Harvest Monday - 27 June 2022

Welcome to another Harvest Monday update from Eight Gate Farm. The weather has warmed, and the produce is finally starting to roll in. We had several new harvests this week. 

First up is peas. We got three generous pickings of this variety, Super Sugar Snap. It is productive and resistant to powdery mildew. But the vines get very tall!

Super Sugar Snap peas

The snow pea "Avalanche" came in a few days later. This variety has much shorter vines, but I still trellis them.

Avalanche snow peas

I took the first kohlrabi. The larger one had split for some reason, which has never happened before, but it was still nice and crisp and tasty. We added the greens to our breakfast smoothies.

Kolibri kohlrabi

I cut the first head of iceberg lettuce. I love iceberg despite it not being fashionable in the culinary world.

Iceberg lettuce

This was supposed to be iceberg, but turned out to be some type of frizzy lettuce. It was starting to bolt.

Not iceberg lettuce

The last new harvest was a handful of parsley. I've struggled to grow parsley in recent years, but this year I planted it in one of the raised beds instead of the herb garden, and it's doing very well. Better soil. It is the flat-leaf "Italian" type, which I prefer to the curly variety.

Italian parsley

For continuing harvests, I cut all the remaining garlic scapes. Funny story. When we were recently in California, we had a picnic lunch at a farm/winery. We bumped into a woman who was there picking up her CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) box. She was very puzzled about the garlic scapes she found in the box. We proceeded to bend her ear for 15 minutes about all the uses of scapes. She left bewildered enlightened.

Garlic scapes

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

Harvest Monday - 20 June 2022

Hello again from Eight Gate Farm. Here it is, almost summer, and this morning dawned 45 F. (~7.2 C.). Good for brassicas, greens, and peas, but not for the solanacea and squash. Can't have it all I guess.

There was just one new harvest this week. This is the first of several cuttings of garlic scapes.

Hardneck garlic scapes.

 I picked all the remaining bok choy. They had not bolted, but the kohlrabi was encroaching. This is "Brisk Green," a larger variety.

'Brisk Green' bok choy

And this is "Asian Delight," a white-stemmed baby variety.

'Asian Delight' bok choy

The Kitchen Goddess then made an adaptation of a "Poke Bowl," except on a plate, and with the ahi tuna lightly seared on the charcoal grill instead of purely raw. Some scapes were also grilled and added, along with our bok choy and radishes. A homemade garlic and chile paste aioli was drizzled on top. Very delicious.

Poke "bowl"

Last year we had a bumper crop of onions, and we've been enjoying them ever since. On Saturday TKG made a dish that called for some, so I paid a visit to our "stores." I found that quite a few were sprouting. So on Sunday we did a rescue operation. We sorted through them, discarding the ones that were beyond salvage. Some were still quite okay. The rest were peeled, chopped, and frozen flat, then placed into ziploc bags. This should last us until the harvest comes in again.

Chopped onions ready for freezer

Onions still usable fresh

Lastly, in Wildlife Notes, we were having our coffee early one morning on the screened porch, when TKG looked up and spotted a fawn with the "zoomies," as she called it. After much exercise, it was time to recharge the batteries, courtesy of Mom. Picture was taken through the screen so as not to disturb them, but it still came out really well, and the experience made our day.

White-tailed doe and fawn

It's nice to live in a mostly rural area.

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

Harvest Monday - 13 June 2022

Hello again from Eight Gate Farm. We're back from a week in the San Francisco Bay Area, to attend my niece's wedding celebration, twice postponed due to COVID concerns. We added some days to justify flying all that way. It was a lovely time and we had a lot of fun. Of course, any gardener knows that going away in the peak gardening season is a problem. The Kitchen Goddess's mom watched the house for us, and did the best she could, but we came back to out-of-control weeds in some areas. It's funny how your crops get so much bigger when you aren't staring at them every day!

The arugula had bolted during our absence, so we took it all. This will keep us supplied for quite awhile.

Arugula

The spinach was also bolting. When I was a lad creamed spinach was my favorite vegetable dish, and TKG made some for me with this haul. Yum!

Spinach

We got a first picking from the salad mix rows. This is "European Mesclun Mix" from Baker Creek.

Mesclun

And this is "Rocky Top Mix," also from Baker Creek.

Lettuce mix

They look mostly alike; the difference is the mesclun mix has brassicas. Regardless, we are officially in salad season and we're very happy about it!

Some years ago I found an iris plant mysteriously growing on the edge of our woods. I dug it up and transplanted it closer to the house. It doesn't blossom every year, but when it does it rewards us with stunning flowers.

Iris

The stately Eastern White Pine is ubiquitous in the Northeast, and is famous for producing large quantities of sticky green pollen this time of year. We thought it was over, but while we were gone the trees decided to really outdo themselves. We saw pictures of pollen clouds that looked like smoke drifting over the highways. Our screened porch was blanketed on our return.

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