Harvest Monday April 18, 2022

Posted on April 18, 2022 by Dave @ HappyAcres

It’s time once again for Harvest Monday, where we celebrate all things harvest related. Lettuce is still our biggest crop now, and we are enjoying it on a regular basis. Starfighter is a green leaf lettuce that makes fairly large heads, and this one weighed in at over a pound. Sea of Red continues to give us plenty of leaves to add color to our salads too. They kept us well supplied last week.

Starfighter lettuce

Sea of Red lettuce

I have cilantro growing in containers in the greenhouse, where it does quite well until it starts to bolt. I snip a few leaves as needed, and don’t usually get photos of them. This time I did and I got a few leaves of flatleaf chives to go with the cilantro.

cilantro and chives

Parsley is another herb I have growing in the greenhouse that gets used here quite often. For this batch I got a few of the I’itoi perennial onions to add to a tabouli salad I made last week. The taboili went well with my wife’s curried chicken salad, and a thinly sliced piece  of toasted sourdough bread completed our lunchtime meal. We like our tabouli with lots of parsley and this time I cut plenty of it.

parsley and I’itoi onions

tabouli with curried chicken salad

And I cut what will surely be the last of the purple sprouting broccoli from the plants in the greenhouse. It wasn’t a great year for it, but we got enough to enjoy it for several meals. I used a mix of the PSB and the collard rapini from last week to make a skillet pasta dish we enjoyed for dinner one night. I sautéed them in olive until crisp tender, then added to cooked farro fusilli along with lemon juice, garlic and grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese.

purple sprouting broccoli

rapini with pasta dish

In other news, I am trying something new (for me) this year: starting radishes indoors in trays. I plan to interplant these with kohlrabi in a week or so. I have another container out in the greenhouse that I sowed with radish seed to see how they do for me that way.

radishes sprouting

And in the good news department, mama bluebird has done a stellar job of tending to her eggs in our colder than usual spring weather. I found three babies when I checked the PVC nest box last week. Only the female incubates the eggs, since she has a featherless spot on her abdomen called a brood patch which allows her to use her body heat to warm the eggs. I have been hosting bluebirds for almost 40 years now, and I never cease to be delighted when a new brood hatches. The ones in the photo are about a week old, and at 17-18 days of age they typically leave the nest.

bluebird babies

Things are beginning to bloom now in the perennial border. Our Korean Spice viburnum has gotten quite large, and is in full bloom right now. The fragrance is heavenly, and perfumes the air all around it.

Korean Spice viburnum

viburnum blooms

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!

 


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Harvest Monday April 11, 2022

Posted on April 11, 2022 by Dave @ HappyAcres

It’s time once again for Harvest Monday, where we celebrate all things harvest related. Salad greens continue to be on the menu here, and I’m pretty happy about that. I cut a bit of Sea of Red last week to add color to our salads. And I harvested a few leaves of mizuna, pac choi and baby leaf kale to add to our salads as well.

Sea of Red Lettuce

baby greens

With lots of parsley in the greenhouse, it was time to make some tabouli salad. I had to use store bought tomatoes which were pretty bland, but the parsley had plenty of flavor to add. I predict this will be on the menu again soon, since my wife and I both enjoy it so much  and there’s plenty of parsley.

flat leaf parsley

tabouli salad

I had a surprise harvest from the vegetable garden last week. I hadn’t checked on the collard greens in a while, and I was surprised to see them flowering already! I cut quite a bit of the rapini, as well as about a pound of the new leaves. The rapini are quite tasty when sautéed or steamed, and I plan to add them to a pasta dish we’re having tonight.

harvest of collards

rapini and collard leaves

In non-harvest news, I made a loaf of sourdough rye bread last week. I baked it in a Pullman pan with the cover off, which gave it straight sides and a rounded top.

sourdough rye bread

The bread made a good, sturdy base for meatless Reuben sandwiches we had for lunch one day using our homemade kohlrabi sauerkraut and Swiss cheese.  We used the panini press to grill the sandwiches, which browned them up on the outside and melted the cheese a bit.

meatless Reuben sandwiches

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!


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April Greenhouse Tour

Posted on April 7, 2022 by Dave @ HappyAcres

It’s time for another virtual tour of our greenhouse to show what’s growing in there in early April. It’s always a busy place this time of year, as I move seedlings from inside under the grow lights to grow on in the greenhouse. I also have lots of greens growing in spring, which keep us supplied for salads and such. I took advantage of warm-ish weather to work in the greenhouse Thursday morning, doing cleanup and potting up some additional greens.

greenhouse before cleanup

I generally plant most of these salad greens in containers, and they do quite well that way. I add a little fertilizer and compost at planting time, and they only need regular watering after that until they are ready to harvest. This year I have arugula, pac choi, mizuna, sorrel and lots of lettuce planted. I’ve got most of the containers sitting on the ground in one of the beds, which will get planted in cucumbers next month. I harvest most of these on an as-needed basis, cutting lower leaves and leaving to plants to grow on.

containers of greens

Central Red mizuna

I started early eggplant for containers back in February, which usually gives us fruit at least a month before the ones planted in the ground. I also started a few early  tomatoes, which I plan to grow in the greenhouse beds. For the eggplants I am growing Gretel, Fairy Tale and Icicle – all AAS Winners. For the tomatoes I started Red Racer, Pozzano and Sugarpeach. All have been potted on at least once now, and are ready for planting as soon as danger of frost is past. That will likely be another couple of weeks, since a freeze is forecast here for Saturday morning.

