Monday Recap: The June Swoon

It is June, and I am almost giddy with excitement. And why is that, you might ask? Because the garden is mostly all planted and I am through babysitting hundreds of little plants. That seems to happen every year about this time. I still have to plant sweet potato slips, but that is on my schedule for today or tomorrow. Much of the garden has been mulched with paper and/or straw too, and I will continue working on that this week. And we still have another planting session for the Impact Community Garden. But the greenhouse is no longer bulging at the seams, and that is a good thing indeed.

Another reason to be excited is that we are seeing some ‘new’ faces in the harvest basket right about now. Like the first kohlrabi of the season, in the below photo.

There’s more kohlrabi to come. I think I planted around 25 or so plants of it this year. That’s Kolibri in the above photo, which was the first to size up this year. Winner won’t be far behind. I also have the big Kossak variety planted, which takes a bit longer before it’s ready. You can see one of those plants in the below photo.

I also harvested some Red Ursa kale last week. I’ve got it and Beedy’s Camden growing in one of the cold frame beds. The cold frame is protecting the plants from the pesky critters, but the kale is starting to get too tall for the cover to close. I need to come up with another solution, perhaps some sort of frame to hold netting? I would like to keep the cold frame bottom, but rig something up that would cover the plants inside, maybe something with a PVC frame. I can always take the top off temporarily. I am open to any suggestions anyone might have.

I have surely been enjoying the spring lettuce this year. I guess a rainy April made it grow big and lush leaves. I cut a head of Simpson Elite last week for wilting. And we used some of the Oakleaf for a taco salad. I need to get replacement plants in the ground soon so there will be lettuce for later this month.

In the future harvests department, there are a few garlic scapes that are ready to harvest. Red Janice and Uzbek are two hardneck varieties that were early to put out scapes. These Asiatic/Turban types aren’t good keepers, but they do have earliness going for them. And good flavor, for that matter. It’s my wife’s week to cook (yes, we take turns) so I need to see if she can work some scapes in her menu. Maybe with some Garlic Scape Pesto? That would be yummy! The one in the below photo looks fuzzy, but it’s really little drops of dew that were on it early in the morning.

Some of the broccoli is starting to head up. That’s Packman in the below photo. I am looking forward to fresh homegrown broccoli. It will be nice to have it when the asparagus is through. And speaking of asparagus, we’ve hauled in 21 pounds so far, and we plan on harvesting another couple of weeks as long as the size holds.

Our sour cherries are starting to ripen. We will only get a few from our small tree, but it is a good start. My wife and I plan on going to a local orchard to pick more cherries for the freezer. We did that last year, and it was nice to have a few more than usual for use throughout the year. Like for the chocolate cherry muffins I make but haven’t yet written up the recipe for sharing here.

And as is usual, our large mulberry tree is loaded with ripe fruit right about now. That brings in lots of birds to feast on the tasty little berries. It remains to be seen whether it keeps the birds off other fruits, but there are usually plenty left for us. I know the mulberries themselves are edible, but I haven’t yet acquired a taste for them.

I’ll close with an image from a foggy morning showing the view from our front porch.