Harvest Monday May 14, 2018

Welcome to Harvest Monday, where we celebrate all things harvest related. The heat wave continues here, as we’ve definitely skipped spring this year and moved straight into summer. The temperatures have been up around 90°F for several days now, and I have been trying to work outside early in the morning before it heats up too much. The asparagus doesn’t mind the heat though, and we continue to get a nice cutting every day. We’ve gotten 11 pounds so far, and we’ve been eating it every which way we can. The jar I fermented a while back was ready to eat after four days, and I started a second jar a few days later. It’s a good way to use the smaller spears, which ferment quickly but still stay crunchy.

I’ve been pulling all the overwintered kale in the greenhouse to make room for planting cucumbers. The kale is all flowering now, and the aphids are moving in, so it’s time for it to go. There’s a pound of True Siberian in the Tubtrug in the below photo, and despite the heat the leaves were still tender and mild tasting.

The greenhouse lettuce is also holding up amazing well in the heat. I keep it watered daily, which helps, but I’m sure it would be happier if it was a bit cooler. It’s the red oakleaf Garrison and green Tango in the below photo.

I also harvested some greens for a deconstructed egg roll dish I made for dinner one night. I cut some leftover Napa cabbage seedlings that were big enough to eat, plus pak choi and mizuna I had growing in the greenhouse and cold frame beds. It’s Miz America mizuna plus Bopak and Mei Qing pack choi along with the cabbage. Aphids have also found the pak chois, but they rinsed away without too much effort. The dish included ground turkey for the meat and the stir fried greens along with garlic, ginger, sesame oil, soy sauce and dry sherry for seasoning. I added some shiitake mushrooms when I was cooking the meat. My wife and I declared the dish a keeper, and it was a great way to use up a mess of greens. I can see making it again when I have some full grown cabbage to go in there.

We have a lot of bearded iris starting to bloom now. They may not be edible, but they sure are eye candy for us to look at. We don’t know the name of this beauty, but she has light colored frilly standards and an orange beard on the dark purple falls. I am guessing we are not the only ones with lost plant tags and unknown cultivars in the garden!

In the wildlife department, the bluebird babies have fledged and are out and about. The parents were so protective I only got one brief peek at the babies, and didn’t even attempt to get a photo. That’s a good thing, them being protective, though we had to be careful working and walking around the nest box area since they were quick to swoop down on us to chase us away. They had no sooner gone than a male took up residence and started singing his mating songs. I haven’t seen a female yet, but he has been persistent. I doubt that it’s the male from the nesting pair, as I imagine they are busy taking care of five young bluebirds.

And in the active life department, my wife and I did a local 5K race Saturday morning. The event is a benefit that raises money for upkeep and maintenance of the local walking/running trail that goes along the river. It was a great day for a race, though a bit warm even at 8AM. We did a combination of walking and running with no goal in mind other than finishing upright and smiling, which we did while sprinting for the finish line. We were having so much fun the race photographer didn’t even have to tell us to smile for the camera! It’s our third 5K this year, and we are ramping up our efforts as we plan for the Evansville half marathon this fall. We last did this race in 2009, and it will be my first half in my (yikes) sixties! Gotta use it or lose it I say, and it will be an interesting summer once we start ramping up the mileage.

Harvest Monday is a day to show off your harvests, how you are saving your harvest, or how you are using your harvest. If you have a harvest you want to share, add your name and blog link to Mr Linky below. And be sure and check out what everyone is harvesting!