Harvest Monday May 21, 2012

This week marks the first harvest of the season! Though we've harvested a few chives, a bit of sage, and one horseradish root already it was all harvested while we were in the process of cleaning and planting for this season so this weekend was our first harvest from what we've planted this season, as well as chives - the gift that keeps on giving! 

Saturday we arrived at the garden ready to plant our warm weather crops and some more herbs, but first we had a little bit of harvesting and thinning to take care of.

Our first harvest of the season

Thought it wasn't a huge harvest it was a tangible one. We took home:
Radish 5.25 oz
Chives 6 oz
Arugula 12 oz
Total harvest this week: 23.25 oz / 1.453 lbs
Total harvest this season: 34.65 oz / 2.166 lbs
It's been a hectic few weeks which has kept us away from the garden for the most part, so it was nice to  have something delicious to bring home when we finally did make it there!
Hopefully this harvest will be the first of many!!
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.

Another Mushroom Harvest

No visits to any local Winter Markets this weekend as I was busy helping out my family and unable to plan a trip, so instead I am providing an update on the Back To The Roots mushroom kit.
Though it was slow going with the second fruiting we were able to finally get a small harvest last week.

When we left for Florida one side of the kit was showing a few signs of fresh growth and a few dried out mushrooms that seemed to stop growing out of nowhere. When we returned I saw this entire patch had grown in the 4 days we were gone! A small and unexpected harvest of 2.65 oz.
The kit looked to have lots more growth in it so I soaked it for an additional 24 hours between Thursday & Friday night and returned it to the box hoping for another fruiting (or 2 or 3).
I have also added a mushroom harvest tally in the left hand column to keep track of current and future harvests!

Growing Mushrooms in the Kitchen!

Last month Gail and I picked up a Back To The Roots Mushroom Kit at our local whole foods. The kit is a block of used coffee grounds inoculated with Oyster Mushroom mycelia. Activating the kit was as simple as soaking it overnight in water (we initially tried it without this step with no results, however as soon as the block was soaked and drained mushrooms started growing). Once activated a few sprays of water 2 or 3 times a day is all the attention the mushrooms really need.  On the days that I was working from home I would check in on the mushrooms a few times a day and could visibly see growth! In 8 days we harvested a 4 oz clump of Oysters Mushrooms. After the harvest, we turned the kit around and are now trying a second crop on the back side! Here's a few pictures documenting the rapid growth, which was really amazing!

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 6

Day 7

Day 8

It was really cool to see how quickly these grew. Though they are not my favorite I am attempting to eat more mushrooms and have also been learning about mushroom cultivation and growth. I look forward to learning and growing more!

2011 Harvest Totals & Thoughts

Closed for the season: this guy spends his winter as a boot guard at our front door.

The garden is closed and packed away for the year. A midst a weekend of both rain and snow (very early for Boston) Gail and I hurriedly closed down the garden and finished winterizing on Sunday. It's a bit on the early side, but the weather has been crazy & I have lots going on with work and life, and there wasn't much left to do. For record keeping purposes here is a look at this year's harvest/
2011 Harvest Totals:
Arugula: 2.45 oz
Basil: 2.21 lbs
Carrots: 4.18 lbs
Dill: 1.35 oz
Garlic: 1.11 lbs
Horseradish: 1.44 lbs
Huckleberry: 1.80 lbs
Lettuce: 1.96 lbs
Kale: 1.53 lbs
Marjoram: 2.35 oz
Mesclun Greens: 11.95 oz
Mint: 1.0 oz
Parsley: 1.35 oz
Peppers:
--Bell 3.87 lbs
--Cubanelle 2.63 lbs
--Gypsy 1.89 lbs
--Jalapeno 2.63 lbs
--Wax 3.68 lbs
Radish: 1.48 lbs
Rosemary: 3.00 oz
Sage: 7.60 oz
Scallions: .85 oz
Swiss Chard: 11.45 oz
Tomato: 29.38 lbs
Walking Onion 7.45 oz
2011 Total: 64.57 lbs (1033.19)
This is just a hair over last year's total of 63.84 lbs! Between the 2 growing season's the quantities were vastly different in some cases, and almost the same in others.
There were a few total failures this year:  no beets, broccoli, bush beans, dry beans,  leeks, & zucchini grew at all this year.
The failures were offset with some great success's. The carrots, chives, horseradish, huckleberry, peppers, radish, sage, and tomatoes did really well. I won't be growing the huckleberries next year - they tasted downright terrible fresh, though they have a much better taste cooked with sugar for jam purposes they were a nice addition for my cranberry jalapeno jam. I still have some frozen, along with cranberries for another batch next year! I over planted horseradish and took home more then enough for the condiment and for re-planting!
I was happy with the walking onions, and will continue replanting some! Most of the herbs did really well too, especially the sage which really took off.
This year was a hectic but fun season gardening and I am already planning for next years season!!

