Monday, June 27, 2016

Harvest Monday 6/27/16

It has been a hot and dry week here.  Tomorrow we finally have some rain in the forecast.  I'm sure all the plants will greatly appreciate some rainfall.  I would save the best harvest for last, but I'm not good at waiting, so here's the big story of the week: my first blueberry harvest ever!


We planted three blueberry bushes in the fall, so this will probably be the one and only harvest this year.  We planted Climax, Tifblue and Premier blueberries and so far it seems that Climax is producing the biggest berries.  Tifblue had a lot of shriveled berries (I should have watered them before we went on vacation and completely forgot!).  My plan is to add a few blueberry bushes every fall until we have what I plan on calling Blueberry Lane on the edge of our property.  Surprisingly it didn't seem that the birds had discovered the berries, at least this year!

Also this week I harvested the first of the bell peppers.  These are Marconi (green) and Antohi Romanian sweet peppers (yellow).  Both would ripen to red if I would be more patient.


The summer squash are currently doing well.  I'm still waiting for the year when I get to drowned in zucchini.  I hear this happens to people, but the vine borers and stink bugs make it hard to do around here.  I am enjoying my zucchini while it is alive and producing.  I already lost one plant- it was early in the morning and the planted was wilted even though it had just been watered.  I ripped it up and searched for signs of vine borers and found nothing, so I'm not sure what caused the wilting.


Also this week I harvested amaranth greens for my daily eggs with greens.  It seems the aphid infestation has improved after I took off the row cover.  I ended up taking the row cover down after I had cabbage moths inside it on the broccoli.  I resorted to using Bt on the broccoli instead.


My onion harvest continues with more Red Creole onions.  They are not the biggest onions, but they have done quiet well for spring planted onions.


I've moved on to harvesting summer lettuce varieties: Nevada and Jericho.  I have had a horrible germination rate with my summer lettuce, so I'm going to get some started inside in hopes that it is the high temperatures and not my seeds that are preventing germination.


I've also been harvesting broccoli, which was added to a salad with the above lettuce.


Another green from the garden this week was Swiss chard, which was used to make these potato and chard cakes.


I still have plenty of beets in the fridge, so I've been looking for some exciting new beet recipes.  I made this beet, goat cheese and walnut tart (well I don't have a tart pan, so it looks more like a quiche).  It was very pretty and I thought it was delicious.  However, even though J is a fan of beets, he didn't share the love of this tart.


The last harvest this week I did not grow, but I'm happy to pick and eat: blackberries.  The wild blackberries are producing tons of berries this year.  These are probably why the birds didn't bother with my little blueberry bushes.  Luckily we can just walk around our property and the neighborhood and get plenty of berries.


I used the blackberries to make a pie, which was eaten with some homemade peach ice cream:


This is definitely an indication that it is summer around here!

Weekly harvests:

Carrots 8.7 oz
Lettuce 8.9 oz
Chard 10.2 oz
Broccoli 4.4 oz
Onion 3.7 lbs
Amaranth  14.3 oz
Summer squash  2.8 lbs
Peppers 7 oz
Okra         0.8 oz
Corn 1.2 lbs

Yearly harvest: 132.7 lbs

That's all the harvests coming from my garden this week.  To see what others are harvesting, check out Harvest Monday on Our Happy Acres.

4 comments:

  1. Congrats on those blueberries! And I love the sound of Blueberry Lane. I have to start my lettuce inside this time of year because of the temps. I'm having trouble getting beets to germinate it's been so hot here. And you're making my mouth water with that wild blackberry pie and peach ice cream!

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  2. Those are nice blueberries. Even though they grow wild around here, I did plant a few of the cultivated varieties, but birds get all of them. The rest of your harvest looks great. And I am definitely on board with peach ice cream on blackberry pie.

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  3. Wonderful, varied harvests - and peppers already? Nice! That is a lot of berries for your first year - congratulations! The blueberry bushes that I planted last year (or more accurately, they were blueberry twigs purchased through mail order) haven't even flowered yet.

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  4. That's a beautiful first blueberry harvest. You're getting so many summery things with your peppers, summer squash, and blackberries. And you're still getting lettuce which is amazing.

    I have to say, that is a very good use of your wild blackberries.

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