There wasn't much variety in the harvest basket last week. I had to cut a few clumps of baby lettuces because they were starting to compete with their brassica neighbors. My interplanting scheme seems to have worked well this time, the baby lettuces are sizing up just as the brassicas are spreading their leaves into their space.
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| Joker Crisphead and Three Heart Butterhead Lettuces |
Joker Crisphead is a fast grower so it took up much of the space in the basket.
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| Three Heart Butterhead Lettuce |
Three Heart Butterhead is a more petite sized lettuce. That's one baby head above that I've opened up a bit to show the heart, and a single leaf below.
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| Three Heart Butterhead Lettuce |
I suppose the shape of the leaf, with its three lobes, is where this lettuce got its name.
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| Extra Precoce Violetto Favas |
The fava bean harvests are hitting their peak now. I only had time to harvest one variety over the weekend and it was the largest single harvest yet, weighing in at over 11.5 pounds. We've been popping and peeling most of the favas for long term storage in the freezer but I selected some of the best specimens from that basketful to put on the BBQ yesterday. Grilling the whole beans is the easiest way to eat them and results in the least amount of waste because the entire bean, other than the strings that run down the sides, are edible and delicious. You just have to be sure to choose beans that aren't too mature with beans starting to bulge tightly in the pods.
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| Italian Flat Leaf Parsley |
I cleared out one section of a bed last week and collected a bunch of Italian Flat Leaf parsley. The primary variety of parsley that I've got going this spring is Cilician which has lately become my favorite. I cut a bunch of that also to try to show the difference. Both are flat leaf types but the Cilician is more delicate, the leaves are more finely textured, somewhat ferny looking and lighter in weight. It has the same parsley flavor but with added hints of nutmeg and citrus. I think I need to write up a spotlight post one of these days.
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| Cilician Parsley |
The only other harvest last week was a very small cutting of Batavia broccoli shoots that didn't get in front of the camera.
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.
Yum to the lettuce and those fava pods look so good! Mine never seem to get that large.
ReplyDeleteI grow two varieties of flat-leaf parsley, which are distinctly different, and people are often surprised that parsley varieties go beyond simply flat-leaf and curly.
Interspersing broccoli etc. with lettuce is a good idea, but we never really harvest whole heads of lettuce at once, so I think it might get crowded. I might try that next year. As it stands now, there is a whole lot of empty space in both the broccoli and lettuce beds!
ReplyDeleteGreat shot of that Three Heart Butterhead lettuce leaf! I'm growing it this year and I wondered where it got its name. I'll be looking forward to a writeup on the Cilician parsley. I have the Einfache Schnitt 3 seed from Adaptive but didn't get it started in time for spring planting. I should sow some now for fall and winter, since it is supposed to be extra cold hardy.
ReplyDeleteOur beans are just in flower at the moment.
ReplyDeleteWith limited garden space I've found that strategies for crowding the plants, knowing that some will come out before others, can use space efficiently. Interplanting lettuce with brassicas sounds like a good idea. I like to plant kohlrabi down the center of a raised bed, knowing that it will come out before the broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage on either side are mature.
ReplyDeleteNice lettuce harvest this week. Those favas look wonderful!!
ReplyDeleteYour grilled fava beans sounds amazing. I'm definitely planting some favas this fall since they overwinter so well here. Does parsley go to seed quickly in the heat? Cilantro always seems to go to seed in a blink of an eye in our heat.
ReplyDeleteParsley doesn't bolt as quickly as cilantro, but I find it more difficult to get started, especially in warmer weather. If I can get it started in the cooler weather of fall or in early winter it will last for months before it bolts.
DeleteWell, what next? You live on stable ground I hope?
ReplyDeleteI assume you're referring to the massive slide on Highway 1 at Mud Creek. That area has been sliding all winter long and just finally let go with a biggie. A local blogger, Big Sur Kate has been covering it all along, check out her blog here: https://bigsurkate.wordpress.com/
DeleteShe thinks there's more that's going to go there.
As for me, the ground here is much more stable and we got a lot less rain. Good for now!
Thanks. The aerial video is great.
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