Final Harvest Monday 10/24/2011

It's that time, the final harvest for 2011 was this past week. Aside from some leftover herbs we also harvested a fairly nice pile of horseradish:

The root on the far left of the above photo was definitely the biggest, coming in at about 6 ounces, it was about the size of a fairly large parsnip! I managed to save 8 good sized roots to plant  and pass on to others as well.
All in all I was able to pull nearly 1.4 lbs of horseradish root out of the ground!!! Given how deep the roots went, I don't think I managed to get them all, and it wouldn't surprise me if there were a few volunteer horseradish plants popping up next year.
Here's what made up the final harvest for 2011:
Chives 5.00 oz
Dill .35 oz
Marjoram .90 oz
Rosemary .75 oz
Sage 1.65 oz
Horseradish 1.3875 lbs (22.20 oz)
Total for the week: 1.93 lbs (30.85 oz)
Total for the 2011 growing season: 64.57 lbs!!
Just a hair under 3/4 of a pound more then we grew last year, which makes Gail very happy! I will have a recap and breakdown posted sometime next week.
All that is left to do in our little plot is clean up and put the garden to bed!

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.

Long overdue harvest update! Monday October 10 2011

It's been a while! Due to traveling for weddings, Jewish holidays, and family gatherings we've barely had time to do much gardening and harvesting, but over the last 2 or 3 weeks we managed to harvest a nice little haul, including the below picture of our wonderful carrots that Gail and I are incredibly proud of! We pulled these up yesterday afternoon after some serious weeding. 

After many trials and tribulations we successfully harvested some really wonderful carrots, and not just 1 or 2, but a few pounds worth!!! I also pulled my 'tester' horseradish plant, it was the smallest of the lot because it was shaded out by the rest of the horseradish plants and other herbs, but it gives me hope - the remaining plants were easily 3 or 4 times larger then this one, so hopefully the roots will be a little bigger then what we brought home.

No complaints though, I still get to make a wee bit of horseradish with the 'tester' roots!

 Below is a look at the rest of the harvest over the past few weeks:

Swiss Chard: 11.45 oz

Tomato: 6.95 lbs (111.25 oz)

Radish: 2.65 oz

Carrots: 3.725 lbs (59.60 oz)

Rosemary: 1.25 oz

Dill: 1.0 oz

Sage: 2.35 oz

Mint. .10 oz

Horseradish .85 oz

Total for the last few weeks: 11.90 lbs (190.5 oz)

Total for the season: 62.75 lbs (1004.10 oz)

We are inching closer to last years total of 63.84 lbs. With only some herbs & horseradish plants left it is going to be a very close call if we hit the mark, but we are so close it feels good that we grew approximately the same amount in different quantities this year!

Harvest Monday September 19 2011

Another week, another great harvest, including some great looking carrots, the last of our peppers and some more delicious tomatoes!!
Here is a look at this weeks harvest:
Tomato - 7.92 lbs (126.65 oz)
Carrots - 4.60 oz
Bell Pepper- 3.00 oz
Jalapeno Pepper- 5.65 oz
Gypsy Pepper-4.25 oz
Wax Pepper-14.00 oz
Cubanelle Pepper- 1.26 lbs (20.25 oz)
Total for this week: 11.15 lbs (178.14 oz)
Total for the season: 50.85 lbs (813.60 oz)

Crossed the 50 pound mark! Only 13 lbs  or so to match last years total. It is going to be very close, but I think we can do it. All in all I am impressed with the nearly 15 lbs of peppers we grew this year from only 6 plants, especially the Jalapeno's. 2 small plants kept going and going until this weeks cold finished them off.

For the upcoming week I am going to weed, turn, and amend the soil for garlic planting, and slowly transition some stuff to fall garden and transition some stuff to bed.

Doulbe Harvest Update

Life has been a little hectic the last few weeks, which is why there was no harvest Monday last week, but it was for a VERY good reason... Gail and I got engaged!!!!!!
There has been a lot of celebrating and unfortunately that cut down on some gardening time, as did the 5 straight days of rain we had, but I still do have a nice harvest tally from the week leading up to labor day and then from yesterdays haul as well.
Here is our harvest from the last few weeks:
Tomato 6.38 lbs (102.15 oz)
Radish 14.85 oz
Jalapeno 9.85 oz
Wax Peppers 9.80 oz
Bell Pepper 5.65 oz
Gypsy Pepper 3.75 oz
Total for the 2 weeks: 9.13 lbs (146.05 oz)
Total for the season: 39.71 lbs (635.45 oz)

We are inching closer and closer to 40 lbs, 50 lbs, and hopefully passing last year's 63 lbs mark. We have some friends weddings as well as other additional events in the next few weeks so gardening time is at a premium, but I've got garlic to plant, horseradish to harvest, a few additional carrots, radishes, herbs, and lots more still growing!!!

