Harvest Monday - 4 July 2016

Happy Independence Day from Eight Gate Farm! And belated Happy Canada Day to our friends in The Great White North.

First harvests for some crops this week. We took a few "Nelson" carrots to see how they were shaping up. Not overly large yet, but sweet, crunchy, and delightful.

And the first Sugar Snap peas were taken. They are about 10 days behind the snow peas, and as before, the resulting plants were not all true Sugar Snaps. So the crop will not be large this year, but they are tasty. I've used up the last of this seed lot, and am in the market for a replacement variety.

And the true snow peas are giving us a harvest like this every two days, which we are enjoying in our salads but might have to start freezing soon.

We took the very last of the tatsoi.

And the turnips are winding down, also great thinly sliced in our nightly salads.

The continuing harvests are now demoted to group-photo status.

I love the color of the "Peppermint" chard, and am pleased it does not lose its stem color when steaming.

This soup pea crop is not ready for harvest, because the pods will be dried on the vine and will turn ugly. So I wanted to show it while it is still pretty.

Lastly, lavender to please the other senses besides taste.

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

Harvest Monday - 27 June 2016

Welcome to another Harvest Monday update. We had several first harvests of the year this week.

I haven't grown turnips before, and to be honest, wasn't sure I'd like them. My experience with turnips was as starchy, softball-sized root vegetables that were a component of "New England Boiled Dinner," Not my favorite meal by any means. Anyway, "saladette" turnips were said to be a different animal. And they were right! We picked one just to see how they were sizing up.

This was sliced thinly and added to salad. Delightfully crunchy and spicy. So a few days later we took more:

The purple one is "Royal Crown" and the others are "White Egg." The Royal Crown is not as spicy, but the White Eggs seem to grow more robustly. The greens were delicious, too. Turnips will definitely make the cut for next year.

Next, we took a few beets:

Beets are not my thing, but The Kitchen Goddess loves them. I planted two varieties: Red Ace and Pronto. But did I label which was which? Of course not. Too bad, because one group grew a lot faster than the other.

Next was the first harvest of chard:

These are "Peppermint" and "Fordhook." I haven't grown Peppermint before, and not only is it lovely, it grows robustly.

Then there was the first harvest of long-anticipated snow peas, which we were craving. Delightful!

Other harvests (not firsts) were the last of the radishes:

More salad (I can't say enough good things about Baker Creek's "Rocky Top" and "European Mesclun" mixes):

And finally more tatsoi and ching chang:

And here's a delicious use of Asian greens. TKG used her homemade chicken stock and whipped up a batch of soup with the greens, egg, garlic scapes, and udon noodles, topped with fresh basil. I can't get enough of this.

Thank you for reading my post. Please head back to Our Happy Acres, hosted by Dave, for more Harvest Monday treats.

Harvest Monday - 20 June 2016

Hello again from Eight Gate Farm! Weather-wise, the days are starting to get warmer while the nights stay cool. Good for sleeping, but not for the solanaceae family, melons, cucumbers, squash, or corn. All are still not "taking off." Speaking of corn, I drove by a commercial cornfield yesterday, and the plants there are at least a foot tall, while mine are barely 3 inches. GMO Frankencorn? Super-fertilized? Who knows?

Now on to this week's harvests, which I'm sorry to say are just like last week's. We took virtually the last of the radishes:

And a good amount of lettuce:

Those make up our nightly salads, the health benefits of which are completely negated by the ranch dressing I love to pour on.

More Asian greens and the last of the garlic scapes:

I don't write about them often, but herbs from the Kitchen Herb Garden (a repurposed sandbox) are giving us lots of flavor. Here's a picking of thyme and winter savory:

They went toward a dry marinade for grilled chicken breasts, which gave some delicious protein accompaniment to our salads.

That's it for this week. Thanks for reading! And as always thanks to Dave at Our Happy Acres for hosting Harvest Monday, without which you would probably not be reading this!

Harvest Monday - 13 June 2016

Hello again from Eight Gate Farm! Here is this week's harvest roundup.

First up, garlic scapes:

All 24 cloves planted last fall have produced scapes. Since this is my first time growing garlic, I don't really know what to expect, but it just feels early to me. They sure are tasty, though!

Next, pak choi (many ways to spell that), variety "Ching Chang"  (also many ways to spell).

Next, tatsoi:

Both of these Asian green varieties are bolting. I really expected them to get bigger before that happened. Maybe it's a consequence of being direct-seeded rather than started indoors. Truthfully, I've reached my limit in both space and patience for indoor-starting. So I will take what I get.

Lastly, more radishes and lettuce/mesclun:

The radishes are winding down, and even starting to bolt in some cases. The greens are still going strong, so many more salads are in the forecast.

