Harvest Monday February 8, 2021

Posted on February 8, 2021 by Dave @ HappyAcres

It’s time once again for Harvest Monday, where we celebrate all things harvest related. The weather has been cold, wet and dreary here lately, as it seems winter has truly arrived. I am happy for whatever winter harvests we get, and thankful for the veggies and fruit we have in the freezer and in storage. I used some of the frozen tomato sauce to make a bean enchilada casserole last week, and more sauce went onto a pizza for topping. The casserole has all the flavors of enchiladas, with beans, cheese and sauce. It is a bit easier to make though, and a good use for any broken tortillas. I also used some of my homemade guajillo chili powder to season the sauce, which gave it just the right amount of little heat for me.

Two Bean Enchilada

Also on the pizza was fresh arugula from the greenhouse. I’ve got the arugula growing in containers, and it is one of my favorite pizza toppings.

arugula

I made a large (for us) cutting of purple sprouting broccoli. I cut a main head from Santee, and side shoots from the early maturing Burgundy. The fresh broccoli is a real treat this time of year, and we most often roast it or sauté it.

Purple Sprouting Broccoli

As of last week, all the collard greens I planted last fall were still alive. Some looked better than others, to be sure, but all seemed alive. They aren’t growing much, but there are still a lot of edible leaves on the plants. The heirloom Ole Timey Blue has colored up well in the cold weather, while the green leaves of the hybrid Flash have taken on a slight pinkish tinge. I’ve been cooking up all the varieties I planted last year and doing taste tests to guide my planting for this year. The Alabama Blue I cooked up last week was especially tasty, and I want to see how the Ole Timey Blue compares. The leaves from Flash may end up in soup.

Ole Timey Blue and Flash collards

From the greenhouse, the Sea of Red lettuce has colored up a deep shade of red, and though the plants aren’t full sized I am cutting a few to add color to our salads.

Sea of Red lettuce

Saturday night we got a little bit of snow, brought in by a blast of arctic air. The temperatures are forecast to be below normal for a week, with the highs below freezing for several days in a row. It will be interesting to see how the outside garden looks this time next week. Inside, it is seed starting time and I already have lettuce and parsley coming up under the lights. It won’t be long and I will be starting the spring brassicas. The busy time of year for gardening is about to begin!

snowy February scene

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 February 1, 2021

Posted on February 1, 2021 by Dave @ HappyAcres

It’s time for Harvest Monday, where we celebrate all things harvest related. It’s another year for Harvest Monday, and hard to believe I’ve been hosting it for over five years now. Despite it being winter, I’m getting regular if small harvests from the main garden and the greenhouse. We’ve had fairly mild weather so far, and that has left the winter greens in good shape for harvesting and eating. We’ve really been enjoying the collard greens, and have been eating them on a regular basis all winter long.

Yellow Cabbage Collards

White Mountain Cabbage Collards

Alabama Blue, Top Bunch and Hen Peck collards

We’ve also enjoyed kale on several occasions, including the Dazzling Blue lacinato and White Russian. I have more kale planted in the greenhouse but I haven’t harvested any of it yet.

Dazzling Blue kale

White Russian kale

The greenhouse lettuce is also keeping us well supplied. I cut some Slobolt for wilting, and heads of Salanova Red Butter and Mirlo for salads. I’ve also got Violetta pac choi and Central Red mizuna to add to our salads.

Slobolt lettuce

Salanova Red Butter lettuce

Mirlo lettuce

And I made the first cutting of the purple sprouting broccoli in the greenhouse a couple of weeks ago. This first batch was the Burgundy variety, and I have Santee ready to harvest soon. I don’t get huge amounts of the PSB, but even the small harvests are so welcome in these cold winter months.

Burgundy broccoli

In non harvest news, I got my first dose of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine on Saturday. I had signed up on a local hospital’s waiting list several weeks earlier to receive ‘leftover’ doses they had on hand at the end of the day. My wife got her first shot a couple of weeks ago, and is due for her second shot next week. I had no ill effects from the vaccination, other than a sore arm much like you might get from a flu shot. I am scheduled to get my 2nd dose in three weeks. I understand some are a bit achy and sore after the 2nd shot, but I consider that a small price to pay given the protection the vaccine provides. I am hopeful the U.S. and the rest of the world can finally begin to turn the corner on this deadly virus.

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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January Greenhouse Tour

Posted on January 28, 2021 by Dave @ HappyAcres

Today I want to give a virtual tour of our greenhouse and show what’s growing in there this January. I generally grow winter hardy greens and herbs plus brassicas like purple sprouting broccoli this time of year. Right now it is jam packed full of plants in containers and those planted in the u-shaped beds that run down both sides and the back of the greenhouse.

the greenhouse in January

I have herbs like cilantro, sage, mint and winter savory growing in containers to give us a few fresh herbs in the colder months.

