For "first harvests" this week, we had a nice head of Fiesta broccoli.
Followed up a day or two later with a head of Arcadia.
For continuing harvests, we had near-daily pickings of Super Sugar Snap (left), and Mammoth Melting Sugar.
Several people have asked my opinion of the heirloom MMS. Well, I have to say they are good, but must be picked very young (2 inches or so), or the pods get tough. Maybe "mammoth" refers to the vines. They are now over 7 feet tall and still growing--despite the catalogs saying they only get to 4 - 5 feet. I might be looking for another snow pea variety next year.
We did another picking of fat Blauwschokkers pods, again with the off-type green ones present.
They got put with the earlier picking on this screen in the sunroom to thoroughly dry. It takes awhile, but I found in previous years leaving them on the vines leads to mold issues.
We continue to take a few carrots for our immediate use, leaving the rest to size up. Boy, do we love fresh carrots!
The kale component of the mesculin mix was so large it got its own picking. It was blanched and frozen.
Thus, we got a separate picking of the more lettuce-y components of the mix.
The adorable fox family I showed last week has sadly moved on it appears. Perhaps not coincidentally, a groundhog was spotted making its way toward the Survival Garden out back, and shortly after that, it was "re-homed to heaven" as we say. Severe, I know, but you should hear the grim stories from local gardeners about their beloved crops disappearing overnight to these destructive beasts.
Until next time, thanks for reading!
You are so right - there is nothing quite so good as carrots fresh from the garden!
ReplyDeleteLovely greens. As soon as the Summer heat passes (September, I hope) I plan to grow some cool weather veggies.
Have a wonderful week!
Hope there's enough time left in your growing season for cool weather crops. We always worry about an early freeze here.
DeleteThat's great looking broccoli! And I'm no fan of the groundhogs either. They can do a LOT of damage to a garden. I have relocated over a dozen of them from HA the last few years. When I lived on the farm I used more drastic means - there was no place further out in the country to take them to!
ReplyDeleteI've been having good luck with the Oregon Giant and Oregon Sugar Pod 2 snow peas. Both have big pods on fairly short vines. I can't decide which I like better, but I plan on growing both this fall since I have plenty of seed.
Thanks, Dave. I suppose I could relocate the groundhogs, but only to farmers/gardeners I don't like, and so far, I have none of those.
DeleteThe peas have the best name ever, and I won't even try to spell it. That's about all you can do with a pest like that. I just bought a new scissor mole trap but they have been laying low lately, haven't had a chance to use it.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful broccoli, one of my favorite veggies. I've grown Oregon Sugar Pod II snow peas and those plants only get to about 3 or 4 feet tall and the peas stay tender even when they get to be a bit big and lumpy. My only complaint about them is that they produce seemingly all at once, actually I've stretched it out to about 2 weeks but I prefer a longer harvest period.
ReplyDeleteYes indeed, "rehomed to heaven", something that happens on a regular basis to the local rat and mouse population... I have no tolerance for garden raiding critters either.
That lettuce looks great! I've had to pull all of ours as the heat was making them much too bitter, but I did start another round which will be going into the ground (under shade cloth, this time!), soon. And I always pick peas/beans to dry indoors as I too find that leaving them to dry on the vine usually leads to mold.
ReplyDeleteYour broccoli and carrots look so good. And it's amazing your still getting lettuce even in the summer heat. I'm hoping to start some broccoli this week for a fall crop.
ReplyDelete