Harvest Monday - January 13, 2014

Harvests have been typically light for January so I didn't bother with a Harvest Monday post last week. What I have been harvesting has been very good.

Some of the carrots are sizing up and are looking better than expected after being repeatedly infested with carrot root aphids (a thorough application of Pyganic has taken care of that). There's a few Sugarsnax on the right and the rest are from a mix named Circus Circus from Renee's Garden Seeds. The white carrots are the quickest of the mix to size up, those are White Satin and a favorite of the the carrot thief.

The lacinato kale is holding up well and is not too infested with aphids. I did toss a few of the oldest leaves that were becoming covered with powdery mildew but the newer leaves look clean.

The fall/winter sowing of Di Ciccio broccoli is putting out some really good shoots, no doubt because of our current "summer in winter" weather.

Look at the nice fat stalks on those shoots.

I also harvested a few stalks of celery that neither made it in front of the camera nor onto the scale. The celery has been nice and crunchy and sweet, although not as big as the usual storebought stuff, but then it's an entirely different variety than the usual commercially grown stuff.

Here's the weather chart for the past week, it's reflecting the cool down that we experienced from the week before. What it doesn't reflect is the complete lack of rain. It's scary dry now and I'm eyeing parts of the ornamental plantings that I can tear out so that I can save water. The vegetable garden is on a watering schedule that is just a bit less frequent than the summer schedule. Scary dry...

Here's the harvests for the past two weeks:

Di Ciccio broccoli - 1 lb., 15.1 oz.
Circus Circus carrots - 7.3 oz.
Sugarsnax carrots - 1.7 oz.
Lacinato kale - 18.2 oz.

The total harvests for the past two weeks (and the new year) came to - 3 lb., 10.3 oz.

I'll end this post with a refreshing visit to the coast. The surf was up and the sun was shining yesterday. Considering that I live a mere 10 miles from the coast I don't often get there to enjoy it other than my weekly volunteer gig at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. But the aquarium is on the bay and it's not the same experience as being where the full brunt of the Pacific beats the coastline. It's always a joy to get out to where the waves crash and the air is tinged with salt spray and the aroma of bird you-know-what...

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.