Greetings from Eight Gate Farm! For once I'll get right to some of the harvests of this week.
First up is a time we celebrate here, the first artichokes!
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| Imperial Star artichokes |
I grew softneck garlic for the first time this year. I'd say that nearly everyone in the Northeast grows hardnecks exclusively, so I broke with convention a little bit. The result
looks satisfactory.
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| Marengo softneck garlic |
Hardnecks are preferred because they are more cold-hardy, spicier, and produce useful scapes. Softnecks' attraction is they keep longer and can be braided. Well, we've never had a problem keeping harnecks for many months, right into the next year's harvest. So once the above has cured, I'll taste-test them and see if it's worth planting again this fall. By the way, what are those weird ovary things above the bulbs?
Another first harvest was a head of Fiesta broccoli.
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| Fiesta |
For continuing harvests, a sample is the last of the soup peas.
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| Alaska and Blue Podded peas for drying |
And the last of the snow and snap peas.
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| L: Super Sugar Snap, R: Blizzard and Mammoth Melting Sugar |
Some carrots as needed:
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| Scarlet Nantes carrots |
Blueberries:
And more bolting onions for fresh use.
Lastly, I can't resist showing off a bit with a "harvest" from the sea. We took a day off from gardening on Sunday and went striped bass fishing off the coast of Newburyport, Massachusetts (just 45 minutes from here). It was a great day! "Stripers" are an amazing fish to catch, and eat! To be legally harvested they have to be 28" in length, and these range from that to over 30".
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| Striped bass |
Shared with our son (who caught the most!), we have lots of filets, and The Kitchen Goddess even made a soup base with the "frames" (head and backbones). Nothing goes to waste!
That's all for this week. Thanks for reading, and thanks as always to Dave at
Our Happy Acres for hosting Harvest Monday.
One of these years I'll try growing artichokes, they sure are tasty. I've caught stripers off the coast of Virginia, and as you point out, they are one delicious fish.
ReplyDeleteYes, you should try some artichokes. There is a certain amount of fussing with them, but totally worth it!
DeleteThe artichokes are lovely! That's one thing I've never had any luck with. I've never eaten a striper, though I've heard others rave about them. I believe those things in the garlic stalk are bulbils. I used to grow one called Asian Tempest that always made them. They're edible or you can plant them.
ReplyDeleteAh, bulbils. I will certainly eat them, but I think I will get fresh seed garlic from the Vermont Garlic Festival this year as usual
DeleteLovely artichokes. Lucky me, the heart of the California artichoke region is in my backyard otherwise I would have to grow my own too. All your harvests are lovely, even the Stripers.
ReplyDeleteI have never attempted to grow artichokes before. Are they are hard vegetable to tend to? Congratulations on your growth, thanks for the share. Hope you have a wonderful rest of your day. Keep up the posts!
ReplyDeleteWorld of Animals
Lovely harvests - and I'm enviously eyeing those carrots. Mine are taking a long time to size up this year and I'm wondering if the heat has something to do with it.
ReplyDeleteAnd the bass looks awesome! I'm not much one for fishing or gutting, but I'd love to sit at the dinner table and enjoy some of that :)
Lovely bass! We get a different type here bu they make excellent eating and put up a really good fight on a rod and line, especially at this size.
ReplyDeleteThose strange garlic bulbils grew in a couple of ours this year and never seen them before either I'm planting a couple to see how they grow