eggplant and tomatoes

I also started quite a few petunias in February, and they are all out in the greenhouse now. Some have even started blooming, and several more are budding up. We’ll grow these in containers outside, and I usually give away quite a few to friends every year. I believe I potted up over 50 this year, so we will have plenty to share!

flat of petunias

I pretty much always have a few parsley plants in the greenhouse, and this time of year the overwintered plants are big and lush. We use parsley quite often, and it is great to have it on hand and fresh most of the year.

parsley

I have lettuce planted both in containers as well as in ground plantings. The plants in the beds have gotten quite large, and we have been enjoying them in salads for a couple of months now. Bergam’s Green and Slobolt hold quite well, and I will set out a few more plants in hopes they size up before hot weather comes.

salad boxes of lettuce

Bergam’s Green lettuce

I’ll close with a photo of how the greenhouse looked after my cleanup efforts. It could still use a good sweeping out, but at least I can walk around better now! It was also a pleasant way to spend my morning.

greenhouse after cleanup

I hope you enjoyed this look at what’s growing in the greenhouse. I’ll be back soon with more happenings from Happy Acres – including Harvest Monday!

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Harvest Monday April 4, 2022

Posted on April 4, 2022 by Dave @ HappyAcres

It’s time once again for Harvest Monday, where we celebrate all things harvest related. Lettuce is still our main harvest these days, which is not a bad thing since I love what I call ‘salad season’. I cut a small head of a green oakleaf early in the week for one meal. I am replanting with new plants every time I harvest, so we should be supplied for another month or so.

oakleaf lettuce

I am cutting baby greens as needed. This batch had mizuna, pac choi and Tuscan Baby Leaf kale. I have these growing in containers in the greenhouse, and they do quite well for me grown that way. The baby greens add additional color and flavor to our salads.

baby greens

Later in the week I cut a giant head of Bergam’s Green lettuce that weighed over two pounds! That one fed us for several meals, and I still have a few leaves of it left. One salad creation I made last week had black lentils and pumpkin seeds for protein, and a homemade balsamic vinegar and olive oil dressing. I topped it with croutons I made from some of our whole wheat bread. The radish was not home grown, though it is about time to sow some seed for it here.

Bergam’s Green lettuce

salad creation

And I made another small cutting of purple sprouting broccoli from the greenhouse plants. This will probably be the last of the season, since I pulled most of the plants during a greenhouse cleaning last week.

purple sprouting broccoli

Speaking of the greenhouse, it is full of seedlings these days, along with plantings of leafy greens and herbs. Some of the Easy Wave Sky Blue petunias have started blooming already. I am staying busy keeping all these babies watered! I plan to do a greenhouse ‘tour’ soon.

Easy Wave Sky Blue petunias

Outside, the hellebores are continuing to put on a show. Along with the daffodils, they are the first flowers to bloom for us here and give us a much needed bit of color early in the season.

hellebore

Anna’s Red hellebore

In other news, I thought that some of my readers might be interested to know that Fred Hempel of Artisan Seeds has a Kickstarter project going to breed Bicolor Slicer Beefsteak hybrids. Last year I grew his Benevento hybrid, which is a red beefsteak tomato with yellow stripes that has heirloom flavor along with the vigor of modern hybrids. It was truly a standout in our 2021 garden, and had a starring role in many of our meals. It has great keeping qualities both on and off the vine, and the fruits stay firm yet juicy and flavorful.  Fred is now trying to breed a bicolor beefsteak tomato that will meet the same, exacting standards he had when developing Benevento. For those interested in supporting independent tomato breeders, and a chance to get first dibs on the new Bicolor Beefsteak Tomato seeds from Artisan Seeds, you can do so here: Our Tomato Holy Grail – A Bicolor Beefsteak Slicer.

2021 Benevento tomatoes

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!


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Harvest Monday March 28, 2021

Posted on March 28, 2022 by Dave @ HappyAcres

It’s time once again for Harvest Monday, where we celebrate all things harvest related. I’m harvesting greens here on an as-needed basis. Last week I cut some Sea of Red lettuce and a small head of butterhead lettuce for use on salads.

butterhead lettuce

Sea of Red lettuce

I also made a cutting of baby mizuna and pac choi I have growing in containers. The Miz America mizuna and Violetta pac choi add color to the green Mizspoona Salad Select, and all are mild tasting enough to add to salads.

baby mizuna and pac choi

One salad we had for lunch used the lettuce and microgreens for a base. I topped it with flageolet beans and nuts for protein, and a homemade raspberry dressing.

salad bowl

For another meal, I used some of our sweet potatoes from storage to make Sweet Potatoes Anna. I sliced a trio of sweet potatoes, tossed with a 50/50 mix of butter and olive oil, and baked in a cast iron skillet until crispy around the edges. Using the mandoline slicer makes quick work of the preparation, and also makes for slices of uniform thickness.

Sweet Potatoes Anna

Another dish I made last week featured some of our purple sprouting broccoli: Lemon Broccoli Pasta. I sautéed our purple sprouting broccoli in olive oil until just crisp tender, then tossed with cooked whole grain farro fusilli. I added lemon juice, roasted cherry tomatoes and grated peccorino romano cheese. I look forward to making this dish again when our broccolini is in season.

Lemon Broccoli Pasta

In other news, mama bluebird has decided that spring has arrived. She built a nest in our PVC nest box, which now has five eggs in it. With the weather turning cold, I’m sure she is spending a lot of time on the nest to keep the eggs warm.

bluebird nest with 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 be sure and check out what everyone is harvesting!


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