And I have several parsley plants growing in the ground at one end of the greenhouse. All of these tolerate the cold winter conditions and do quite well for me.

parsley growing in bed

I’ve got Violetta pac choi and Central Red mizuna growing in containers. We mostly use these greens in salads and soups.

Central Red mizuna

The last few years I’ve had good luck growing purple sprouting broccoli in the winter greenhouse. I’ve already cut the main heads of the Burgundy broccoli, and the Santee variety is now heading up too. I have ten broccoli plants in the greenhouse beds, and they have sized up nicely since I planted them last October.

side shoots of Burgundy broccoli

Rudolph is a later variety, and the mix of the three should give us modest harvests of PSB through the month of March.

Rudolph broccoli

Kale is another brassica that does extremely well in the winter greenhouse. I’m growing Mars Landing and Purple Moon for the first time, and both have done well so far.

Mars Landing kale

Purple Moon kale

The other kale varieties I’m growing are old favorites like Western Front, True Siberian and Groninger Blue Collard-Kale. These three make tasty kale rapini when they start blooming in late winter and early spring.

True Siberian kale

I have a few lettuce plants growing at one end of the beds. Bergam’s Green has done quite well this winter, and Simpson’s Elite always does well for me. Slobolt is listed as a summer lettuce but I’ve found it tolerates colder conditions as well.

Bergam’s Green lettuce

I’ve got quite a bit of lettuce planted in my salad boxes. Sea of Red is my new favorite red leaf lettuce, and colors up quite nicely when grown in the greenhouse. We’ve been eating on the lettuce since late last year, and I’ve been replanting the bare spots with young seedlings as I harvest.

Sea of Red lettuce in salad box

I’ve also got several plants of green butter head lettuce growing in containers. Sometime I harvest just as they begin heading up, and sometime I let them go longer depending on what we need in the kitchen.

Mirlo lettuce

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

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January Garden Tour

Posted on January 24, 2021 by Dave @ HappyAcres

Today I want to show what’s growing out in the vegetable garden in late January. So far we have had a fairly mild winter here, with little snow and a bit warmer than usual temperatures. As a result, many of the cold hardy vegetables are still going strong in the garden.  A few weeds are growing too, though not enough to get me out there in the cold to weed! Last fall I put away all the folding cages I use for peppers and eggplants, but I have no place to store the larger remesh tomato cages so they stay out in the garden all winter.

the garden in January

I left a few daikon radishes in the ground that didn’t size up before freezing weather arrived. Some of them sized up, but they don’t look all that well. I need to pull one or two and see if they are worth eating.

daikon radishes

The collard greens are looking good though, and I am amazed at how hardy they have proven to be. I set out about 30 plants in all, and they have been keeping us well supplied with greens all winter.

collard greens and kale

I also set out about a dozen or so plants of kale, and they are also doing well. White Russian is one of my favorites for flavor, and it is quite hardy in our garden too.

White Russian kale

Some varieties of collards are holding up better than others. It’s my first time growing the Hen Peck variety, and it looks as alive today as it did before the weather turned cold. There seems to be variations in the listings for this heirloom variety, and I got my seeds from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange which didn’t even have a photo listed.

Hen Peck collards

The Purple variety is also holding up well. This heirloom from the Seed Savers Exchange is highly variable in the size and shape of the leaves and plants.

Purple collards

Green Glaze is another collard I got from SESE that has held up exceptionally well. It is tasty when cooked too. That said, they all seem to have a better flavor this time of year after numerous frosts and freezes.

Green Glaze collards

I have several hybrid collard greens planted, and they are holding up so far. Top Bunch is one I’m growing for the first time, and I think the flavor of it is definitely improved by frosts.

Top Bunch collards

The turnip greens are alive, but showing a lot of frost damage. I’ll leave them until time to start spring planting, and they may grow out with some new leaves. These are the All Top variety that is grown for the leaves only since they don’t make edible roots. I’m also growing the Topper variety.

turnip greens

Also showing a lot of frost damage is the Portuguese kale Tronchuda Beira. Like the turnips, I’ll let these plants grow on at least until I begin planting in spring. With all the kale and collards we are not wanting for greens to eat though!

Tronchuda Beira

I also have a few kale plants growing in a cold frame bed behind the greenhouse. They are covered only with bird netting to keep the deer from eating them. Starbor is a hybrid curly kale that I’ve grown for years and is very hardy for me here. I sometimes plant it in the winter greenhouse but last fall I set out these plants in the cold frame bed.

