Harvest Monday June 19, 2023

Posted on June 19, 2023 by Dave @ HappyAcres

It’s time once again for Harvest Monday, where we celebrate all things harvest related. The garden is giving us a variety of goodies to eat now, but for me the star player has to be the blueberries. We are enjoying them atop homemade yogurt most mornings for breakfast, and also enjoying some of last year’s crop in the freezer in our fruit smoothies.

blueberry harvest

I’m still pulling spring onions as needed, and a typical harvest one morning also included zucchini and mini broccoli. The Melody broccoli may indeed be early, but so far the harvest has been small compared to other stem type broccoli I grow which is just now starting to head up. It has been disappointing to say the least.

morning harvest

Melody broccoli

The summer squash is not disappointing though. Zucchini and yellow squash are featured in many a meal, and I have begun freezing it for later use.

zucchini

Tempest squash

I got an assortment of squash one morning, and from top to bottom in the below photo we have Clarimore, Green Machine, Cash Machine, Mexicana and Tempest. We used a couple of them to make Turkey Taco Stuffed Zucchini Boats for dinner last night.

assorted summer squashes

baked zucchini boats

I also cut a few more leaves of the Winterbor kale to go with some previously harvested. I braised those for a side dish to go with fish one night. We also roasted some of last year’s Beauregard sweet potatoes that night, which are still in great shape in storage.

Winterbor kale

braised kale with fish and sweet potatoes

I’ll close with something in the future harvests department. Our container grown eggplants have begun blooming, which means eggplant will soon be on the menu! I have three AAS Winners growing in containers this year: Fairy Tale, Gretel and Icicle. They kept us well supplied with early eggplant in 2022, and I am expecting similar results this year.

Fairy Tale eggplant blooming

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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Planting Sweet Potatoes

Posted on June 14, 2023 by Dave @ HappyAcres

With a bit of work and effort I got the sweet potatoes planted here last week. That is normally one of the last things to get planted in the vegetable garden, and I usually get it done sometime in late May to early June so I am pretty much on schedule. Sweet potatoes are an easy to grow crop here, and they require a fairly long growing season and warm weather. We can easily supply both of those conditions, and they usually do quite well for me.

getting ready to plant

Another thing sweet potatoes like is a well-drained and loose soil that’s slightly acidic, and not too fertile. I like to make a ridge of soil that is 8 to 10 inches high and about as wide before planting, so the edible roots can form there. Our soil is a silty loam, with good levels of nutrients (including both phosphorus and potassium) according to recent soil tests, and I never add fertilizer to the bed before or after I plant sweet potatoes. Too much nitrogen tends to make for vigorous vines but small, spindly roots. For a heavier soil, the ridge might need to be a bit higher. And if soils are lacking in nutrients then modest amounts of fertilizer may be needed.

sweet potato plant

In years past I bought slips for planting, but the last few years I have made my own slips using sweet potatoes from the previous year. If you order sweet potato slips, they will often arrive in the mail looking wilted and you might wonder if they will live. The slips are tough though, and should do just fine if kept well watered until they are established. To read about how I start my slips, you can read Starting Sweet Potatoes, while Sprouting the Sweet Potatoes has tips on how to encourage them to sprout earlier. The are several advantages to growing your own, starting with the fact they take off faster since they have a well-developed root system. They also won’t have disease problems, assuming you had no issues the year before. And another good thing is: they are free!

spacing out the plants

Based on several sources, the recommended spacing between plants is anywhere between  12 and 18 inches apart. I’ve experimented with several different spacings over the years, and I now try and set the plants somewhere between 15 and 16 inches apart in the row. I like to sit the pots down the row before I start planting to make sure there’s room for all the plants I want to grow. This year I set out 29 plants in a ridge that was about 40 feet long, which averages just over 16 inches between plants. Setting them farther apart generally results in larger roots, at least in my experience, while planting closer can result in smaller roots but possibly a bit higher total yields. This year I am growing the Murasaki, Purple, Beauregard, Korean Purple and Bonita varieties.

all planted

I set the plants a bit deeper than they were growing, firming the soil well around each plant. If you are setting out slips they should be planted 3 to 4 inches deep. Then I give them a good watering, and I’ll keep them well watered for a couple of weeks until they start to grow. I tilled up the bed the day before planting, and I was able to make a ridge and get everything planted and watered in just over an hour.

firming soil around plant

planted in ridge

And that is the how I plant our sweet potatoes here at Happy Acres. In our garden the vines are rarely bothered by pests, but if it weren’t for the fencing they would likely be nibbled on by rabbits, groundhogs and deer. I also rotate my crops so sweet potatoes and other vegetables aren’t grown in the same place every year. Once planted, they need about an inch of water per week either from rainfall or through supplemental irrigation. In a few days I will be laying a soaker hose down the length of the bed, and mulching with cardboard to help conserve moisture and keep down the weeds.

