Monday, July 12, 2010

Harvest Monday 7/12/10

This week the summer garden arrived. The harvests have picked up and the variety has increased. I told my husband that I haven't felt the need to go to the farmers market because we have what we need in the garden. A friend who works on a farm came for lunch. She was telling me what was in their CSA distribution this week and mentioned new potatoes. It made me curious and so I dug up one bunch of my Irish Cobbler potatoes just to see. They were so good. This was 10.5 oz of potatoes with some squash blossoms.
Later we had friends over after church for lunch. I ran out to the garden and dug up some more potatoes to make hash browns to go with our pancakes. Both times I tried to re-plant the potatoes because there were small potatoes the size of peas, as well as the well sized new potatoes. Hopefully they'll re-root and grow some more :) This was 1.6 pound more of potatoes.

Also this week I harvested almost all my chard plants so that I could freeze some. Some went into a couple of quiches, but I was able to blanch and freeze some. It only filled one quart freezer bag after I was done. I'll continue to harvest more throughout the summer. All together this week I harvested almost 3 pounds of swiss chard.
The zucchini and first winter squash started blooming this week. We had squash blossoms in a salad and on top the quiche. We also got our first green zucchini, which makes it feel like summer is here. I'm sure we'll be sick of zucchini in a month, but right now it is a welcome novelty. It weighed 13 oz.
Other harvests this week include the first couple beets,
Side shoots of broccoli, sugar snap peas, radishes, and squash blossoms,
More swiss chard, lettuce, and green onions
More lettuce, in total over one pound of lettuce this week.
Finally, I picked spearmint and peppermint to dry in the attic, along with the beautiful blooming lavender. The mints weighed 6 oz. I didn't weigh the lavender since I don't plan on eating it, it will be made in to sachets.

Total this week: 9.8 pounds
Total this year: 22.5 pounds

You can see other gardeners' harvests at Daphne's Dandelions.

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

The chard shrinks so much after cooking. I always think that I harvested too much, but after it’s cooked, I think that I could have picked more.

Marcia said...

Wow! What a week of harvests.

What do squash blossoms taste like?

My zucchini is growing very slowly. Tiny buds are there but nothing of any size.

Something ate the cucumber leaves that were outside the fence. groundhog? I think the volunteer is also a cucumber but no fruit yet.

kitsapFG said...

I need to harvest chard this week too. I was away this past weekend and everything is growing so fast at the moment that I am now really behind on the harvesting.

Your harvests look great!

lisa anne said...

It all looks so good!!!

Unknown said...

Great harvest! I felt the same way when I was at the farmers market this weekend :)

abigail said...

the squash blossoms look so beautiful!

T said...

nice harvest! You have a good variety of produce, I wouldn't be interested in the farmer's market either if I had all that(at once).

johanna said...

Your harvest is quite varied and colorful. Would love to know what you do with the squash blossoms. I used to make tempura with them but I think it covers the real taste. I know there is a soup that they make in Mexico with them.

Emily said...

Thanks for all the compliments. The squash blossoms taste, well "squashy". I used some in a salad, and others we put on top of a quiche before we baked it. You didn't really get any flavor from them that way. I did some internet searching and did see a mexican soup but it looks like you need pounds of them which would be hard to get from one garden.

michelle said...

Beautiful harvests this week, so much variety and color. Zucchini and their blossoms seem to be all over the place. I love stuffing them with a ricotta/parmesan mixture and cooking them with browned butter.

Fred said...

Everyone is pulling up new potatoes I might have to join in the fun!

Great looking harvest!

Dave @ HappyAcres said...

Sounds like I'm not the only one pulling up a few potatoes! There is nothing like a fresh-dug potato. I've never tried to replant the vine, so I will be interested to hear if it re-grows for you.

Your chard is lovely. I've got some started for a fall crop. I'm hoping we have enough to freeze too.

Daphne Gould said...

We have a lot of overlap this week. I don't have potatoes or broccoli though. So sad. I'd love a fresh made potato salad.

Jeana said...

Everything looks so good. I have never tried chard what does it taste like?

Dirt Lover said...

Great harvest---Nice potatoes, and your chard is beautiful! I am thinking of getting on the internet and finding uses for squash blossoms, too! I saw on a cooking show on tv where they stuffed them, then batter fried them. Just caught a little of it, enough to get me interested!
~~Lori

Melissa said...

Beautiful harvest! My mom used to fry pumpkin blossoms, and we would eat them with maple syrup. I think she may have dipped them in egg and flour first.

Unknown said...

Nice variety of produce harvested. I love when we can add new items as the season progresses. My Swiss chard got away from me and is in need of a large harvest. I too will be blanching and freezing mine.

thyme2garden said...

I'm impressed with the variety and quantity of your summer vegetables, and even more than you still have some lettuce! How did you keep them alive through this heat?

Thomas said...

What a great variety you have here. I really should harvest some squash blossoms. They are so delicious stuffed.