Starbor kale

Also growing in the same bed is a kale I’m growing for the first time called Mars Landing. I’ve been harvesting the young leaves for baby greens but I haven’t gotten a good taste of the full grown ones yet.

Mars Landing kale

I hope you have enjoyed this tour of our garden in January. I hope to be back soon with a greenhouse tour, and Harvest Monday starts back on February 1.

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Planning the 2021 Garden

Posted on January 4, 2021 by Dave @ HappyAcres

Around this time of year, I usually start to get serious about garden planning. I like to begin ordering seeds about now, and before I can do that I need to do a seed inventory as well as get some ideas about what I want to grow in the coming year. I’ve been working on my 2021 plan for some time now, and I believe it’s about finalized. There are always last-minute changes to my list of course, and sometimes things change even at planting time if I run out of room or lose seedlings.

2021 seed catalogs

Last year I made a conscious decision to scale back the garden by 30-40%. I was literally gardening more and enjoying it less, and I am happy to say I was pleased with the 2020 plan and how things turned out. I spent a lot of time working in the garden, and I enjoyed it quite a bit more than I had in previous years. Even with less planted, we still brought in over 700 pounds of fruit and vegetables, which kept us well fed with fresh food and filled the freezer and pantry with preserved foods. I also feel like I did a better job keeping up with things like weeding and mulching. So this year’s garden will be about the same size as it was last year, with the idle beds devoted to cover crops.

early July harvest

My desire to cut back is always tempered by my love to experiment with growing new things, so my growing list is always long. It’s hard for me to cut back on things like tomatoes and peppers where the list of varieties I want to grow exceeds my garden capacity and my energy! But I cut back last year anyway, and most varieties I am growing in 2021 are the tried-and-true ones, plus of course a few new ones to trial.

2020 parsley seedlings

I usually begin starting seeds here in February, beginning with petunias and herbs like parsley. I’m a big fan of the Wave petunias, and this year I plan to grow several of my favorites including Easy Wave Burgundy Velour,  Tidal Wave Red Velour and Misty Lilac Wave. Later in the month I’ll start lettuce and brassicas, and a few early plants of eggplant and peppers. I’ve had good luck the last few years growing Fairy Tale and Patio Baby eggplant in containers, and this year I want to add the white fruited Gretel to the mix. It has done well for me in containers in the past. In the main garden I want to try Annina and Asian Delight eggplants, along with old favorites like Dancer, Galine and Nadia.

Easy Wave Red Velour petunia

While my list of tomatoes might be a bit less than previous years, I’m still growing quite a few including old standbys like Better Boy plus newer favorites like AAS Winners Chef’s Choice Orange and Galahad. For small fruited tomatoes, I plan on growing the hybrids Sun Sugar, Jasper, Sunpeach and Cherry Bomb along with the open-pollinated Amy’s Apricot. One new one I want to try is Citrine, bred by Johnny’s Selected Seeds. It is crack-resistent and has bright orange fruits. I am also trialing several named and unnamed tomatoes from Artisan Seeds.

Citrine tomato

small-fruited tomatoes

I grow quite a few plants of paste tomatoes every year, and the indeterminate Granadero is a new favorite that was loaded with fruit here in 2019 and 2020. Juliet is a 1999 AAS Winner that is one of my all-time favorite tomatoes. The vines are always loaded with the plum shaped fruits, and we use them fresh as well as for drying, roasting and making into sauce. One new one I want to try this year is Verona, which Johnny’s says is “similar to Juliet, but with even tastier, somewhat plumper, deep-red ‘cocktail plum’ fruits”. With a description like that, I plan to grow it side by side with Juliet in the garden and see how they compare.

Verona tomato

Juliet tomatoes

Summer and winter squashes are always a big crop for us here, and this year I plan on growing some of my favorite yellow varieties like Tempest and Zephyr plus zucchinis like Astia and new favorite Green Machine. One new one I want to try is called Mexicana, which is a grey zucchini much like we saw everywhere in the markets when my wife and I visited Mexico early last year. I’m growing another grey zucchini called Hurakan this year too. And the prolific and vigorously vining Tatume will be back too.

Tempest squash

Lately I have grown fond of collard greens, and I found several heirloom varieties I want to try here in 2021 including Nancy Malone Wheat Purple, Whaley’s Favorite Cabbage and Variegated. From the Seedsavers Exchange I got North Carolina Yellow and Georgia Blue Stem.  Many of the ones I grew in 2019 and 2020 will be back too, including White Mountain Cabbage, Hen Peck, Yellow Cabbage and Jernigan’s Yellow Cabbage. The collards I planted late last summer are still keeping us supplied, and they have become a fall and winter staple green for us.

