Monday, May 8, 2017

More Strawberries!

This week has been filled with spring goodies.  The harvest basket below sums up what's been going on in the garden this week: 


I love the color combinations of red and green with a little pop of purple!  On the bottom of the basket is a pile of oregano.  My oregano has been growing and growing, so I trimmed it back before it started to flower.  I dried the oregano for using later.

I have never tried eating chive flowers, so that was a new culinary adventure this week.  I tried them in my breakfast with greens and eggs.  They definitely add a nice kick tasting somewhere between garlic and onions.  They also make my breakfast much prettier.  If you start the day eating flowers, it's going to be a good day!

The peas are producing a bit more now.  I do think the aphid population has decreased, so I'm going to claim victory for me, the ladybugs and dragonflies!  The peas that were covered with aphids are looking sickly, but the rest of the pea patch seems to be doing well.  We love to snack on raw peas, so I haven't made any dishes with them.

Of course the star harvest continues to be the strawberries.  This week brought in 6 1/2 lbs of strawberries!  Besides just popping them in our mouths while picking them, my snack of the week has been yogurt with strawberries.


I also dipped them in chocolate.  Delicious and very easy!


We've also been eating plenty of strawberries in smoothies.  I froze some of this week's strawberries to be used later in smoothies.  I've thought about making some strawberry jam, but it hasn't happened yet. Freezing strawberries it so much easier than breaking out the canning stuff!


Besides all the strawberries, I've had a bit of greens from the garden this week.  The spinach is beginning to bolt, so I harvested most of them.  I also thinned my Swiss chard seedlings.  This year I'm growing Perpetual Swiss Chard for the first time, so I'm hoping it does well.  Swiss Chard is usually my reliable year round green.  The mesclun mix salad has been cut this week, so we are eating salads daily.  We had a decent amount of rain and cooler temperatures this week, which has made the spring crops happy.  Unfortunately it has also made the weeds happy too!


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.

24 comments:

  1. I'm envious of your strawberries. There's too much competition from critters in my garden for me to be able to harvest more than an occasional berry.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This is my first year with strawberries, so I'm sure the critters will find them eventually so I need to eat as many as I can now!

      Delete
  2. Agree with Michelle. Envious. Thinking to give mine another day to ripen perfectly, I come back the next morning and they are gone! Critters, slugs, whatever out compete even with bird net covering the precious berries

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's very frustrating! I've definitely had some slugs snacking on mine, but the birds and squirrels haven't found them... yet!

      Delete
  3. Look at all your strawberries and peas. So great! Fresh strawberries are just sublime.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I can almost taste those lovely strawberries! I'm with you on freezing them, it's so easy. We've been having them in smoothies too but they're not homegrown.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Freezing has become my go to preservation method, so easy!

      Delete
  5. I believe that's about 3 kilograms of strawberries, well done.

    The chive flowers sound interesting. I would never had thought they would have such a strong taste, there you go.

    Enjoy those lovely salads too. I'm a huge fan of salads and a big veggie eater. Coriander adds such a great flavour too.

    Kylie

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. One thing that's great about growing a garden is I'm inspired to eat so many more veggies. I have to stuff myself to keep up at times!

      Delete
  6. I too am envious of your strawberries and also your peas. Freshly picked vine ripened strawberries, I am drooling.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Your spinach is starting to bolt and mine has barely grown - I seeded it last month but it's just been too cold. Hopefully they'll put on a big spurt of growth in the warm days to come as I need to get that bed cleared by the end of the month.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hopefully you've gotten some warm days to get things growing. I'll be jealous of your weather come July, August and probably September too!

      Delete
  8. Lovely harvest! Chocolate covered strawberries are mouth watering:)
    I keep homemade strawberry jam (strawberry, sugar and lemon juice) for about 6 weeks in the fridge. I don't can, only use sterilized jars. Easier than canning.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That strawberry jam definitely sounds easy and tasty!

      Delete
  9. Envious of all those strawberries! Mine is a new patch and I have to cut the flowers off till August! I have been enjoying pea shoots but no peas yet. Nancy

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's so hard to cut off the flowers in the first year, but worth it in the long run!

      Delete
  10. Isn't it funny? Sometimes the hardest part of the harvest is having the produce by the time you get to the house:). (Am I the only one who grazes?)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Peas and strawberries are the most likely to not make it into the house!

      Delete
  11. LOVE the strawberries! I don't have enough room nor the time in one place to keep them going but we did go to a farm and buy some fresh picked the day I bought them. I bought 20 lbs and made jam's. I also froze two gallons for smoothies or desserts. YUM.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Beautiful harvest basket this week!

    ReplyDelete
  13. I also froze two gallons for smoothies or desserts. YUM.


    Royal1688

    ReplyDelete