Harvest Monday March 31, 2025

It’s time for Harvest Monday, where gardeners from all over celebrate all things harvest related. I’m continuing to feel a bit better day by day as I recover from my recent surgery. I’ve done a bit of light work in the greenhouse, and my wife continues to help with watering and other chores. I harvested a big head of lettuce last week to use in our salads. And I cut more mixed greens (baby kale, mizuna and pac choi) to go along with the lettuce.

Starfighter lettuce

salad greens

salad with mixed greens

I also cut a mix of Winterbor and Starbor kale from the greenhouse planting, which is starting to bolt to flower now. Both these kales and the baby leaf varieties have done quite well in the winter greenhouse and kept us supplied.

curly kale

And the collards have done well too. They are also bolting to flower, and I got a good sized cutting of leaves from them last week. This is a mix of varieties, mostly leftover plants from my fall planting in the vegetable garden.

collard greens

I love the sturdy greens in soup, and much of the kale wound up in a pot of Ribollita soup I cooked up last week. We got two meals out of this batch, and the leftovers were even more tasty. I served the soup over some of my toasted sourdough bread, which soaks up the broth.

Ribollita Soup

And in non-harvest news, mama bluebird has five eggs in our PVC nest box. We should have babies in a couple of weeks, and both male and female have been visiting our birds feeders on a regular basis.

bluebird eggs

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 please check out what everyone is harvesting!


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Harvest Monday March 24, 2025

It’s time for Harvest Monday, where gardeners from all over celebrate all things harvest related. This will be a short report for me this week, as I am still recovering from my recent surgery and doing a lot of resting. I did get a nice head of Starfighter lettuce from the greenhouse for use on sandwiches and cold wraps. There’s more lettuce ready now out there, and hopefully I will be in the mood for salads again soon.

Starfighter lettuce

And I got a cutting of Winterbor kale last week for use in soups. This one and Starbor have done very well this winter in the greenhouse, despite our cold winter weather.

Winterbor kale

I love the kale in soups, and some of this batch wound up in a pot of soup I made with cannellini beans, kale and tubetti pasta, with a bit of leftover rotisserie chicken in as well. It ticked all the boxes for me and my wife.

soup with beans, kale and pasta

In non-harvest news (or should I say ‘mews’?), Nurse Ally Cat has been taking good care of me during my recent recovery from surgery. She makes regular visits to my room to check on me, and her bedside manner is purrrrr-fect! My wife Lynda has been taking good care of me too, and I am well on my way to recovery. I still won’t be doing any gardening for a few more weeks though, at least until I get my stitches out in early April.

visit from Ally

Lynda has found out how much ‘fun’ it is keeping a greenhouse full of baby plants watered and alive. She is checking the plants daily and doing a great job! Some of these will need to be planted soon and I will need her help with that too.

lettuce seedlings

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 please check out what everyone is harvesting!


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Harvest Monday March 17, 2025

It’s time for Harvest Monday, where gardeners from all over celebrate all things harvest related. It seemed like spring finally arrived last week, and our daffodils began blooming to announce the moment. This clump was here when we bought our place, and they have bloomed every year since. We have more varieties planted, but these are always the first to bloom for us. My wife did find a few crocuses blooming by our front walk as well.

early daffodils

purple crocuses

I got a bit more lettuce from the greenhouse, plus some mixed salad greens that included baby kale, mizuna and purple pac choi. We love adding these “sturdy” greens to our main dish salads.

greenhouse lettuce

mixed salad greens

I also got a cutting of the curly kale I have growing in there. This lot will likely wind up used in soups.

curly kale

Salads will be on hold here for a bit though, as I recover from my recent carotid artery surgery. I got back home Saturday, and I have big incision in my neck and a lot of swelling plus a bit of numbness and a sore throat. I will be eating softer foods in the days to come, like scrambled eggs, fruit smoothies and soups. It did turn cooler here Sunday, so soups will be both comforting and warming. I can’t do any lifting or strenuous work, so my wife will be taking over greenhouse watering duties for me. I also can’t drive a car for a week or two, so she will be doing any shopping for us. Thankfully the surgery went well, and so far I have had no complications other than the expected pain and swelling.

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 please check out what everyone is harvesting!


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Harvest Monday March 10, 2025

It’s time for Harvest Monday, where gardeners from all over celebrate all things harvest related. We had one more dusting of snow last week, which thankfully didn’t last long as the temperature warmed up shortly afterwards. If it seems I talk about the weather a lot, gardeners know how it matters. The temps have been yo-yoing back and forth between winter and spring here of late, and warmer weather is in the forecast for this week.

dusting of snow

I got one small harvest of lettuce last week, and that’s about all. It was enough for a salad, and I have been busy planting more in the greenhouse for our later use.

mixed lettuce leaves

I did cook up a batch of vegetable soup last week using our frozen veggies from last year’s garden plus  bit of fresh kale from the greenhouse. The frozen veggies included green beans, squash, tomatoes and cubes of kohlrabi.

Vegetable Soup

And I baked a batch of Ligurian Focaccia bread last week to go with our soups and salads. Topped with fresh rosemary before baking, the whole kitchen smelled heavenly that morning!

Ligurian Focaccia bread

In non-gardening news, I will be having some elective vascular surgery this coming Friday. That will likely slow down my activities for a week or two, but I plan on being back here for Harvest Monday next week!

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 please check out what everyone is harvesting!


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Photo Friday: Seen At The Feeders

Today I thought I would share some photos I got of recent visitors to our bird feeders. The big pileated woodpeckers have been almost daily visitors, and they are quite a sight when they show up since they are so big. There are at least two, since I’ve seen both a male and female feeding on the suet cakes. They seem to prefer the feeder with the tail rest, and I try and keep it stocked up for them and the other visitors. The male and female birds look nearly alike, except the male has a splash of red on his cheeks.

female Pileated Woodpecker

male Pileated Woodpecker

They also occasionally visit the suet ball feeder, though they seem to have a harder time hanging on to it.

Pileated Woodpecker at suet ball feeder

The small Downy Woodpeckers seem to do well on all the suet feeders we have out. They are the smallest North American woodpecker, while the Pileated Woodpecker is the largest.

Downy Woodpecker

Downy Woodpecker

I sometimes see several birds feeding at once, and even some waiting in line for their chance. We have chickadees, goldfinches, cardinals, house finches and bluebirds as regular visitors here.

bluebird and finches

bluebirds, cardinal and finches

The Red-Bellied Woodpecker is another frequent visitor, usually chowing down on suet at one of the feeders.

Red-Bellied Woodpecker

I hope you have enjoyed seeing photos of some of the visitors to our feeders here in late winter. I’ll be back soon with more happenings from Happy Acres!

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