Harvest Monday - March 29, 2010

Cilantro 2.8 oz, baby leeks 2.4 oz, green onions 6 oz,
carrots 9.8 oz. (total 1.31 lb)

The green onions are getting huge, I'll use it as regular onions.  All these will go into a Mexican pork stew chili verde (except the leeks).  The overwintered carrots do not taste good this time of the year, I 'll be pulling all of them this week.  The new carrot seeds have sprouted, look like we'll get some carrots this spring.  I'll try to grow some mini size carrots in containers this time just for fun.

Last spinach harvest 29.6 oz (1.85 lb)

Total for the week 3.16 lb

I pulled all the overwintered spinach to make room for another vegetable.  This spinach doesn't seem to bolt, it grows side shoots at the base, the plant grows bigger with more leaves, it looks like a "cluster" of plants. I thought I was growing Bloomsdale, but the leaves don't look and feel like the wrinkly "savoy" type of leaves, I must have sown a different variety of spinach and forgot to jot down the name.  There are 4 different varieties of spinach seeds in my stash, I don't recall what I sowed last fall, I should take better notes next time.
[Yeah right, that's what I always tell myself, sometimes I remember, most of the time I don't remember what I did or said minutes ago!  Sign of alzheimer?]

Harvest Monday is hosted by Daphne's Dandelions.

Wordless - Flowering Quince 萬壽梅 (寒梅)

First Batch of Spring Seedlings 2010

Group Picture

Mitsuba and piracicaba broccoli.

Eggplants and peppers

Second sowing of bunching green onions.

Mesclun lettuce mix.

Marigolds, cosmos, French thyme, yuzu.

Tomatoes

These are the big brothers and sisters waiting in line to be transplanted, the green onions will go in first as row marker in the tomato and eggplant bed, piracicaba broccoli and mitsuba can be transplanted anytime if protected from wind and cold.  All others are not hardy enough to be transplanted until after the last frost which is about April 20th.  It is possible they may not get transplanted until sometime in May, our weather is much colder and wetter this year than previous years, it snows again this morning.  We were in tomato drought last year due to cooler summer, would we get some decent tomatoes this year?  I'm planting some cherry tomatoes this time just in case the larger tomatoes do not have enough heat to ripen as they did last year.

Here's my lineup for the first round:
Tomatoes 
Cherokee Purple (4)
Black Zebra (4)
Green Zebra (4)
Brandywine Red (2)
Odoriko (Japanese pink, 6)
Pompeii (2)
San Remo (2)
Black Cherry (2)
Green Grape (2)
(I'll keep 3-4 plants, the rest will be given to friends.)

Peppers
Shishito (10)
(I'll keep 3)

Eggplants
Pingtung (4)
Rosa Bianca (4)
Kamo (6)
(I'll share some of these with friends)

Brassicas and mustards
Chinese kale (gailan)
Dwarf white stem bok choy
Shanghai green stem bok choy (Meiqing)
Mini Napa
Mizuna
Mibuna
Wasabi (curley leaf mustard)

Lettuces
Mesclun mix
Celtuce (stem lettuce)
Korean green leaf
Korean red leaf
Manoa
Anuenue

Onions
Borettana yellow
Chinese bunching green onions
Red Baron green onions
Salad scallions mix red and white

Herbs
French thyme
Mitsuba (Japanese parsley)

Flowers & Fruits
French marigolds
Cosmos
Butterfly peas
Rosellas

Osmanthus (starter plants)
Tea chrysanthemums (starter plants)
Yuzu (homegrown seeds)

Already in the ground
Garlic --- German Xtra Hard, Chesnok, Chinese Red and White
Ramps (wild leeks)
Green onions (1st transplant)
Flowering chives
Cilantro, sprouted
Spinach, sprouted
Carrots, waiting for them to sprout (hurry up please!)

Sugar snap peas, some sprouted
Snow peas, sowed 1 week ago, no sign of sprouting.

That's about all I have going at this time, next group of seedlings are predominantly sweet and hot peppers, basils, squashes, melons, more flowers and whatever catches my interest at the time.  It appears I'm planting a massive amount of vegetables, but I only grow few plants of each variety, we enjoy eating different varieties of vegetables and fruits, and I try to grow just enough for the two of us and maybe share some with neighbors and friends.

I'm doing a bit better in seed starting this time, my goal is to have a continuous supply of fresh veggies, hopefully I can keep up with the exercise for the rest of the year.
(Knowing myself, I'll probably slack off sometime in the summer.)

