da Fiore Zucchini - 1 lb., 6.5 oz.

The total harvests for the week came to - 4 lb., 2.9 oz.
Which brings the yearly total up to - 82 lb., 15.2 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.

11 comments:

  1. Even with that you got a decent harvest. I'm going to be so sad when cucumber season is over. They taste so good.

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  2. Yummy harvest! I'm loving cucumbers this time of year!

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  3. Love the sounds of that zucchini recipe. Going to have to try that soon! It turned out well for you that the garden is in a lull - allowed you to get away without too much getting away from you in your absence.

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  4. Sometimes the garden lulls are little blessings in disguise! Congrats on great harvests, regardless :-)

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  5. How interesting growing capers. Do they take a long time to mature even to the bud stage. I love trying new things. This year it is celery and it is doing fabulous. Never thought it would grow here in zone 4.

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    1. I tried celery for the first time last year, it was easier to grow than I had anticipated and tastier than the store bought stuff. To answer your question, capers grow on a shrub, the plants start producing flower buds (the capers) in the late spring and produce into the fall. It takes a few years to bring a new caper bush into production. In zone 4 you would have to grow them in containers and protect them from freezing in the winter, they are only hardy down to about 18°F for brief periods and that will knock them down to soil level.

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    2. Thanks, how interesting, I think it would be fun to try. Yes the celery I am growing has so much more flavor than the store bought. I will definitely grow it another year.

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  6. Sounds like a nice, easy dinner to have just back from a trip. The zucchini recipe sounds good, but I also like your way with deviled eggs. Since I would have anchovies left over, it would be tempting to add one to the eggs.

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    1. Anchovies, yes! I often add a little good canned tuna to the mix also.

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  7. Nice harvest, that cuke looks good.

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  8. I would say that hike is worth bragging about! It's great that the squash behaved while you were gone.

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