Harvest Monday - 6 July 2020

Welcome to another Harvest Monday update from Eight Gate Farm! This past week the weather has moderated substantially, and we got frequent but brief rain showers. Not enough to take us out of the drought situation, I think, but it has alleviated much of the watering chores.

We had numerous exciting "first harvests" this week. Hard to tell which was our favorite!

The first zucchinis were picked. This is "Yellowfin." I took several more later in the week.

Yellowfin zucchini

And this is "Cocozelle di Napoli." I love the look and nutty taste of this stripey Italian heirloom. But as I'm running out of seed, I think I might explore a hybrid version for next year, with a more compact, less spiny plant.

A good cutting of the first chard of the season. On the left is a new variety for us, "Oriole" from Johnny's Selected Seeds. The yellow stems are really striking in the field. On the right is "Peppermint."

Oriole and Peppermint Chard

The first cucumbers were picked. This is "National Pickling," an heirloom that was developed in 1929 by the "National Pickle Packers Association" (what a great name!) and the Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station, with the goal of producing fruit that was blunt at both ends and would thus pack easier into pickle jars. Tastes good too!

National Pickling

Another first was shishito peppers. We love them, but having four plants last year really was too much. So only two plants this year. That should be enough once they get into full swing.

Mellow Star shishito peppers

And the first small picking of blueberries occurred. There will be much more to come.

For continuing harvests, we took several large thinnings of the salad mixes.

And several more iceberg lettuce heads. Here's one sliced open.

Iceberg lettuce

More spring onions.

White Lisbon scallions

More "mangetout" (that we call pea pods here in the Colonies).

Left: Avalanche, right: Super Sugar Snap

We bid farewell to the kohlrabi:

Kolibri kohlrabi

And also to the Blue Wind broccoli.

We have a saying here in the US--"knee-high by the Fourth of July," referring of course to corn. I've never been sure why that's important, but I play along. Mine was waist-high on Independence Day, and I'm tall!

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Please join me in reading all the lovely posts on Harvest Monday, hosted by the ever-popular Dave at HappyAcres.blog.