Harvest Monday March 27, 2023

It’s time once again for Harvest Monday, where we celebrate all things harvest related. My harvests were small and green this week, as I made only two cuttings of lettuce. The heads were huge though, almost two pounds worth in total, and kept us supplied for our needs. Bergam’s Green and Starfighter are two green leaf lettuces that always seem to do well for me. Bergam’s Green makes big heads with wavy, savoyed leaves.

Bergam’s Green lettuce

The leaves of Starfighter are a bit thinner than those of Bergam’s Green, but still quite substantial. It’s leaves are slightly savoyed, and a shade lighter as well. Both of these are great on their own or when paired with a red leaf lettuce like Redina, Hyper Red Rumple Waved or Sea of Red.

Starfighter lettuce

Starfighter was a good choice for a wilted lettuce salad we enjoyed for dinner last week. That is one of my favorite seasonal treats, and we only make it with homegrown lettuce. Bergam’s Green and a bit of Redina leftover from last week went on another salad we had for lunch. For that meal we also enjoyed a slice of my fresh baked sourdough bread.

main dish salad

For that bread I used a heritage flour blend from Hayden Flour Mills that had 70% bread flour, 25% Rouge de Bordeaux whole wheat flour and 5% whole grain rye flour. I used my Pullman pan and a King Arthur Flour recipe for Easy Everyday Sourdough Bread, and I was quite happy with the results.

sourdough bread

It was a rainy week, with almost four inches of it falling here at Happy Acres, so my gardening activities were mostly confined to the greenhouse. I spent several mornings out there transplanting, seeding and potting up. It’s that time of year, and so far I am pretty much on schedule with those activities. I have lots of petunias potted up, and I will start seeds of zinnias and a few sunflowers soon. All vegetables and herbs have been started except for cucurbits like cucumbers and squashes which I will be sowing soon in 24 cell plug flats.

petunia seedlings

Out in the perennial beds, our hellebores have been blooming for a month now, and are still looking good. They have survived freezing temps, lots of rain and a little bit of snow. This double one is a favorite of mine. Other perennials are popping up, and it won’t be long before we see more blooms.

hellebore blooms

In other news, I decided to check on the nest box a few days ago to see if the bluebirds had started building a nest. I was shocked to find 4 babies inside! They looked like they were only a couple of days old, and are running about 3 weeks ahead of last year. We will have to be careful working around that area of the perennial bed where the nest box is located.

bluebird chicks

And since we still have a lot of birds visiting them, I am keeping the feeders going for a bit longer. Last week we had a Red-bellied Woodpecker visiting the suet feeder. They are one of six different woodpecker species we see here periodically. The red head on this species is much more prominent than the little patch of red on it’s belly, which is often hidden as it is feeding or moving around on a tree trunk.

Red-bellied Woodpecker

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!