I haven't posted for a couple of weeks, because we were away June 23 - 30. More on that below. But over the course of the interval, here's what we harvested and used, starting with the "first harvests" of individual crops. Apologies that this post will be unusually long.
We cut the first head of "Red Iceberg" lettuce, which we enjoy immensely.
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| Red Iceberg |
I took an assortment of leaf lettuce, which were volunteers from the bed I grew them in last year. Not sure if they had reseeded themselves or just didn't sprout that year. Still welcome!
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| Volunteer Leaf Lettuce |
Edible-podded peas made their first appearance. Up first is a new (to me) variety of snow pea called "Sweet Horizon." The pods are smaller than what I'm used to, but it looks to make up for that in productivity.
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| Sweet Horizon snow pea |
Super Sugar Snap is an old reliable crop that I've grown for many years.
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| Super Sugar Snap pea |
I got the first eggplant. This is another new variety called "Violet Delight." This one is an outlier; all the plants are not doing too well, and it will be awhile before I get any more.
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| Violet Delight (F1) eggplant |
For continuing harvests, I took the last of our tatsoi. Sad to see it go.
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| Tatsoi |
I cut another head of curly endive. This is turning out to be a versatile crop, enjoyable by itself or with other salad greens.
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| Curly endive |
I pulled another bunch of bunching onions.
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| Nabechan (F1) scallions |
Lastly all the remaining garlic scapes were cut. The garlic itself should be ready to harvest in a week or two, meanwhile we get to enjoy the mild garlic flavor of the scapes.
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| Garlic scapes |
The Kitchen Goddess has been making vegetarian Vietnamese Spring Rolls, which she serves with a spicy peanut sauce. It's nice that so many of the ingredients come from the garden: pea pods (sliced), raw tatsoi, green onion, mint, and Thai basil. Served cold, they are very refreshing on a warm evening
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| Vietnamese Spring Rolls |
Now for the travelogue part of the post. For the last three years we've been really enjoying renting cabins at a nature preserve. It's only an hour away, making it easy and efficient to come home in mid-week to water and harvest, as well as replenish groceries and clothes. This year we rented the large cabin called "Lakeside Cottage," which is as its name says. We love the "Adirondack Style" of this place, and it's only steps from the water.
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| Lakeside Cottage |
The weather in the beginning of the week was very warm. It sure was nice to cool off by sitting and paddling around the lake in "floatees!" It amazed us that no one else was out on the lake, even though there are houses on the southern end.
It turned much cooler for awhile, making us wish we'd packed some warmer clothes. But it warmed up again in time to be joined by our son and his delightful girlfriend, plus a very old friend. One night we made a nice fire in the pit by the lake and watched the fireflies dance.
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Our last morning was very calm, and TKG enjoyed being out on the paddleboard on the glassy lake. As for me, I fall off, calm or not!
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No visit is complete with seeing and hearing the mournful cries of the resident loons. This time of year the lake has a mated pair that call to each other when separated. One swam right up to me as I was fishing from a kayak, and did its yodel. I was close enough to see that they do this from the throat without opening their bills. I did not know that.
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| Common loons |
Well, I said this was going to go long! Thanks for sticking with it if you're here. Thanks once again to Dave at HappyAcres.blog for hosting Harvest Monday.
