Harvest Monday - 30 May 2022

Here's another Harvest Monday update from Eight Gate Farm. With a big push this week, the gardens are almost completely planted. All the peppers, eggplants, cucumbers, zucchini, winter squash, and melons were set out. Oh, and two types of basil (Thai and Genovese). I am still planning to put in another crop of sweet corn in mid-June, but that's all that remains.

For harvests, a white-stemmed variety of bok choi, called Asian Delight, was taken. These went right away into a really nice beef stir-fry.

Asian Delight bok choi

The Kitchen Goddess picked chive flowers and a few sprigs of tarragon to make flavored vinegar. For some reason we were out of white vinegar, so she used apple cider vinegar.

Chive flowers and tarragon

For continuing harvests, we cut more spinach.

Overwintered spinach

More arugula.

Arugula

And more radishes.

Radishes

And thus, more salads!

In non-harvest tidbits, the garlic is looking really strong this year, and I have high hopes.

Garlic plants

Last year I bought two mini-greenhouses at a "big lots" (i.e. overstock) store. I paid something like $23 each. I was amused to see the same unit in a catalog for Territorial Seed Company for ~$120! These have been the perfect solution to hardening off transplants--no more dragging the trays outdoors and indoors. Just zip the front flaps, and the plants are protected from cold temperatures (within reason of course). Roll them up when it's warm. I've located them just outside the sunroom, where I start all my seeds. Pro tip: make sure to tie them down so they won't blow over, as they are very light.

Inexpensive mini-greenhouses

That's all for this week. Thanks for reading, and thanks once again to Dave at HappyAcres.blog for hosting Harvest Monday.

Harvest Monday - 23 May 2022

Hello again from Eight Gate Farm in southern New Hampshire, USA! We finally have some harvests to report, so I'll jump right into them.

First up is arugula (rocket, roquette etc.) I planted a short row in the lettuce patch back on April 11, and while not quite as speedy as I hoped, we still got a nice amount in the first picking.

Arugula

I planted a few rows of spinach toward the end of the season last year, but they germinated poorly. I never pulled what did come up, and didn't protect it at all over the winter. So it was nice to get some now. I guess whatever snow cover we had was sufficient. I've thus learned spinach is very hardy even in our severe climate.

Overwintered spinach

I mistakenly planted twice the amount of radishes than I planned for. We pulled the first ones this week. On the small side, but good.

Radishes

So with all the above we greatly enjoyed our first home-grown salad of the season! We really like how the spicy arugula compliments the mild flavor of the spinach.

Another welcome crop was the first picking of Asian greens. These were transplanted on May 1. This year I covered them from the moment they went in the ground, and while flea beetle damage is not absent, it's a lot less than previously. The Kitchen Goddess made a delicious egg-drop soup with them.

'Brisk Green' bok choi

The asparagus is not producing as much as in the past, and I'm thinking of relocating the beds next year. Too much encroachment from the raspberries may be partly at fault. At any rate, we've been picking quantities like this every 3 days or so starting a few weeks ago. 

Asparagus

That's it for this week. Thanks for reading, and thanks again to Dave at happyacres.blog for continuing to host Harvest Monday.