White Mountain Cabbage collards

I’m mostly sticking with my old favorite sweet pepper varieties like Jimmy Nardello, Cornito Giallo, Cornito Rosso, Sweetie Pie and Carmen. I do want to try Johnny’s new hybrid Corno di Toro pepper called Cornito Arancia. And I am trialing one new hybrid Fresno type hot pepper called Hernandez. I plan to grow AAS Winners Flaming Flare, Red Ember and Chili Pie again too.

Sweetie Pie and Carmen peppers

I love to experiment with growing new things, so my growing list is always long. And there are always last-minute changes to my list too. Varieties I am growing for the first time are marked with an *.

Asian Greens: Central Red mizuna, Miz America mizuna, Mizspoona Salad Select, Mei Qing Pak Choi, Violetta pac choi

Basil: Amethyst, Aurelia, Corsican, Profuma di Genova, Salad Leaf, Siam Queen, Siricusa, Sweet Thai, Thai Lemon

Beans (bush): Orient, Speedy*

Beans (pole): Barnes Mountain, Bertie Best’s Greasy Bean, Gizzard*, Lazy Wife Greasy, North Carolina Long Greasy, Pink Tip, Robe Mountain, NT Half Runner, Turkey Craw

Broccoli: Apollo, Artwork, Burgundy,  Happy Rich, Santee, Rudolph

Cabbage: Farao, Green Presto, Minuet (napa), Primo Vantage, Soloist (napa), Tendersweet

Collards:  Georgia Blue Stem*, Hen Peck, Jernigan Yellow Cabbage Collards, McCormack’s Green Glaze, Nancy Malone Wheat Purple*,  North Caroline Yellow*, Yellow Cabbage Collards, Variegated*, Whaley’s Favorite Cabbage*, White Mountain Cabbage Collards

Cucumber: 7082, Corinto, Excelsior, H-19 Little Leaf*, Itachi, Iznik*, Mini Munch, Nokya, Unagi*

Eggplant: Annina*, Asian Delight*, Bride, Dancer, Fairy Tale, Farmer’s Long, Galine, Gretel, Orient Charm, Machiaw, Purple Shine, Nadia, Patio Baby

Greens: Apollo arugula, Darkita arugula*, Esmee arugula, Speedy arugula

Kale: Darkibor, Dazzling Blue, Groninger Blue Collard Kale, Purple Russian, Red Ursa, Starbor, True Siberian, Tronchuda Beira, Western Front, White Russian, Wild Garden Mix

Kohlrabi: Beas, Kolibri, Konan,  Kossak, Terek

Lettuce:  Baja, Bergam’s Green, Cavendish, Hampton*, Jade Gem, Jester, Mayan Jaguar, Mirlo, Nancy, Oscarde, Panisse, Pele, Red Sails, Salanova, Sea of Red, Simpson Elite, Slobolt, Spritzer, Tango, Tendita*

Parsley: Cilician, Giant From Italy, Hungarian Landrace, Splendid

Pepper(hot): Aji Angelo, Aji Delight, Aji Golden, Aji Rico, Amazing 2*,Biggie Chili, Cayenneta, Chili Pie, Early Flame, Emerald Fire, Flaming Flare, Guajillo, Hernandez*, Honeypeno, Hot Happy Yummy, Kaleidoscope, Kimchi, Lady Choi, Malawi Piquante, Minero,  Red Ember, Senorita Jalapeno, Sugar Rush Peach, Tangerine Dream

Pepper (sweet): Carmen, Cornito Arancia*, Cornito Giallo, Cornito Rosso, Dulce Rojo, Escamillo, Glow, Hungarian Magyar, Jimmy Nardello’s, Orange Blaze, Sweetie Pie, Sweet Happy Yummy

Radish: Alpine, Bora King, Red King 2*, Sweet Baby

Squash(summer): Astia, Dunja, Green Machine, Hurakan*, Meot Jaeng, Mexicana*, Safari, Tatume, Tempest, Teot Bat Put, Zephyr

Squash(winter): Centercut, Thelma Sanders, Tromba d’Albenga, Turkeyneck

Sweet Potatoes: Beauregard, Bonita, Korean Purple, Murasaki, Purple

Tomatoes: Amy’s Apricot, Better Boy, Chef’s Choice Orange, Chef’s Choice Pink, Chef’s Choice Red, Chef’s Choice Yellow, Cherry Bomb, Citrine*, Damsel, Galahad, Garden Gem, Garden Treasure, Golden Rave, Granadero, Health Kick, Jasper, Juliet, Monticello, Mountain Magic, Mountain Rouge,  Red Racer, Sunpeach, Sun Sugar, “W” Hybrid

Turnips: All-Top, Hakurei, Mikado, Topper

Photos of Citrine and Verona tomatoes used with permission of Johnny’s Selected Seeds. All other photos were taken by me.

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