Harvest Monday - 22 May 2023

Greetings from Eight Gate Farm! I always say our springs are unpredictable from a weather perspective, and this year is no exception. In early April we had two days of 85+ degree temperatures (30 C.) And I stupidly neglected to vent the two little mini-greenhouses we have. So all my artichoke, celery, and lettuce seedlings were cooked to death. Then it got cold again. It was warming up fine in the past weeks, but in the wee hours of May 18 we got a true frost, literally a month after our last frost. It was not unexpected, but it still caught a lot of people off guard, people who had rushed to set out their tender crops. Here, we were not affected too much, but it did wither the new leaves on the grape vines. I hope they recover.

Harvests so far have been almost exactly tracking what happened last year at this time. Here's the lineup:

Asparagus

 We've been getting regular cuttings of asparagus, giving us all we really need, and I even gave away some. I think we'll maybe get two more cuttings before I let the spears grow to nourish the plants.

I overwintered spinach again. Only about half the plants made it though the winter, which is pretty good considering the leaf mulch I applied blew away in one of our storms. The hardiness of spinach is amazing.

Over-wintered spinach

I got the first picking of arugula, which was directly sown on April 11. Thus we got the first homegrown salads of the year, very welcome.

Arugula

Finally, I've done three cuttings of chives. We believe the spring chives are tastier than what you get later in the season, so we've been using them fresh and dehydrating a lot. They are now about to flower.

Spring chives

On Thursday I set out all my tomato plants, and this coming week will be a big push to sow beans, and transplant peppers, eggplants, and all the cucurbits. I sure hope the weather holds.

That's all for this week. Thanks for reading, and thanks one again to Dave at HappyAcres.blog for continuing to host Harvest Monday.