Harvest Monday June 7, 2021

It’s time once again for Harvest Monday, where we celebrate all things harvest related. The spring lettuce is about to come to an end. I cut the last of the oakleaf types, and I won’t replant these until cooler weather arrives this fall. I used much of this for a salad we had for lunch one day, topped with fresh fruit, avocado and some homemade croutons from my whole wheat bread.

I do have several heat resistant leaf lettuces growing that are still sizing up. Bergam’s Green has proven to be amazingly bolt-resistant for me, even more so than Simpson Elite. This head weighed almost a pound, and we used it for wilted lettuce salad one night last week. I also have Red Sails and Slobolt planted now, and they should also hold up well in the heat. My next planting will include Batavian types like Muir, Slogun and Canasta and hopefully they will give us something edible in July.

We’ve also been adding the leaves of the Miz America mizuna to our salads, and more of it is going in a stir fry I have planned. Also going in the stir fry will be the pac choi I cut last week.

We got a modest but much appreciated harvest of cherries from our two trees. One is a sweet cherry, and the other is the North Star dwarf pie cherry. They are shaded by a giant maple tree which limits their yields. Still, we got enough for a cobbler and that was a sweet seasonal treat for us.

I was somewhat surprised to see the broccoli plants heading up already. Happy Rich is a sprouting broccoli that makes small main heads and lots of side shoots.  These gave us a brief taste of what is to come from the eight plants of spring sprouting broccoli I set out this April.

I got more kohlrabi last week, this time the green skinned Terek and the white skinned Beas. The slugs are having a field day on the skins, but I really don’t care since the damage is cosmetic and we peel the skins off anyway.

In non-harvest news, Mama bluebird has been busy and has a new nest with five eggs for her second brood of 2021. I’ve been hosting bluebirds for years, and must have seen a hundred nests by now but I never get tired of seeing them.

My wife and I managed a getaway last week to Spring Mill State Park for a picnic and some hiking. The park has several good hiking trails and an old grist mill built in 1817 that still turns out stone-ground corn meal. We had our lunch, then toured the grist mill and saw it operate before going on a little ‘moderate’ rated hike. It made for an enjoyable day, and it was great to see so many families with children out enjoying nature like we were doing. We were also serenaded by a cacophony of cicadas, as Brood X has emerged from underground after 17 years and mating is their top priority. As a bonus we brought home a bag of the freshly ground corn meal which should make some tasty cornbread.

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!