Harvest Monday - July 21, 2014

There were plenty of harvests this past week, but I didn't take a lot of photos. The beau coup zucchini harvests weren't photographed. Neither were the big bunches of greens that were harvested. I had just enough energy on Thursday to hover while my garden angel Jamaica trimmed and cleared and harvested. She volunteered to help out when she learned that my gardening activities were going to be very restricted for a few weeks. She came by on Thursday morning and trimmed back the tomato shoots that were out of my reach. Then she pulled out the San Pasquale zucchini. The nit picky task of plucking bunches of baby greens fell to her also. The chard was tamed and the bush beans were plucked. It was a very productive morning and I had a lot of fun with her in the garden. But I didn't take my camera into the garden and when it came time to tally the haul all I had the energy for was to weigh it, forget the photos. Jamaica got a bag of green beans, a couple of big bunches of chard, and some zucchini for her efforts (I hope that was enough).

My energy level is increasing day by day so I'm back to taking a few photos. The first lovely cucumbers were photographed. These were the first Tasty Treat cucumbers that looked as they should. The first Garden Oasis cucumbers were harvested also, but not photographed.

The Di Ciccio broccoli is starting to produce in earnest. Here's the third main head and a bunch of beautiful side shoots from the first plant that produced a main head last week. The first two heads were cut into florets and slow cooked with some pancetta and garlic, that was easy and tasty.

I trimmed and weighed the Inchelium Red garlic. I probably should have dug it sooner. Some of the heads are huge and they should have a few more layers of enclosing skin for longest term storage, but I think they will do ok. I also trimmed and weighed the few Lorz Italian heads of garlic that developed. They are small but good and will be gone in no time.

And I tackled the task of cleaning the wheat. First I plucked all the heads off of the stalks.

Next I put them in a tatty old pillow case and then lightly pounded the contents, pillow case closed, with the flat side of my meat pounder. The pounder is not very heavy as it is made of aluminum.

Then I winnowed it clean by pouring it from a bowl into a large basket numerous times on a breezy afternoon. I ended up with enough wheat berries to fill a 1 liter jar, just over 2 pounds.

The Red Candy Apple onions are being plucked from their drying screen one by one and used in various dishes. One of my tasks for this week is to get those all trimmed and weighed and brought inside. And the Padron peppers are just barely starting to produce, a week of harvesting netted 1.5 ounces.

Once again, there wasn't much adventure going on in the kitchen, Dave tackled grilled chicken and grill basket zucchini & beans on Saturday. We had friends who dropped by complete meals on two occasions (incredible friends, we're so lucky!), and we ate a lot of leftovers.

Here's the harvests for the past week:

Speedy Arugula - 1 lb., 1 oz.
Royal Burgundy beans - 12.1 oz.
Slenderette beans - 1 lb., 11 oz.
Di Ciccio broccoli - 1 lb., 15 oz.
Tokyo Bekana napa cabbage - 1 lb., 4.8 oz.
Flamingo chard - 15.1 oz.
Golden chard - 1 lb., 4.8 oz.
Italian Silver Rib chard - 1 lb., 12.8 oz.
Peppermint Stick chard - 1 lb., 8.4 oz.
Garden Oasis cucumbers - 9.3 oz.
Tasty Treat cucumbers - 1 lb., 9.6 oz.
Inchelium Red garlic - 5 lb., 7.8 oz.
Lorz Italian garlic - 7.1 oz.
Portuguese kale (baby) - 3.3 oz.
Ruby Streaks mizuna - 4.2 oz.
Red Candy Apple onions - 3 lb., 1.3 oz.
Purple Pac Choi - 2.9 oz.
Padron Peppers - 1.5 oz.
Sonora Wheat - 2 lb., 2.1 oz.
Romanesco zucchini - 6 lb., 5.8 oz.
San Pasquale zucchini - 9.4 oz.

The total harvests for the past week were - 34 lb., 11. oz. (15.8 kg.)
Which brings the total harvests for 2014 up to - 372 lb., 15.7 oz. (169.2 kg.)

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.