Harvest Monday July 18th 2011

Another week of heat and humidity did the garden well. Everything is going smoothly except for the pole beans and zucchini both the victims of critters, though the pole beans might have time to recover, it looks doubtful for the zucchini.

This week we had 2 firsts - The first tomato and peppers of the year. We took home a Cherokee Purple that was about to turn red last week which I had accidentally knocked off, but it turned this week and we got to enjoy it. I would have had a 2nd tomato from the same plant this week but the animals got to it before I did. I saw the tomato and Friday afternoon and knew I would be returning to the garden the following day for some work, and thought I could take it home then, but I was wrong. When we got to the garden on Saturday the tomato had 3 nice sized bite/peck marks. Lesson learned I guess! Regardless of the outcomes I have updated the tomato watch sidebar to reflect the first harvested Cherokee Purple (still waiting for a striped roma).

As for the peppers we took home, they look more like last years wax peppers then the cubanelle, jalapeno or bell peppers we are growing this year, so until I know otherwise I will count them as wax peppers. We also pulled the final Kale plant from the spring that was still hanging on.

Here is this weeks Harvest:

Tomato 2.85 oz

Pepper (wax) 3.65 oz

Chives 2.35 oz

Kale 6.10 oz

Mesclun Greens 4.65 oz

Parsley .30 oz

Huckleberry 3.75 oz

Total for the week: 1.478 lbs (23.65 oz)

Total for the season: 7.73 lbs (123.65 oz)

Less greens and more tomato and peppers in the near future I'd imagine, and hopefully some pole beans at some point too!

If you want to see what other's are harvesting or share in your own bounty stop by Daphne's Dandelions the home of Harvest Monday!

Harvest Monday June 26th 2011

More wet weather more slightly damp harvests this week. Despite the rain I went out to the garden a few times to survey some things and do a little harvesting.

Here's what I got:

Garlic Scapes .75 oz

Lettuce: 1.75 oz

Onion .45 oz

Scallions .85 oz

Kale 3.75 oz

Mesclun Greens: 3.90 oz

Total for the week: 11.45 oz

Total for the season: 2.625 lbs (42 oz)

Hopefully the rain is going to subside for a while and we will get some warmer temperatures soon!

If you want to see what others are harvesting or share in your own bounty stop by Daphne's Dandelions the home of Harvest Monday.

Harvest Monday June 20th 2011

It's been a busy week full of rain, and my Bruins winning the Stanley Cup so gardening was limited to Sunday, when Gail and I managed to to some massively overdue weeding and even planted a little.

I harvested a small amount of Garlic Scape's that I am going to count under 'green garlic' for the final tally. We also got the last of the spring radish's as well as most of the remaining kale, all but 2 smaller plants. The garlic scape's were made into a great pesto with basil from last year, while half the kale was used on another batch of kale chips!

What we harvested:

Garlic Scape's: .65 oz

Radish's: 2.20 oz

Kale 8.75 oz

Total for this week: 11.60 oz

Total for the season: 1.909 lbs (30.55 oz)

With the hockey playoffs wrapped up I should have more midweek time to spent at the garden, although I will be busy the next few weekends so any major projects will have to wait until next month.

If you want to see what other's are harvesting or share in your own bounty, stop by Daphne's Dandelions the home of Harvest Monday.

Harvest Monday June 13th 2011

We hit our first milestone this week. Thanks to this weeks harvest we've passed the 1lb mark for the season! The name of the game this week was variety! Here is the single biggest harvest of the past week which included a little more kale, chives, parsley, green garlic, and even a few flowers!

What we harvested:

Chives 1.20 oz

Green Garlic 2.10 oz

Kale 2.55 oz

Parsley .80 oz

Radish 2.25 oz

Total for the week: 8.90 oz

Total for the season: 1.184lbs (18.95 oz)

This time last year we had harvested half of what we've had this year, but far more salad greens. What a difference a year makes!

We've had a few days of rain so I haven't had a chance to do much in the garden, but I'm sure I will have lots of weeding and harvesting in the coming weeks!

If you want to see what other's are harvesting or share in your own bounty, stop by Daphne's Dandelions the home of Harvest Monday.

Kale Chips

My passing mention of kale chips in my most recent Harvest Monday post sparked some real appreciation for kale chips in the comments, so I've decided to share the easiest most basic kale chip recipe I know of.

Simple Kale Chips

1 bunch of Kale

olive oil

kosher salt

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Remove kale leaves from stem and break into bite sized pieces. Wash and thoroughly dry the kale. Drizzle kale with olive oil, sprinkle on salt and toss briefly in a bowl. Bake on parchment lined cookie sheet for 10-12 minutes, until edges are brown but not burnt.

The kale chips in the photo were in the oven for just under 12 minutes and were perfect. different recipes call for varying amounts of olive oil and salt, but I prefer to eye it out.

Do you use any other seasoning on your kale chips??

Harvest Monday June 6th 2011 a little of this & a little of that

Another week, another small, but appreciated harvest. The chive blossoms I mentioned yesterday came attached to some great chives! I also trimmed some Kale leaves off a few of the plants. Not a ton yet, but enough for a bowl of kale chips! We also ended up with a few small radishes that were crowding out their brethren and had already popped themselves out of the ground!

