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.
red and green oakleaf lettuce
lunch salad
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.
Bergam’s Green lettuce
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.
Miz America mizuna
Mei Qing pac choi
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.
cherry harvest
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.
Broccoli Happy Rich
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.
Terek and Beas kohlrabi
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.
bluebird nest with eggs
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.
us at the entrance to park
me outside the grist mill
climbing up the trail
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!
Nice to see you out on the trails again Dave! I’m pulling out the last of our broccoli today, we have a few calabrese/cauliflower plants still to harvest and some early kale (sown January) will go to seed soon and give us florrets for a month. Other than that we won’t have any flowering brassicas now until Autumn. This is the one sacrifice we decided to make as a result of growing in 2/3 of the space we had last year : All the best – Steve
Cherries already? Your salads always look so interesting. That wooded trail looks like my kind of place.
All the harvests look fantastic! You remind me that I need to search for some heat resistant lettuce. You do a great job of extending the harvest. Your little getaway looks like perfect fun–hiking, nature, history and food.👌
Oh so many things to comment on. Do we ever tire of seeing bluebird eggs? For the first time in our 30 years we are seeing bluebirds in our yard occasionally. Missing broccoli but enjoy! We’ll have to wait until January or so. Doesn’t it feel good to get out to the wild?
All your harvests looks so good! With all the different veggies and varieties you grow, how do you store your seeds long term? Winter shopping the seed catalogs makes me go a bit overboard, and it always ends up being too much!
I keep the seed at room temp in plastic containers. I don’t have room to freeze or refrigerate them, and this way works for me.
Same here. They seem to last well enough, often far longer than it says on the packet actually!
why do all your photos of choi look bug eaten
It is slug damage Ray. Slugs love the leaves.
I have never seen mizuna that colour Dave, I must see if I can find some like that over here in the UK. After your inspiration I grow Khol rabi every year, usually as a late Summer crop but this year am attempting an earlier sowing. At least they are up, even if a long way off cropping