 

Harvest Monday - March 22, 2010

Micro mini harvest daikon sprouts, a whopping 11g.

Sprouts in 5 days -- rinse seeds with water 1-2 times daily.
These are sprouting seeds not regular garden seeds, do not use
treated seeds for sprouting, they are treated with nasty fungicide.

 Garlic shoots 3rd cut 3.6 oz -- not worth the trouble,

the quality was not as good as the first 2 cuts,

and the production was 1/2 of the previous 2 harvests.

My "gourmet" lunch -- instant rice noodles, daikon sprouts,
leftover crab cakes made with garlic shoots.

 

I found some old sprouting seeds in my stash and decided to test them for germination, lo and behold they sprouted, the germination rate was 100% for the daikon seeds (from Kitazawa 2007), I was expecting something in the 50% range, it was a pleasant surprise.  I'll be testing other sprouting seeds from Thompson and Morgan (2008) in the coming weeks and see how they perform.  I expect poor germination (if any) from the onion seeds, the radish and broccoli seeds will probably sprout in a reasonable rate.  Hopefully this sprouting exercise will bridge the "no greens" zone for a while. 

Monday Harvest is hosted by Daphne's Dandelions.  

First Day of Spring 2010

The German Xtra Hard garlic (on the right) poked through the snow,

there are 2 more varieties to the left they were beneath the snow.

 I planted some ramps here yesterday and covered them with leaves.

 covered low tunnel

This morning we woke up to frigid 19°F (-7°C) and my planting beds were covered in white, but the snow quickly melted when the sun came out.  There were minor damages to the new raspberry shoots, and some burns to the newly planted ramp shoots, all other veggie seedlings were under cover, so far so good.  I'm not complaining, it could be worst. This is our typical spring weather, a swing of as much as 40°F (4°C) within a day is quite common in our area.

Wordless

Daikon Sprouts

Harvest Monday - March 15, 2010

Spinach 15 oz, French baby leeks "Primor" 3 oz
Danvers Half Long carrots 4 oz, green onions 7.8 oz
Total 1.86 lb

Mini Napa and Michihili cabbages 15.30 lb

That's it folks, the cabbages are bolting, I pulled all of them few days ago, I won't bored you with more cabbage photos for a while. The green onions are getting big, I pulled most of them until the next batch comes in.  The overwintered French Primor baby leeks begin picking up speed, unfortunately the birds ate half of the emerging seedlings,  I'll have to sow more seeds and cover the bed with netting.

This spring I'm planting mostly non-heading Asian greens and maybe trial 2 varieties of Chinese heading cabbages for heat and daylight sensitivity, I'm hoping to find a variety that can be grown year round in our climate.

The peas and spinach are sprouting, I sowed carrot seeds using Granny's Homemade Seed Mat method, it made sowing tiny seeds so easy, best of all --- no seedlings to thin.  Thanks for sharing the great tutorial Granny.

Harvest Monday is hosted by Daphne's Dandelion.

Wordless - Clitoria (Butterfly Pea)

Osmanthus Fragrans 桂花

Four Petals

One Cluster

Tiny Tiny Flowers

Four Twigs

New Growth


About this fragrant evergreen plant please click here.

Harvest Monday - March 8, 2010

Mini Napa Cabbage 3.7 lb

Gave to neighbor - Michihili Cabbage 3.9 lb

Garlic shoots (2nd cut) 6.6 oz
Scallions 3.2 oz

Total for the week -  8.2 lb

The Chinese cabbages are starting to bolt, I'll be harvesting all of them next day or two and use the bed for peas or beans. Over the weekend I sowed sugar snap peas and spinach, transplanted some salad scallions, the rest of the seedlings are still too young to be harden off.  The flower seedlings are doing well, I have zinnia, cosmos, marigolds, butterfly peas, and  roselles.

Harvest Monday is hosted by Daphne's Dandelions. 

Wordless - Frosty Night

Napa

Carrots

Michihili

Spinach

Harvest Monday - March 1, 2010

Michihili cabbage 17.8 oz, scallions 2.2 oz

Spinach 9.7 oz,  total 1.85 lb

Don't remember what I planted here.

Crocus

Garlic is poking through.

Clay pot is useless in our extreme climate garden,
it falls apart after one season.

Same harvest picture this week.
Cabbage white butterfly is here, I find one while cleaning the michihili, need to apply BT and try to cover the cabbage heads with pantyhose, floating row covers help a bit, but they are not 100% effective in pest prevention.

Harvest Monday is hosted by Daphne's Dandelions.