Although most things are progressing nicely in the gardens, I don't have a lot of variety of harvests to show you, so this will be fairly short. But then I always say that.
We start with a little broccoli, and snow peas, and Sugar Snap peas at the bottom. As reported last week the snows are slowing while the snaps are getting very productive.
We have a nice variety of fruit, with (clockwise from top) wild black raspberries, cherries, jostaberries, and blueberries.
The Kitchen Goddess took all these (except the cherries) and made another of her wonderful rustic tarts:
Then another good picking of black raspberries. They sure are tasty, but seedy! I noticed this week that we have competition from wild turkeys, who were plucking fruit from the vines. I don't mind sharing.
We took a few carrots for fresh eating. Here are Mokum (right) and Nelson (left).
It's weird...some of the carrots are quite hairy. It causes no harm but is a little disconcerting. I read that the reason is too much fertility, which is ironic, as I believed all my garden problems stemmed from lack of fertility in the old raised beds. I guess I'm overcompensating.
The broccoli had stalled, and anyway I needed their space, so on Saturday I took whatever side shoots there were and pulled all the plants. It was a good year, but not as good as last.
And now the former broccoli bed, with its new seedlings of Chinese cabbage and kale.
On Sunday, what else but a pound o' pea pods? We will have lots of stir-fries in the winter!
In closing, here's a snap of a flower I'm especially in love with. When we were in Key West (Florida) in March, I noticed wild gaillardia growing in the driest, worst soil imaginable just off the beach. I collected a few seed heads and started some this spring. They are putting on quite a show.
It always cheers me up when I see them. I've tentatively identified them as Gaillardia pulchella, known as "fireweed" or "Indian blanket." They are annuals, but so easy to grow from seed they will be part of my garden for years to come. There is a lot of variety in the amount of red vs. yellow, even on the same plant.
That's it for this week. Thanks for reading! To see harvests from around the world without leaving your chair, click back to Daphne's Dandelions right now!
Such a lovely harvest, and that tart looks wonderful. Beautiful flowers too.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Jenny. Flowers add to the joy of gardening, especially when they are easy to take care of!
DeleteNice fruit harvest this week. I noticed the same, the wild turkeys have added my blueberry bushes to their daily rounds. So with them and the other birds, most go to feeding the neighborhood.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Dave. I don't know, I'm generous with the wild berries, but if I caught the turkeys in my blueberries it would be a different matter!
DeleteBoy I miss my cherries - lucky you still having a steady supply! I've only recently heard of jostaberries - what would you say they are similar to? And the Gaillardia is gorgeous - I'll be adding that one to my list!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Margaret. We're letting the birds take the rest of the cherries. Jostaberries are a "complex cross" of black currant and two different gooseberries. I'm not really familiar with either currants or gooseberries, as we are prohibited from growing them in this state, so I don't know how to compare the taste. Anyway, they are nice.
DeleteI'm growing a Gaillardia that is a perennial. It is quite stunning and I hope it does well here as it seems to bloom like crazy. Wonderful harvests. I love the berries. So many of them are so seedy. Whenever I make jam with them I always run them through the strainer to make it a better texture. But you can't do that when you just eat them from the bush.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Daphne. I remember your picture of a gaillardia you are growing and it is lovely. I have several perennial varieties too that bring me joy.
ReplyDeleteInteresting to see you are growing the jostaberry. I thought about planting one when I planted gooseberries, but didn't because there was so little information available about them. We do have gooseberries and currants as they are legal here. I love the look of that rustic tart. I need to do something like that with some of our berries.
ReplyDeleteI can't keep the birds out of whatever berries I grow without using netting so I've pretty much given up on them other than strawberries. It's so tempting to try things like Daphne's currants and those Jostaberries, but I'm tired of that type of frustration so it's farmer's market berries for me.
ReplyDeleteI love seeing all those peas. I definitely have to grow a fall crop since I skipped the spring one.