Harvest Monday August 29th 2011

The trickle of tomatoes and peppers kept rolling along this week as we had a few decent sized harvests. We also harvested the first few french breakfast radishes which you can see poking out of the bowl of jalapenos in the lower left hand corner of the above photo.

Here is a look at our full harvest for the week:

Jalapeno Peppers - 8.35 oz

Cubanelle Peppers - 3.65 oz

Gypsy Peppers - 7.85 oz

Bell Peppers - 1.47 lbs (23.65 oz)

Wax Peppers - 12.00 oz

Tomato - 2.92 lbs (46.80 oz)

Radish - 1.85 oz

Rosemary - .45 oz

Sage - 1.0 oz

Basil 3.0 oz

Total for the week: 6.787 lbs (108.6 oz)

Total for the season: 30.58 lbs (489.40 oz)

Almost halfway to last year's harvest total!! I am curious to see how close we come to last years total- I guess only time will tell.

With the high winds, tons of rain, and threat of damage from hurricane Irene we will see what next weeks harvest entails. We are also planning to redo the exterior fence around our garden next weekend.

Harvest Monday August 22nd 2011

Another week, another harvest slowly rolling in. This post is a little rushed as it is late Sunday night and I have just returned from a beach weekend, so not so much details besides the nitty-gritty of what was harvested this week:

Tomato: 1.72 lb (27.55 oz)

Rosemary .35 oz

Oregano: .75 oz

Mint: .10 oz

Bell Pepper: 3.60 oz

Cubanelle Pepper: 3.85 oz

Wax Pepper : 4.05 oz

Jalapeno Pepper: 2.45 oz

Total for the week: 2.67 lbs (42.70 oz)

Total for the season: 23.80 lbs (380.75 oz)

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 August 15th 2011

The tomatoes continued to roll in a few at a time this week, while I did my best to pick any peppers that had sized up before they started to rot, which has been a problem lately due to the colder temperatures and recent rains. I've lost a few wax & jalapeno peppers as a result. I'm slowly cutting some herbs down and bringing them home for drying, meaning a slight uptick in the minuscule herb totals. I also harvested the last of the huckleberry for the year. The one huckleberry plant yielded 1.8 lbs of berries! I could have let the plant grow into the fall until the cold killed it off, but the space it was in was destined for some additional Kale and in desperate need of tidying so it was time for the plant to go.

This Week's Harvest:

Tomatoes 2.09 lbs (33.50 oz)

Jalapeno Peppers 3.25 oz

Cubanelle Peppers 2.45 oz

Bell Peppers 3.50 oz

Wax Peppers 2.45 oz

Huckleberry 5.60 oz

Walking Onion 4.80 oz

Oregano .20 oz

Mint .20 oz

Rosemary .15 oz

Sage 1.75 oz

Total Harvest for this week: 3.62 lbs (57.85 oz)

Total for the season: 21.14 lbs (338.20 oz)

A little more planting for fall and next spring this up coming week, and hopefully warm enough temperatures that I'll be bringing home a few more red tomatoes! Watching them trickle in 1 or 2 at a time is maddening!

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

Harvest Monday August 8th 2011

It has been a very productive week in the garden! The previously mentioned plethora of peppers was great. We got a nice mix of all the peppers we have available in the garden including quite a few orange ones which was an improvement on last year! We also so the striped roma tomatoes start to roll in as well!

Here is what we harvested this week:

Bell Peppers: 9.65 oz

Cubanelle Peppers: 7.85 oz

Gypsy Peppers: 5.30 oz

Jalapeno Peppers: 8.80 oz

Wax Peppers: 7.85 oz

Tomatoes: 13.35 oz

Carrot: 1.65 oz

Basil: 1.42 lbs (22.65) oz

Sage: .35 oz

Rosemary: .25 oz

Mint: .25 oz

Total Harvest for this week: 4.87 lbs (77.97 oz)

Total for the season: 17.52 lbs (280.35 oz)

This coming week calls for some on and off rains, which will be helpful for some of the fall crops I've already planted, but will most likely lead to fewer trips to the garden until it clears up!

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

First Paste Tomato

The first Striped Roma paste tomato was brought home on Wednesday!!! It looks like there are a few more ready to turn a vibrant mix of red and yellow that may make it home before the end of the week!

I've updated the Tomato Watch in the sidebar with this year's first tomato harvests!

