Harvest Monday - 25 June 2018

Hello again from Eight Gate Farm. Our pattern of too-cool nights has just dragged on. It's been dry, too. Until yesterday, we were at 25% of average June rainfall. But the deficit was erased yesterday in one storm. The coolness continues to thwart the eggplants, which I now fear will never recover, despite warming weather moving in this week.

We are harvesting, though! This week we got the first snow peas.

Followed a few days later by Super Sugar Snap peas.

We picked tatsoi.

And pak choi.

Brisk Green

We actually took by week's end all of the Asian greens, as they were bolting. I have more started which I'll transplant soon.

We took several half-size carrots because we just couldn't wait.

Quite a few of the onion sets have started flowering, I'm guessing due to the cold. As such, they won't keep, so we took some for "spring onions."

The remaining garlic scapes were all cut this week.

Radishes finished out this week, though there are still plenty of turnips left.

And strawberries are in abundance.

There are vegetables I don't have space for, and coincidentally don't like. Things like kohlrabi, sweet potatoes, and parsnips. But The Kitchen Goddess loves them. So she and her mother took a plot at the town's community garden to raise those, and more. This week she brought home the first kohlrabi.

What a weird-looking vegetable! I tried some raw, and it was okay, and the rest in a stir-fry, which was even better. I may coincidentally have some space for it next year.

So despite all my griping about the weather, the garden has been kind to us in many ways. Have to remember the positive things. Thanks for reading, and thanks as always to Dave of Our Happy Acres for hosting Harvest Monday.

Harvest Monday - 18 June 2018

It's almost [calendar] summer, but until lately you wouldn't know it here in New Hampshire. The nighttime temperatures were holding in the low 50s. My peppers and eggplants are pouting, and I despair they will ever put on growth. The tomatoes, though, seem to be holding up and growing, but fruit looks a long way away.

This translates to almost everything having the "slows." We are starting to get some harvests though.

The radishes are doing beautifully.

L: French Breakfast, R: Cherry Belle

We took the first turnips (Purple Top White Globe). The one on the right is about as big as we grow them here, maybe golfball size. Thus I have to laugh when I look at the picture in the Baker Creek catalog, where that adorable little girl is holding a softball-sized specimen. Regardless, we get good greens, and tasty roots to add to our salads.

Purple Top White Globe turnips

We are getting a fair amount of salad greens from the mixes I planted.

And the first garlic scapes were ready to be cut.

Strawberries are starting to roll in. Overall, they seem to be much smaller than last year--whether it's the weather or tired vines I do not know. But they're good.

The next two harvests, diminutive though they may be, are also welcome. First up are beet thinnings for greens:

Next are carrot thinnings. Though they aren't really sweet yet, they add a nice carroty flavor to our salads.

The Kitchen Goddess made some more chive flower/tarragon vinegar. Not only is it a lovely color but it adds a savoriness to dressings.

Lastly I present bug notes. The two fennel plants I put in the Kitchen Herb Garden are working well as a trap crop for the Eastern Black Swallowtail caterpillars, keeping them from the parsley etc. (as least for now). Given the speed with which they defoliate the plants, they clearly like fennel a lot more than I do!

Not much else to report. Thanks for reading, and thanks as always to Dave at Our Happy Acres for hosting Harvest Monday.

Harvest Monday, 4 June 2018

Hello again from Eight Gate Farm. It's June, and we finally have something to show beyond asparagus.

First up is Toy Choi, a delightful baby Asian green, living up to its name. These were already starting to bolt. One went right into a wonderful soup.

Toy Choi

Next we have the first radishes.

Cherry Belle and French Breakfast radishes

And finally a thinning from the small rows of salad blends. From the spicy taste, I think this was mostly arugula.

Some sort of salad stuff

Ah, June! Where are the consistently warm days and nights of my memories? When I woke up this morning it was 48 F (8.9 C). Certainly not good for tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants. I sure hope this does not hit them too hard.

More in the woe department...on Saturday night something uprooted, but did not eat, two 20-foot rows of corn seedlings. To me this was not hunger, but vandalism! What could have done this?

Uprooted corn seedlings

Not only that, but voles overcame the [meager] defenses of repellents, and destroyed a bed of onion and leek seedlings. No time to replant that. I console myself with picturing a family of voles annoying each other with bad breath.

But June is also beauty. This is the first year this lovely iris has bloomed for us.

That's all for this week. Thanks for reading, and thanks to Dave of Our Happy Acres for hosting Harvest Monday!