Here’s another Harvest Monday update from Eight Gate Farm. As
predicted, the week started with a three-day heatwave. It was so hot and humid
that even a simple chore like watering made me sweat. It ended on Wednesday
evening with a dramatic thunderstorm that fortunately spared us any damage, but
trees were downed all over the area. Then it began to rain, and it didn’t stop
until late Sunday. It was chilly too. I’m sure a lot of spirits were “dampened”
<chuckle> for those who had big outdoor plans for the Independence Day
weekend.
We did manage to do a little harvesting, though. Leading off
with the “first harvests” of the season, I cut a good amount of Swiss chard
(aka silver beet). When I was a child my mother used to cook a lot of chard,
and I’ve retained my taste for it. For some it’s too bitter.
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| Oriole and Peppermint chard |
The Kitchen Goddess went to the community garden plot she shares with her mother, and came back with an impressive kohlrabi haul. Mom didn’t want the greens, so we kept them.
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| Kolibri F1 kohlrabi |
For continuing harvests, I got several pickings of pea pods like this:
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| Super Sugar Snap and Avalanche snow peas |
I also cut more broccoli heads.
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| Blue Wind broccoli |
And another iceberg lettuce head, which meant another wonderful wedge salad for me. Now when TKG says she’s going to give me a “wedgie,” I don’t automatically run for cover!
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| Iceberg lettuce |
We were running out of room in the fridge, so we processed a lot of stuff for the freezer: snow pea pods, broccoli, chard, and kohlrabi greens. The greens sure do cook down impressively!
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| Freezer prep |
Between the heat and all the rain, a lot of garden tasks were put off. So I hope to soon be able to do things like weeding and tying up the indeterminate tomatoes. Oh, and I looked back and saw that last year at this time I was already harvesting cucumbers, zucchini, and even shishito peppers. None of those are even close to that stage this year. I really don’t know why.
That’s all for this week. Thanks for reading, and thanks once
again to Dave at HappyAcres.blog for continuing to host Harvest Monday.
That is a great haul of kohlrabi! I need to give the greens a try too, since we usually don't eat them. As for chard, I don't find it bitter but too "earthy" for me. I can eat it if I use LOTS of garlic, but it's just not my favorite. Too bad as it is prolific and easy to grow in our area. Yours looks great!
ReplyDeleteI do remember those heat waves relieved by a thunderstorm but sounds like you had more than a passing storm. Maybe won't have to water much! Lovely broccoli.
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