Radish .75 oz

Chives 2.55 oz

Kale 3.25 oz

Total for the Week 6.55 oz

Total for the Season 10.05 oz

The garden is teeming with life and the signs of harvests to come!

If you want to see what others are harvesting or share in your own bounty, stop by Daphne's Dandelions the home of Harvest Monday.

Opening Day!

Yesterday was Opening Day!!! Not for my beloved Boston Red Sox, but for my plot at the Fenway Victory Gardens, just behind where the Red Sox play! I retrieved all of the gardening equipment that we stored over the winter and Gail and I headed to the garden, wondering if anything would be alive.We were greeted with a lot of mud, wet fall leaves, and straw that we had used to insulate some of overwintering projects. Beneath the straw and leaves the garlic, walking onions, and chives were all flourishing! Below is one of the walking onions that had climbed through the straw in search o

f sunlight. The chives and garlic were both alive and ready for sun when we delicately pulled the soggy leaves and straw off of them.

We also brought along a bunch of herb seedlings we started on our windowsills as well as kale seedlings I picked up at Allandale Farm on saturday.

Picture above are the kale seedlings after we got them in the ground and pots with chives, garlic chives, marjoram, sage, thyme, rosemary, basil, flat leaf parsley, and a volunteer curly parsley. We are going to try leaving most of the herbs in the pots (except the chives we over wintered) and using the space that was occupied by last years herb garden to grow:

Horseradish! I ordered the above horseradish roots from Johnny's in the winter. They ship when it is an appropriate time to plant them in your given growing zone. The roots arrived in the middle of last week, and were kept in the refrigerator wrapped in damp newspaper until we planted them yesterday afternoon. Hopefully after the first fall frost I will be digging up enough horseradish to grow more as well as for a few batches of the delicious condiment.

In the coming weeks Gail and I will finish cleaning and preparing the plot for the growing season as well as planting, planting, and more planting!

Spring is back and so is the garden!

Harvest Monday November 15th 2010 (Final Harvest)

This week marks my final harvest of 2010. Picture above is the last of what was growing for this year in the garden:
Kale 1.996 lbs
Bringing the grand total for my first season of gardening too: 63.84 lbs!!!
I am incredibly proud of all the hard work Gail & I have done over the season. We went into this with no previous knowledge and experience with gardening and managed to produce a bounty worth being proud of!
We aren't seasoned pros or experienced gardeners, but we will certainly take our experiences with us into next years garden. Hopefully we will be even more successful!
Just because we are done harvesting for the year doesn't mean the blog will stop, in fact it will pick up with garden recaps, cooking, and future plans so stay tuned!!
Below are a couple of pictures of plot Z-1 at the Fenway Victory Gardens laid to rest until the spring...


If you want to see what others are harvesting or share in your own bounty, stop by Daphne's Dandelions the home of Harvest Monday.

Harvest Monday November 8th 2010

The growing season is almost entirely done. Nearly the entire garden is put to bed. I've packed away most of my supplies and tools. Beds are mulched with straw, covered in tarps and put to rest until the spring. We pulled the last of this years crops aside from a few Kale plants this weekend:

Leeks 1.792 lbs
Kale 15 oz
Radish 4.35 oz
Parsley 4.15 oz
Sage 2.80 oz
Scallions .25 oz
Raspberry 1.5 oz
This weeks total: 3.545 lbs/1.608 kg
Season Total: 61.84 lbs/ 28.05 kg
Harvest total in the sidebar has been updated. I am very happy we've hit another (probably the last for the season) milestone: 60+ lbs in our first year gardening! Definitely something to be proud of!
What is that at the bottom of the harvest list?? Raspberries!!!!

Gail and I managed to bring enough raspberries home that we could weigh them. Usually they don't make it home, but fresh raspberries in November made for a nice snack on Saturday afternoon!


If you want to see what others are harvesting or share in your own bounty, stop by Daphne's Dandelions the home of Harvest Monday.

What's growing for the fall?

As planting spaces open up throughout the plot we are slowly transitioning/planting fall crops. Here's what we have in the ground as of Sunday:
Kale - We were gifted 5 seedlings from fellow community gardener Marie (who provided our leeks at the start of the season). 4 of the 5 are doing really well!
Bush Beans - We planted a row of organic Fresh Pick bush beans. These are a Jade type green bean.
Butterhead lettuce - The Romaine was incredibly successful at the start of the season. Hopefully the Red Cross butterhead we planted will produce as well. Red Cross produces a mix of crimson and green heads.
Mesclun/Baby Greens - A mixed bed of Johnny's Selected Seeds Elegance Greens Mix, additional Ruby Streaks mustard greens, and Surrey (Arugula/Rocket with a 'wild arugula' look)
Onions- Egyptian/Walking Onions of course!
Beets - more Detroit Dark Red Beets! They were slow to mature and undersized in the spring because we planted late, hopefully this crop will yield larger end results.
Radish- A few interspersed plantings of Champion Radish
Spinach- A 2nd attempt at Bloomsdale Longstanding Spinach. Our spring/early planting suffered from our lack of experience and weed identification skills. Trying again in the hopes of better results.

As more space opens up I'll fill it with more greens/fall type crops.
What's to come in your fall garden?