The harvests reached a late winter crescendo this week. We've had a run of beautiful warm and dry weather that has pushed a lot of the overwintered veggies to the point of harvest now or it's compost.
First into the harvest basket this weekend was all of the Diamante Celeriac. This bunch weighed in at 5.4 pounds as shown. I toss the leafy celeriac stems into the compost because they are too bitter for my taste.
This basket contains another harvest of Tronchuda Beira shoots on the left and the flowering shoots from one of the Lacinato kale plants plus whatever leaves were still edible. The rest of the plant then hit the compost bin. I topped the other Lacinato kale plant which was slower to bolt than the first one and should be able to get one more harvest of side shoots and leaves before it goes into the bin.
The Tronchuda Beira plants still have some really nice leaves so I harvested a bunch of those as well.
And the Dorato di Asti celery is producing some excellent stalks. No signs of bolting at the moment, but I'm sure its time is coming soon.
My husband and I were quite the social butterflies this weekend, dinner out Friday and Saturday and a friend's birthday bash on Sunday so I haven't gotten around to using any of the harvest other than the celery. The celery has added a lovely crunch in my continuing nearly daily salads featuring the over achieving Golden Corn Salad. I had to clear out one row of the corn salad because it's starting to crowd the garlic too much and I'm afraid most of it went into the compost. That one row came to over 3 pounds of greens but I'm not including the total in my tally, just the 8 ounces that I kept.
Take a look at the temperatures we've been enjoying lately:
It's been absolutely delightful and is giving me a really bad case of spring fever - I want to get out and enjoy it to the max but I'm really limited at the moment because last week I absentmindedly missed a step on the stairs leading to my front door and sprained my ankle. Arrrgh, I can climb a 19,341 foot mountain but I can't negotiate my front steps! At least I've been able to ditch the crutches and I can finally hobble around the garden to do some harvesting and light work.
Here's the harvests for the past week:
Apollo broccoli (the last few little shoots) - 6.1 oz.
Dorato di Asti celery - 1 lb., 2 oz.
Diamante celeriac - 5 lb., 6.1 oz.
Tronchuda Beira shoots - 11.7 oz.
Tronchuda Beira leaves - 1 lb., 10.7 oz.
Lacinato kale shoots - 10.9 oz.
Lacinato kale leaves - 10 oz.
Golden Corn Salad - 8.2 oz.
The total harvests for the week were - 13 lb., 13.4 oz.
Which brings the total harvests for the year up to - 36 lb., 3.2 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.
I dream of weather in the 70s. We are supposed to be in the 30s most of the week, with nights in the teens. But I think it will warm up after that and I can finally plant my peas.
ReplyDeleteMouth-watering post Michelle, it all looks so good. The Diamante Celeriac looks interesting too and I can kind of smell them from here. My harvest season has already begun but it is from my veranda, outside I have heavy snowfall...not very pleasant.
ReplyDeleteMy tomatoes didn't stop at 55 I'm afraid, I know I'm hopeless. You can see the list here. It is in my native tongue.:-)
http://tyras-potager.blogspot.se/2013/03/tomatsorter-2013.html
Your picture of the lacinato kale reminds me I intended to similarly harvest the usable buds and leaves and compost the remaining parts - as my plants are bolting too. Ran out of time and energy this weekend, and then forgot when I did have the time.
ReplyDeleteWatch out for those steps... they get you everytime. ;)
Nice harvest, Michelle. The Tronchuda Beira is interesting, sort of looks like collards or a Pac Choi leaf, particularly the stem. The collard stems are fibrous and really not edible. These look more like Choi stems. Are they edible? No warm Spring smells here yet (unless you like the smell of rubber heat mats, like I do).
ReplyDeleteChoi on steroids! The stems are delicious, crunchy and cabbagy tasting, not fibrous unless they are old. I like to munch them both raw and cooked.
DeleteWonderful harvest!
ReplyDeleteThat is the prettiest celery!
Happy Gardening!
Lea
Lea's Menagerie
Wow someone who can actually achieve a celeriac harvest!
ReplyDeleteIt does take a looong time.
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