Monday, July 1, 2019

Harvest Monday - 1 July 2019

This week it finally started becoming summer-like. We reached 90 F (38 C) on Friday. This was followed by a short but intense thunderstorm on Saturday night, which not only cooled things off but also flattened my prized flour corn patch. It's a real pain to straighten out the stalks again. Fortunately that was the extent of the damage.

The warmth has jazzed up many of the crops we've had our eyes on. The first broccoli head was harvested. It's Blue Wind, which is always the earliest of the three varieties I grow.

Blue Wind broccoli
The first small picking of edible-podded peas was achieved. This is something we really look forward to.

L.: Avalanche (snow), R: Super Sugar Snap
Last year I started six caraway plants from seed. They really didn't do much that year, but this year they were among the first plants to emerge in spring, and really took off. Flowers formed very quickly on tall stalks. Tiny pollinators seem to love the small white flowers.

Caraway plants flowering in herb garden
This week the green seeds had plumped-up, so I cut them and will dry them indoors. I sampled a few, and they have the intense nutty flavor I like so much.

Caraway seeds on stalks
It's been the best year for cilantro for us, but they were starting to bolt, so we cut most of the crop, over a pound. I replanted two more short rows in the shadiest bed, hoping they will grow despite summer heat.

Cilantro
Continuing harvests this week were mixed greens and the last of the radishes, slightly woody.


And strawberries.


That's the report for this week. Thanks for reading, and as always thanks to Dave at HappyAcres.blog for hosting Harvest Monday.

8 comments:

  1. What nice harvests. Look at those strawberries.

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  2. That's too bad about the corn, but good you could get it straightened. I had winds last week that mowed down a whole row of tomato cages. I got them straightened up too and without damage. It's always something! I've never tried growing caraway but I do use the seeds. I've grown fennel for seeds and the pollinators love that too.

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    1. Yeah, straightening the corn turned out to be a real pain. Bet I'm the only person in the world that does the "Florida Wave" method to corn! You should try growing a few caraway plants; they really are attractive and useful too.

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  3. What beautifull strawberries! Mine pretend to grow and wither and die when i look away... They seem to dry out before the are ripe...

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  4. How fun growing caraway! I tried to grow cumin last year as we use it quite a bit. It was a big flop, but that may have been mainly my fault...I'll try again at some point.

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    1. I've tried growing cumin for 3 years now with no success. The plants are wispy, then they suddenly die.

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