Harvest Monday - 22 July 2013

If you are here you probably started at Daphne's Dandelions. With this post I am joining the Harvest Monday party and grateful for the opportunity to do so.

We've been picking zucchini for about a week now, from plants direct-seeded May 27. This variety is "Tigress F1" from Territorial. The fruit is tasty and attractive. The catalog says they are at their peak flavor when 7 to 8 inches. Some of those pictured are a little larger than that, so we'll see if it makes a difference. This particular pick yielded 8 cups (1.89 l).

Four plants fill up a 4x12 (1.22x3.66 m) bed, with some room around the edges for 12 pepper plants. This is the first year we have had any real production. Last year the Squash Vine Borers and Squash Bugs ruined the crop, as with the winter squash too. This year, in addition to substantially beefing up the soil, I am being vigilant about spraying with Pyrethrin and BT once a week. So far no signs of damage, but the season is still young. Keeping my fingers crossed, as I love Zucchini Smash! Recipe will be posted one of these days.

I direct-seeded all my lettuce on April 14. This is the last of the Green Ice and Red Romaine, both having bolted.

The variety New Red Sails still looks good, even into the 4th heat wave of the year. For the record, a heat wave in New England is defined as 3 consecutive days of 90+F (~32 C) temperatures. It helps that by this time of year this particular bed is mostly shaded. I grew 12 lettuce squares in total, with 4 plants per square. Next year I will probably halve that, since it really was too much lettuce for two people.

Beans have been harvested also for a week now. They were planted on May 17. Not all came up and some were cutwormed, so holes were filled until June 22. I planned 16 squares this year, less than last year since we still have some in the freezer. The purple variety is Velour, and is a filet-type or haricots verts. But can it still be vert if it's violet? Mais oui, it turns green when steamed. The larger beans will get french-cut before eating or freezing--that's the only way I like them. And boy do I like them.

The above was all Friday. On Sunday, more beans and zucchini:

A decent handful of chard:

 

Chard seems to have so much more payback than spinach. And as long as you don't mind the slight bitterness, a good substitute in my opinion.

 

We took some of the carrots where they were encroaching on the beets:

 

 

Some are kind of funky-looking. They are Danvers Half-long, and were planted April 17.

This is our first big harvest of beets:

These are Detroit Dark Red and Golden Touchstone. They too were planted April 17. Beets are the perfect crop--all parts are edible. Personally I don't like the root, but the greens are great.

On a whim I decided to pull up a shallot. The results surprised me, so we pulled up five of the six bulbs I planted April 13. The sixth was always weak so I'll leave it for awhile. I got the bulbs from Harris, at $8.25 for the set of six. It seemed steep. But each bulb produced 4 or 5 offspring, so it definitely was worth it. This is the first time I've grown shallots.

And some blueberries and red raspberries stolen from the birds!

So the above got turned into this by the Kitchen Goddess:

 

Then this:

 

And for the beet-lovers of the world, this:

So that's it for this weekend. Thanks for viewing, and again thanks to Daphne, our gracious hostess.