Monday, June 22, 2015

Harvest Monday: June 22, 2015

Left to right: peas, lacinato kale, beet greens, broccoli greens, broccoli heads, rainbow chard, onion tops.

This week was primarily still just greens but with the exciting new addition of peas and broccoli florets! They were delicious and went into a lentil pasta primavera along with the kale and beet greens. I love deciding what's for dinner from what needs picked. May it continue!


Now you see it................................................................................. now you don't!

When I was harvesting the broccoli I was expecting the stems to be tough enough to have to really snip hard with my shears. Nope, sliced like butter. And, oh man, what that broccoli sweet and tender! Not one trace of bitter. I am trying to figure out how I can get another bed in over at the barn garden so I can grow more broccoli as a fall crop as well as peas. About the peas, this spring was an experiment with intensive planting using pea brush. What I liked was it stayed well contained and it did seem to work well but I just don't think it's for me. I find picking like a scavenger hunt because of the density. Not a fan. So, I am going to find a spot to plant a fall crop of peas to put in the freezer for winter.

Unrelated to harvesting, we finally got the pole bean support up just in time for the plants to start sending up searching vines.



And there has been a mysterious death in the corn patch! As you can see below, it looks like someone snipped the plant off. No other plants were harmed and I saw no signs of insects. Strange. While I was a bit bummed, I took this opportunity to spy on root development...



Cool, huh? Those are some happy roots! Too bad the plant got shanked over night.


Well, have a good week fellow growers!



This post was shared on Harvest Monday at Daphne's Dandelions.

10 comments:

  1. Are you a BTE gardener? I saw the woodchips :)

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    1. I guess you could say I am but with many other kinds of styles mixed in. Call me a gardening mutt ;-) From the spiritual perspective I am for sure, I greatly respect that I am merely a garden tender and God is the true gardener. I am just in awe of the growth this year and it has had a lot with the fact that I have just trusted and listened I believe. Like the potatoes in hay bales... that was a total God given idea which worked way better than I even imagined.

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  2. I wonder if it was a bird doing that to your corn. Usually I think of them doing that kind of thing earlier in the spring. Not now. And those are some huge beet greens. They are a large as your chard.

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    1. I'm really not sure... maybe a chipmunk? And, yes I am having a hard time keeping the beet greens under control, they are just crazy big!

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  3. Just discovered your blog - thanks so much for sharing. Isn't it exciting each week as something new is ready to harvest for the first time? So sorry about your corn. It is a pretty thick little stock- maybe a crow clipped it off? But as you said, the root s look great. That's a promising sign for the rest of your crop.

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    1. Welcome! Yes, those roots are just amazing! I am growing them in a free form raised bed about 10 inches tall and I don't walk on it at all so the soil is very loose. Any of the weeds I pull out have beautiful little roots!

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  4. Broccoli from the garden is wonderful, isn't it? The first time I cooked it, I made the mistake of cooking it for the same time that I usually do the shop bought stuff...now I know better.

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    1. Yes, the fresh young broccoli barely needs any cooking at all!

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  5. "I love deciding what's for dinner from what needs picked." So true! I take pleasure in cooking and baking that which is in season, whether it's growing in my own backyard or available at the farmers market.

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