Harvest Monday June 21, 2021

It’s time once again for Harvest Monday, where we celebrate all things harvest related. The spring veggies are still coming in even as more summer crops join our meals. I made another cutting from the sprouting broccoli plants, this time Artwork and Burgundy. We enjoyed this batch roasted as a side dish for dinner. It will be all side shoots from this point on, though I have to say that with the warm weather we’ve been having I suspect the broccoli’s days are numbered.

I pulled a couple of the big Kossak kohlrabi last week. These weighed almost two pounds each, and after peeling will be easy to grate into kohlrabi kraut. We also use Kossak for fresh eating, and even at this size they are tender and not woody or tough. These two are destined for fermenting though. They have a bit of slug damage but a lot less than the ones I have planted behind the greenhouse. So far they have also not been splitting either, which I find can be a problem with kohlrabi when we have a rainy spell.

I also pulled the first head of spring cabbage. This is Green Presto, and this head weighed just over two pounds. If I get a cucumber from the greenhouse in a few days I will make a batch of Garlicky Dill Pickle Kraut using the cabbage and cucumber. I didn’t set out a lot of cabbage this spring, just enough to make a couple of jars of kraut plus some for fresh eating. That’s an Astia zucchini hanging out with the cabbage.

We get modest daily pickings of blueberries now. We have been enjoying these fresh on our morning muesli. My wife is in charge of the blueberry harvests, for which I am grateful.

I also began harvesting the first blackberries last week. This is Natchez, my current favorite of the thornless types. The berries are large and sweet, and I have been eating them fresh along with the blueberries. I also have one plant each of Osage and Sweetie Pie I set out in 2018 as test varieties. They are both fairly well loaded with berries that are not quite ripe just yet. This will be the first year I get a big harvest from these two, and I hope to make up my mind whether I want to plant more of them.

The summer squashes are setting on nicely now. I picked one each of the yellow Tempest, the two-tone Zephyr and the light green Mid-East type zucchini Clarimore. It will be time to start freezing them soon, but so far we have kept up with the harvest by eating them.

I’ll close with a pic of one of our bee balms I set out last year. Sugar Buzz Cherry Pops only gets about two feet tall, and is loaded right now with cherry red flowers. I saw a swallowtail butterfly getting nectar from it recently but I didn’t have my camera ready before it flew away. Bees also love it, not surprisingly given the common name for it! We have an assortment of monarda planted here, but this compact one is definitely my new favorite. The tall ones tend to flop over on their neighbors so I keep them in the middle of the garden next to other tall plants like Crososmia, Ratibida pinnata (Greyhead Coneflower) and Joe Pye Weed. We also have Sugar Buzz Blue Moon planted which has lavender colored blooms and the same compact habit.

I found an old flag holder in the shed awhile back, and asked the Artist-in-Residence at Happy Acres (my wife Lynda) if she could make a new flag for it. She’s got the base made, and I can’t wait to see the finished product!

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!