For more information about growing sweet potatoes check out these sources:

Sweet Potato Growing Guide (Southern Exposure Seed Exchange)

Growing Sweet Potatoes in Missouri (University of Missouri)

How To Grow Sweet Potatoes (University of Illinois)

The Sweet Potato (Purdue University)

 

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Harvest Monday June 12, 2023

Posted on June 12, 2023 by Dave @ HappyAcres

It’s time once again for Harvest Monday, where we celebrate all things harvest related. This week we have some new additions to our harvests, including some we eagerly await each year. Our blueberries have begun ripening, and we got our first taste of them last week. For those not familiar with growing them, the berries grow in clusters that don’t all ripen at the same time. That means harvesting them takes a bit of time, and my wife usually does most of that. We enjoy them at breakfast time with our homemade yogurt, or mixed with other fruits for a snack. We freeze any extras, but these first ones will likely all get eaten quickly.

first blueberries

cluster of blueberries

Another first was hot jalapeno peppers. I picked a pair of Pot-a-peno peppers (say that three times fast!) from a potted plant. These have just the right amount of heat to add a little zip to many dishes, including the bean tacos we had for lunch one day. This 2021 AAS Winner does great for me in containers, and also gives us peppers earlier than the ones planted in-ground. They are tasty when ripe, but I couldn’t wait that long for these first ones.

Pot-a-peno peppers

We also saw the first zucchini set on last week, a light green Middle Eastern type called Clarimore that has a mild flavor. This one is always an early and dependable performer for me here.

Clarimore squash

And that first zucchini was soon followed by another, this time a dark green one I’m growing for the first time called Noche. It’s not quite as dark as night like the name would suggest, but it is a definitely dark green with glossy skin. The spineless plants make picking painless too. Of course, in a couple of weeks we will be freezing extra zucchini like we do the blueberries. The frozen squash does well in soups and stews, and I even use the frozen zucchini in my fruit smoothies.

Noche zucchini

I cut more curly kale last week, this time the hybrid Winterbor. I used it to go in a batch of kale and sweet potato hash I cooked one night for dinner, using some of our Purple sweet potatoes from storage. I blanch the kale for about five minutes before adding to the sweet potatoes after they are cooked, and then let them cook together in the cast iron skillet until well heated. That’s as close to a recipe as I have for this easy to cook favorite.

Winterbor Kale

Kale and Sweet Potato Hash

And I pulled another one of the Forum onions to use in various dishes. I am impressed with this variety, since it makes big green tops and we use a lot of the tops in cooking. This one was a useful addition to the bean tacos and a frittata we had for lunch yesterday.

Forum onion

The arugula in the greenhouse is struggling in the heat but I managed to get one more cutting for use on a pizza. I’m keeping the container well-watered, and I hope to get a few more leaves before it bolts.

arugula harvest

Another first harvest was a couple of spears of Melody broccoli. It’s my first time growing this mini broccoli, and though the first ones were early I haven’t seen any more setting on just yet. I also have Burgundy and Artwork planted, along with the broccoli/cauliflower cross Jacaranda which did well for me last year.

Melody broccoli

In non-harvest news, our resident bluebird pair have been quite busy so far this year. They had two broods fledge already, and the female has laid six eggs in nest number three. I’m assuming it is the same female, though it’s impossible to know for sure. Regardless, that’s a lot of young bluebirds coming out of that nest box and it is a joy to me to see and hear them here pretty much year round.

bluebird eggs

I’ll close with a new flower that just opened up, a Japanese Iris called Fortune. At least that’s what the label said when I bought it, although it looks nothing like the one on the website! It’s lovely though, and it adds a bit of color to the pollinator and butterfly garden area.

Fortune iris

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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June Garden Update

Posted on June 8, 2023 by Dave @ HappyAcres

Today I want to give an update on the vegetable garden and how it’s doing here in early June. The last couple of weeks I have been busy fertilizing, spreading compost and planting. At this point, I have everything planted except the sweet potatoes, and I hope to get them set out by the end of this week. The bed with brassicas was planted out in late April, while the other end of that bed was planted with bush squashes in mid-May when the soil warmed up a bit. That is a no-dig no-till bed that is covered with weed barrier fabric, like most of my beds this year. The brassicas are getting big now, and I have sprayed them with a B.t and neem oil combo several times to control the cabbage moth caterpillars.

brassicas in bed

Some of the cabbages are even beginning to form heads already, and the giant Kossak kohlrabis are sizing up nicely too. Slugs have not been an issue so far, no doubt partly due to our drier than usual weather conditions. I’m growing the early cabbages Green Presto and Quick Start this year, along with the somewhat later flathead variety Sweet and Tender.

cabbage heading up

Kossak kohlrabi

There are a few weeds that sprout up in the planting holes I cut in the fabric, but they are easily controlled. I find there are less weeds than with my old method of planting and mulching using newspaper covered with straw. The fabric is also easy on my aging knees when I have to kneel or crawl around to plant or weed!

weeds in planting hole

broccoli after weeding

The bush squashes I planted at one end of the brassica bed have been blooming for about a week now and are starting to set fruit. The light green Clarimore zucchini is the first to set fruit this year, with the yellow squash Tempest not far behind. I planted two bush acorn types (Goldilocks and Starry Night) in the bed also and they have just started blooming.

