Harvest Monday - July 4, 2016

Whoa! It's July already, summer is starting to fly by. I cleared out most of the spring veggies last week including the last of the carrots.

Purple Sun and Nelson Carrots

Rotild Carrots

There's a few heads of lettuce left to size up. The weather has cooled off quite a bit the last few days so I may get to wait a bit longer to harvest the last of them and they are also getting a bit of protection from the sun under a tunnel of lightweight Agribon fabric.

Ruby Gem Romaine and Manoa Crisphead

And the spring sown (March 2) celery is producing lots of big crunchy stalks that I harvest on a cut and come again basis. The celery plants are in a part of the garden where I don't need to clear them out so they get to stay until they bolt or don't produce good stalks anymore. I really enjoy the crunch of the stalks in salads. One salad that they livened up this week was made with some Purgatory beans and roasted sweet red peppers from the freezer. I used one of the last Zebrune shallots from last year in that salad. I'm really impressed with the keeping quality of the Zebrune shallots.

Pink Plume Celery

The bush snap beans have started producing a nice steady flow of beans.

The first varieties to produce were Roc d'Or and Red Swan.

Then Royalty Purple Pod, Rolande Filet, and Slenderette joined in. There's only a few of the Slenderette beans coming from the single plant that germinated and survived.

Red Swan,
 Rolande Filet, Roc d'Or, Slenderette, Royalty Purple Pod,
Romanesco zucchini

The Romanesco zucchini is producing some beautiful large firm fruits, one every few days so the quantity is quite manageable.

Romanesco Zucchini

I keep finding an occasional bolting onion like this Rossa Savonese which was very nice in spite of the tough central stalk. I used this in a stir fry done in a basket on the BBQ along with some zucchini and beans.

Rossa Savonese

These two onions were showing no signs of bolting. I pulled them to roast them whole on the BBQ. I cut them nearly in quarters, cutting down to the roots but not through, put a fresh bay leaf and a pat of butter  inside, wrapped each individually in heavy duty foil with sprigs of fresh thyme, olive oil, salt and pepper. They they roasted until they were bubbling hot and buttery tender.

Tropea Rossa Tonda and Rossa Piatta d'Italia Onions

Mouse Melons

The cute little Mouse Melons are barely starting to produce, just a few and I'm not sure if I'm sharing with critters or not. I would love to get a lot more of these, they are crunchy and taste like lemony cucumbers. They would be a great addition to a salad or just for munching raw.

Ripe Coriander Seeds

The coriander seeds aren't in the tally, but it's nice to show some of the harvests that don't get into the tally. I let cilantro volunteer around the garden and allow it to bolt and set seeds if the plants aren't in the way. I think the seeds have far more flavor when they are harvested ripe but not dry. The can be used while they are still green or allowed to dry. Dried green coriander has a lot more flavor than seeds that are allowed to dry on the plants.

There were a few harvests that didn't get photographed including a bit of broccoli, a lot of capers, and more celery and zucchini.

Here's the detail of the harvests for the past week:

Red Swan beans - 6.6 oz.
Roc d'Or beans - 10.2 oz.
Rolande Filet beans - 5.2 oz.
Royalty Purple Pod beans - 6.1 oz.
Slenderette beans - 2.2 oz.
Batavia broccoli - 5.9 oz.
Apollo brokali - 2.1 oz.
Capers - 1.2 lb.
Nelson carrots - 12 oz.
Purple Sun carrots - 8.9 oz.
Pusa Rudhira Red carrots - 1.1 oz.
Rotild carrots - 1.6 lb.
Pink Plume celery - 15 oz.
Mouse Melon cucumbers - .3 oz.
Manoa Crisphead lettuce - 7.9 oz.
Ruby Gem Romaine lettuce - 11 oz.
Rossa Piatta d'Italia onion - 15.6 oz.
Rossa Savonese onion - 9.5 oz.
Tropea Rossa Tonda onion - 1.4 oz.
Romanesco zucchini - 1.3 lb.

Total harvests for the week - 13.5 pounds (6.1 kg.)
2016 YTD - 342 pounds (154.7 kg.)

Harvest Monday is hosted by Dave on his blog Our Happy Acres, head on over there to see what other garden bloggers have been harvesting lately.