Harvest Monday August 1st 2011

Peppers. A plethora of peppers is what we got for this weeks harvest. Along with a basket of dry (finally!) garlic and one more Cherokee Purple tomato! Still waiting on a Striped Roma but I have a feeling they will all come at once! You can see the garlic along with the bell pepper and the Cherokee Purple I brought home on Wednesday. More peppers came on Friday(see picture below) and on Sunday we brought another 6 Jalapeno's home, along with a container full of huckleberries!

Here's what we harvested this week:

Garlic(dry): 7.25 oz

Huckleberry: 11.10 oz

Pepper (Bell): 4.95 oz

Pepper (Cubanelle): 4.20 oz

Pepper (Gypsy): 3.40 oz

Pepper (Jalapeno): 4.70 oz

Pepper (Wax): 3.05 oz

Tomato: 5.90 oz

This week's total: 2.78 lbs (44.55 oz)

Total for the season: 12.65 lbs (202.40 oz)

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

Harvest Monday July 2th 2011

After the serious heatwave this week, heading to the garden yesterday morning it felt positively balmy at 85 degrees! I did some overdue weeding of the front of our plot, including pulling an old 6 foot long water pipe from the ground.

We also pulled our zucchini plants because we were not able to get any zucchini due to the pesky rabbits eating any fruit that set. Our bush beans, and now our pole bean have similar problems. I may have to give up on the pole beans altogether if they keep getting attacked so ravenously. We also harvested what was left of the remaining mesclun greens and pulled the rest for the compost pile.

Not everything was terrible though, we took home a nice variety of peppers, some chives a few baby carrots and more!

Here is a look at this weeks harvest:

Carrots: 1.00 oz

Chives: 8.00 oz

Huckleberry: 6.85 oz

Mesclun Greens: 1.50 oz

Mint: 0.35 oz

Oregano: .50 oz

Pepper (Bell): 7.85 oz

Pepper (Gypsy): 5.65 oz

Pepper (Wax): 2.00 oz

Sage: .50 oz

Total for this week: 2.1375 lbs (34.20 oz)

Total for the season: 9.51 lbs (152.20 oz)

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

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 July 11th 2011

The harvests keep rolling in!! summer is definitely here with some heat and humidity that my peppers and tomatoes have really loved!

This weeks harvest is all about variety. Included in the harvest is the 3 heads of test garlic I mentioned last week that were dry enough for our liking. I also harvested the final 2 heads of Red Cross Butterhead lettuce. One of them is pictured here:

We also got down the basil (see below) and Gail made our first batch of pesto cubes!

This Week's Harvest:

Lettuce (Red Cross Butterhead) 1.056 lbs (16.9 oz)

Chives .55 oz

Walking Onions 2.65 oz

Huckleberry 1.50 oz

Raspberry 1.50 oz

Green Garlic 2.45 oz

Garlic 3.35 oz

Basil 9.75 oz

Total for the week: 2.416 lbs (38.65 oz)

Total for the season: 6.25 lbs (100 oz)

The dry beans and min-zucchini have had some critter issues so we will see if we get a harvest from them. The bush beans were so ravaged that I pulled them before they could anything. It's a constant battle against bugs, critters, and the weather. What's a gardener to do?!

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!

Testing Garlic

As I mentioned on Monday Gail and I pulled some garlic this week as 'testers' for what is still in the ground. We previously pulled a few weaker stalks and ate he small heads as green garlic, along with some garlic scapes.

We pulled a random sampling of garlic plants and ended up with 3 more heads of green garlic as well as 3 heads of normal garlic - 2 softneck 1 hardneck that are drying out ahead of the main harvest which will come in the next few weeks.

Here is a better look at the garlic that made it home with us on Monday.

These 'spring garlic' heads are just a little smaller then their full size counterparts:

Here are the 3 bigger heads that we pulled:

As you can see the we wrapped the softnecks around the hardneck and are drying them together in our kitchen:

With space limited this is good practice for when we have much more to dry all at once.

All in all the garlic has been fairly successful so far. The cloves were planted a little to close together, so some heads have come out smaller then I would like but overall it is a minor adjustment I can make for next year!

Harvest Monday July 4th 2011

The Garden is starting to take off and kick into the heat of summer. Below is our incredibly fresh harvest as it was harvested today after a hard day of work and the great 4th of July Picnic/Barbecue the Fenway Garden Society threw. Here's what we harvested after some hard sweaty work this morning:

Chives: 4 oz

Mesclun Greens: 2.90 oz

Green Garlic: 1.25 oz

Lettuce (Red Cross Butterhead): 12.65

Total for this week: 1.3 lbs (20.80 oz)

Total for the season: 3.834 lbs (61.35 oz)

We also harvested 3 heads of non-green garlic which I will add to the harvest total once they are dried out.

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.