Clarimore zucchini

Tempest squash

I planted another bed with small-fruited tomatoes and slicing types on 5/14, and those plants are really growing. I am using my cages made from concrete remesh material, which I have been using for several years now. This is another no-dig no-tell bed, as are all the beds this year except the one where I will be planting sweet potatoes.

Purple Zebra tomato

The rest of the tomatoes, mostly paste and processing types, are in another bed along with eggplants at one end. I got those planted at the end of May.

Granadero paste tomato

I used the remesh cages for the indeterminate types like Juliet and Granadero in this bed, and the folding metal cages for the short vine tomatoes like Health Kick and Plum Regal.

Health Kick tomato

I set out the pepper plants a few days ago. They are looking good so far, and since we have entered drought mode here I went ahead and put a soaker hose on top of the pepper cages.

pepper plant

I’ve found that running the soaker hose along the top of the cages works well when the plants are small. Careful placement of the hose results in the plants getting well watered. Once the plants get bigger, the canopy of leaves will prevent the water from getting to the roots and I will run the hose along the base of the plants.

soaker hose

The last thing I got planted was the pole beans, which went in this morning. I used my trenching hoe from Lee Valley Tools to make a shallow trench and loosen up the soil just enough to get the bean seeds sown and covered. I watered this bed in by hand after sowing, and I will run a soaker hose along the length of the bed in a day or so. I’m growing all heirloom type beans here except for the 2017 AAS Winner Seychelles.

making trench to plant beans

Tomorrow I will begin getting the bed ready to plant sweet potatoes, which will involve loosening the soil with a tiller and then making a ridge about 8 to 10 inches high and wide before setting out the sweet potato plants at the top of the ridge. I hope you have enjoyed this tour of the garden here in June, and I’ll be back soon with more happenings from Happy Acres!

 

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Harvest Monday June 5, 2023

Posted on June 5, 2023 by Dave @ HappyAcres

It’s time once again for Harvest Monday, where we celebrate all things harvest related. We’ve had drought conditions here for several weeks now, and last week the weather turned hotter than usual. Daytime highs were 90°F or higher, and it was over 100°F in the greenhouse every day. That kept me busy keeping things watered as best I could. It didn’t keep me from working outside in the garden, though I’ve been doing it early in the morning, starting around 6AM and then working for a few hours before having a late breakfast. More on the planting later, after I mention a few harvests I made last week.

assorted lettuces

I cut the last of the lettuce from the greenhouse, and we enjoyed it in salads a couple of times. I will plant again in late summer, when temps moderate. I choose not to grow it in summer, since I think it’s just not worth the effort to grow it and other cool season leafy greens in what is most definitely NOT the cool season here! I’m not trying to grow everything myself, and frankly I’d rather spend my limited time and energy on other things. We will have plenty to eat from the garden in the warmer months, and the first summer squashes are blooming already. The brassicas are coming along nicely too, and I cut some of the Starbor kale last week to use in meals. It’s a standard hybrid curly kale, with plants that get a little over a foot tall.

Starbor kale harvest

leaves of Starbor kale

I’ve also been pulling spring onions as needed. I’m growing the Forum variety from sets, and they were recommended by grower friends Roger and Mary Winstead who own Beautiful Edibles Grow farm. We visited their place last month and I swapped some Korean avocado squash seeds with them for the onion sets, which they grow for both scallions and larger onions. I planted them where collards grew last fall, three to a hole in the weed barrier fabric. My plan is to pull two from each spot as scallions and leave one to get larger. I am impressed so far, and I have already ordered some more for fall planting.

Forum onion sets before planting

Forum onions

My wife took our meager cherry harvest and made a cobbler for dessert last week. It’s one of my favorite ways to eat cherries, and our recipe uses white whole wheat flour for added nutrition.

cherry cobbler

In planting news, I got all the peppers planted last week, and finished planting the vining type squashes last week as well. The peppers are going in another no-dig no-till bed that is covered with weed barrier fabric. This has become my favorite way of planting most of the garden, and so far I have had nothing but good luck. When we visited Beautiful EdibleS Grow farm, I immediately noticed that Roger and Mary use the same material I do for all their plantings. They are located only a couple of miles away from us, and if it works for them in a commercial operation it should work here for us.

planting the peppers

The lack of rain did meant it took a bit more effort to dig each planting hole, but my trusty Wilcox trowel does the job well. I set out right at 40 pepper plants, plus I had 6 larger plants that were overwintered indoors. I had to dig a hole with a shovel for those plants, and I added the material around the plants after they were in the ground.  All of these will be supported by metal cages that have big opening to make harvesting easier. Most of the plants will end up growing taller than the cages, which are about two foot high when stuck into the ground. The cages give good support for the plants and I have been using them successfully for quite a few years now.

pepper plant after caging

And in news from nature, a big hawk has been hanging out around our garden all week. I believe it is a Red-Shouldered Hawk, and we have also seen it sitting in our mulberry tree out back of the house. The mulberries are ripening, and the tree has a lot of smaller bird visitors, so I guess the hawk is looking for a meal at the small bird buffet!

hawk sitting on weather station

hawk on ground

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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