Harvest Monday - 18 July 2016

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

We picked the remaining garlic. The four on the right are German White, and the other 10 are Music. Not much difference dirty like this; maybe they'll be distinguishable when cured and cleaned.

Garlic is easy! I never realized it before. Step by step instructions:

1. Plant 24 cloves in October.
2. Do nothing.
3. Cut 24 scapes in June. Enjoy.
4. Pull 24 bulbs in July. Celebrate.

Okay, maybe "do nothing" includes a little weeding/fertilizing.

We got the first flush of "Carson" wax beans. Using up the 16 remaining seeds, maybe 13 survived. But they are productive.

Also the first major picking of seedless red raspberries (looking yellow in the photograph), and blueberries.

We are sharing the berries with the critters. The netting over the blueberry bushes is keeping out the birds, but the chipmunks just bull through.

We're still picking lettuce, snow and snap peas, carrots, and chard.

The peas and spring lettuce are getting tired, but the "summer crisp" lettuce is just getting going, so many more salads are in the forecast.

That's all for this week. Thanks for reading! There will be no post next week. The Kitchen Goddess and I are leaving for a "business incentive" trip to a location I am not permitted to disclose at this time. Very mysterious. TKG's mom will be watching the "farm" and cat, being paid in produce.

Thanks to Dave at Our Happy Acres for hosting Harvest Monday.

Harvest Monday - 11 July 2016

Welcome to another Harvest Monday update from Eight Gate Farm! Thanks again to Dave at Our Happy Acres for hosting Harvest Monday.

Since the last post, we had a short heat wave, followed by a period of unseasonably cool weather, which at least brought some badly needed rain. How cool? Well, sweatshirts for me, and I even saw smoke coming out of a neighbor's chimney. What are vegetables supposed to make of this?

We had a couple of first harvests this week. Our favorite has to be this:

That's right, our first-ever garlic, in all its dirty glory. The variety is "Georgian Fire," which I'm guessing is an early one. Though to tell the truth, the other two varieties are not far behind it. Not really knowing, it was a bit of a guess to decide to harvest it. Let's see...bottom leaves withering? Check. Soil dry? Check. Other gardeners picking? Check. Let's do it! We were really psyched to see the size of the bulbs.

Another first: "Blue Wind" broccoli. I've written that this year's broccoli was going to be a bust, given the pest damage the transplants received. So even though this is only billiard ball-sized, at least we got something.

An unexpected first, shishito peppers.

We enjoyed both broccoli and peppers that very night, wishing we had a lot more.

As for continuing harvests, we took snow and Sugar Snap peas.

The heat spell did not do the peas much good.

We took carrots, turnips (unfortunately the last), and more peas.

And at the end of the week, more carrots and beets. By the way, I misidentified the carrots in the last post as Nelson, when really they are Mokum.

And finally, more lettuce, chard, and peas:

Chard is the only thing we've had to freeze so far this year, but we've accumulated several pounds of peas even though the plants are shutting down, so some might get frozen.

Now a bit about using a harvest. Last fall we only got about a dozen winter squash. The ones we didn't immediately use went into the basement in one of my new home-built screened storage bins. Maybe half rotted over the months (what a mess), but enough lasted so that The Kitchen Goddess could puree them this week. Not bad, considering.

There's an old song, "Turkey In The Straw." Yesterday I revised it like this:

Turkey on the fence,

Makes no sense.

Yes, those are her cute but oh-so-dumb babies trying to figure out how to emulate Mama.

That's it for this week. Thanks for reading! I'm looking forward to reading all the posts on Harvest Monday.

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.