That's it for this week. Thanks for reading! And special thanks to Dave at Our Happy Acres for hosting Harvest Monday. Please click back to read all the posts from around the world.

Harvest Monday - 6 June 2016

Hello again from Eight Gate Farm. Here is another contribution to Harvest Monday, hosted by Dave at Our Happy Acres. Continuing the gardening-unfriendly weather, Saturday was sunny and warm, so I set out all peppers and eggplants, and seeded winter squash. Then Sunday was back to cool and rainy. It's a wonder anything is growing. That said, there were some limited harvests anyway.

We started the week with more radishes and lettuce/mesclun mix:

The tatsoi planted on April 15 has been growing slowly. This particular bed is getting less and less sunlight over the years as trees are shading it. However one plant decided it was time to bolt anyway, so I picked it. It was just enough to augment a delicious stir-fry that night.

The Kitchen Goddess made another batch of chive flower & tarragon vinegar; just in time, too, since we were running out. It has such a lovely floral/herbal fragrance, and is so pretty to look at.

And ending the week, more lettuce and a big haul of radishes.

That's all for this week. Thanks for reading, and good luck with your harvests.

Harvest Monday - 30 May 2016

Hello again from Eight Gate Farm. It is good to get back in the swing of things with the Harvest Monday community.

Saturday the temperature was in the 90s; Sunday it did not even reach 60. That's the way it's been going this spring, with the resultant delays in planting and harvesting.

We have taken some radishes:

These are French Breakfast and Cherry Belle, same as everybody grows.

Also, some lettuce/mesclun mix:

There's nothing like the first garden salad of the season! I know we will be tired of it by July, but for now, heaven.

Here's a little update on progress:

We did get a bit of asparagus, but a late freeze burned many of the tender shoots, which is depressing. I've never had that happen before. So, the asparagus season is over with nothing to show.

Beets and carrots were planted April 15. The usual spotty germination. Some of the beets look strong, others are still just seed leaves. The carrots of course are frail looking. I love carrots, but hate planting and growing them!

Peas (snow, snap, and soup) were also planted April 15. They too suffered from spotty germination, but the ones that came up are about 9" tall now.

Asian greens were sown also on April 15. They are still pretty small.

Turnips were sown also on April 15. Some are getting big from a leaf perspective; who knows what's going on underground. I've never grown turnips before, so this is a learning experience.

Leeks (from seed), onions (from seed), and potatoes were set out on April 23. The weather, which was warm, turned cold again. I was afraid the potatoes had rotted, but they're up and looking strong finally, and are almost ready for their first hilling. The leeks look frail, just as they did last year. This is my first experience with seed-grown onions, and I question how they can possibly size-up in the normal time frame. But people tell me to have hope.

Artichokes were also transplanted April 23. They look pretty good.

Broccoli and Brussels Sprouts were transplanted May 14. Something has destroyed all the Brussels Sprouts plants, and half of the broccoli. Sigh. Too late to start over, so I planted cucumber seeds in those spots, with the hope that whatever it was will move on by the time they come up.

Cool-soil corn was seeded on May 21. It is already up and looking good.

Just this weekend I seeded the late season corn (of course the weather immediately turned cool). But hopefully it will warm up again this week. Summer squash and cucumbers (as mentioned) were also seeded. I also transplanted all the tomatoes.

The ever-encouraging Kitchen Goddess does her best to keep me from despair (and quitting gardening). And she's right. It may be a late-start season, but it could work out after all.

Well, it's "gardening," not "shopping," right?

Today (Monday) we are in the midst of what the weather report calls a "tropical rainstorm." I've never been to the tropics where it is 53 degrees F. But anyway, no gardening today, despite it being a US holiday.

Please see all the Harvest Monday posts, hosted by Dave at Our Happy Acres.

Onion crop, where hast Thou gone?

Today The Kitchen Goddess informed me we were down to our last few onions. Here they are:

That got me wondering how long we've been storing them. Turns out we harvested on August 1 of last year.

I'd say this is pretty good results from a storage perspective. Sure, some sprouted (still fine), and just a few rotted, but otherwise this crop has served us well for 9 1/2 months.

The variety is Stuttgarter, and besides being a good keeper they have exception robust flavor. In the past I've only grown them from sets. But everyone assured me that growing from seed produces better results. So that's what I tried this year. I must say I still have doubts--the little grass-like stalks look so fragile.

I have of course been absent from Harvest Monday, hosted by Dave at Our Happy Acres. This has just been a miserable spring, and everything is behind by 3 weeks. I hope to soon have something substantial to show you for current harvests.