Harvest Monday - 16 June 2025

Well, we are finally getting into the swing of things here. I had several first harvests this week. Leading off is a new crop for us, frizee or curly endive. This variety is called "Rhodos," and it's doing well. We had some in a salad. The flavor is good, just a tiny bit bitter, and it's chewy. I don't know if that's its characteristic or if it's something to do with how I'm growing it. Regardless, we were pleased.

'Rhodos' curly endive

Another first harvest was Tatsoi. We love Asian greens for their taste and versatility. This is a particularly nice head, just starting to flower.

Tatsoi

Yet another first was scallions/bunching onions/green onions. Whatever your name preference, we really enjoy them and use them a lot, raw or cooked.

'Nabechan' scallions (F1)

Mid-June is the time our hardneck garlic planted in the fall begins to send up "flower" shoots (not really flowers but bulbils), called "scapes." Cutting them directs more energy to sizing up the bulbs, and they are a treat, too! We grilled a couple, which is a nice way.

Garlic scapes

For continuing harvests, the arugula is starting to bolt, but still very tasty.

'Ice-bred' arugula

Finally, yet another entry for "Wildlife Notes." I was amazed to see this bobcat walking the fenceline at the top of our field, in broad daylight. I love seeing them, and no doubt they will help control the rabbit population. This one is particularly big, and looking very tiger-like.

Bobcat

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

Harvest Monday - 9 June 2025

 The best way I have to describe our recent weather is that it's been all over the place. Fluctuating from unseasonably warm to unseasonably cold. We've had haze from the smoke of the Canada wildfires. The one constant is rain, lots of rain. If crops don't seem to be moving along, I have to think it's the weather.

You'd think that the cooler temperatures would been good for the brassicas, at least, but I'm not getting the results I expected. Maybe it was too cool? Case in point, I scaled back growing Asian greens, and only started 3 baby bok choy plants. Only one survived, and I picked it this week. This is an open-pollinated version called "Milk."

'Milk' baby bok choy

The Kitchen Goddess added it to a homemade egg drop soup, which was really delicious, and made me wish I had more of them. So I started another six this week. Maybe under a row cover they won't struggle when the temps finally stay warm.

I also pulled the first radishes.

French Breakfast and Cherry Belle radishes

And I did several trimmings of the arugula (rocket). 

'Ice-bred' arugula

We don't have any lettuce that's quite ready for picking, but it should be soon. In the meantime, at least we can claim radishes and arugula to augment our salads. Two peppery things!

In Wildlife Notes, TKG snapped this super-zoomed picture out the bedroom window.

It's a Red-tailed Hawk. Buteos like this species are not known to be big bird-hunters, preferring small mammals as food, but still, it's not the kind of thing you want to see on a birdhouse. Maybe he was waiting for something to pop out.

At least the gardens are fully-planted now, despite the rain. Here's hoping the crops will take off soon. Thanks for reading, and thanks again to Dave at HappyAcres.blog for hosting Harvest Monday!

Harvest Monday - 26 May 2025

 I don't like to start off a post on a sour note, but I have to rant. The weather has been so non-garden friendly, with cold temperatures and rain, that so many planting tasks have been put off. Today I will finally get a chance to transplant tomatoes, and the plants have gotten quite leggy. Peppers, eggplants, squash, and beans will have to wait at least another week. The plants are enormous.

But at least I have some harvests to share, leading off with arugula/rocket. I took a light snipping, and they wonderfully augment our salads (with store-bought lettuce for now).

'Ice Bred' arugula

Up until that, asparagus was the only thing coming from the gardens. Fresh asparagus is a treat, but like any treat, it can lose its "treatyness" after a while, so we've been giving it away too.

Fresh asparagus

We first planted asparagus when we moved here about 15 years ago, and the plants are starting to age a little. Some time after, I supplemented with some "Sweet Purple" crowns. They never really thrived, and we only got a couple of spears, like what's on the bottom of this picture:

Asparagus, featuring 'Sweet Purple'

That's really all the gardening I can report now, but I wanted to share a photo captured by my TrailCam, and extremely handsome Eastern Coyote, who seems to be saying "I'm sexy and I know it."

Eastern Coyote

Thanks for reading, and I'll be back when I have more to report. Thanks to Dave at HappyAcres.blog for continuing to host Harvest Monday.