Harvest Monday June 14, 2021

It’s time once again for Harvest Monday, where we celebrate all things harvest related. We are getting a bit more variety in our harvests these days other than the spring greens. I made the first cutting from the Apollo sprouting broccoli plants last week. I sauteed them for a side dish and they weren’t quite as tender as the ones from Happy Rich I cooked up the week before, though still tasty. The Artwork plants are heading up too and should be ready soon. I set out eight plants of broccoli this spring, two each of the varieties mentioned above plus two of the purple sprouting type Burgundy.

I cut a huge head of napa cabbage last week from the Soloist variety that weighed right at four pounds. That is enough to make a half gallon of kimchi, which is what I plan to do with this head. The slugs had a field day with the outer leaves, but it will clean up nicely and once fermented any holes won’t hurt the flavor any. I also have a variety called Wah Wah Tsai planted which is supposed to make smaller heads. Unless I am fermenting it, I really don’t need giant heads of cabbage for just the two of us!

I also pulled a few more kohlrabi that the slugs have been feeding on. Slugs are truly the number one pest we have for the early veggies, and I always struggle to keep them under control. There was over three pounds of them in this batch which was enough for fresh use plus a quart jar of fermented kohlrabi pickles.

I got the first zucchini of the season from my Astia plant I have growing in a grow bag. There are quite a few of the summer squashes starting to set on in the main vegetable garden, so it won’t be long before we are up to our ears in them. I freeze a lot of it for later use, where it finds its way into soups, stocks and even my morning smoothies.

I still have a few heads of spring planted leaf lettuce sizing up in the greenhouse. I pulled one head of the Bergam’s Green last week to use for a wilted lettuce salad. The quality is still good on this lettuce despite the hot conditions in our early summer greenhouse.

Every year I start several different colors of Wave petunias from seed. They give us color in the summer months, plus they get visited by butterflies and hummingbirds. Easy Wave Berry Velour has rosy-red flowers and does quite well for me in containers. I set out these plants by our driveway where they brighten up the otherwise drab concrete. The Wave types don’t need deadheading like many petunias do, though I do usually cut them back in mid-summer if they start getting a bit leggy.

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!