May 9, 2011 - Harvest Monday

The garden is still in full salad mode, and the greens are quite lovely.


5/2 - 3 ounces spinach and 10 ounces lettuce


5/4 - 15 ounces lettuce


5/4 - 12 ounces radishes



5/7 - 8 ounces radishes, weighed after trimming off all the damaged spots from insects or birds or slugs....take your pick :-(


5/8 - 18 ounces lettuce


5/8 - 3 ounces (trimmed weight) shallots. If you've never grown shallots, let me advise you this is NOT what they are supposed to look like. These were planted in the fall of 2009, in a little used area of the garden, and not harvested the following year. They are now growing in a large clump, and it looks as though none has formed a bulb. I will be using the white part in salads and sautes, IF it turns out to be palatable.


5/8 - 10 ounces of perfect spinach, from under the hoop netting.


Lovely, pristine spinach leaf, untouched by those nasty leaf miners.


Total harvest for the week: 4 pounds 15 ounces
Total harvest for the year to date: 6 pounds 9 ounces

Please join in the Monday Harvest at Daphne's Dandelions!

23 comments:

  1. Your spinach looks wonderful!!

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  2. That is just the perfect spinach leaf. So pretty. My spinach outside of the row cover still hasn't been attacked by leaf miners. I had them last year in my chard. I wonder where they all went. Not that I'm complaining mind you. My spinach under the row cover is struggling. Yes now I'm complaining. I ought to show take a photo of it but it looks so sad. I've never had spinach up and die on me before. I've had it not germinate. I've had leaf miners make it inedible. But it has never died before.

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  3. Alison, it tasted great in a salad yesterday! I'm waiting for the next picking so I can cook some, as we love fresh garden spinach both ways.

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  4. Daphne, all of my other spinach is full of miners. Even this planting isn't quite home free, as I did spot one single egg. I guess all it would take is one single fly to get under the netting while I'm planting, thinning or harvesting.

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  5. I guess we are fortunate that leaf miners are not a big problem here. Slugs and birds we got!

    Lovely lettuces. I'll bet those shallots will be good for something in the kitchen.

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  6. Granny, that is the most beautiful spinach! I always have a hard time growing it. Last year was the only year that I had a good harvest of spinach. That was after several sowings and then just ignoring it!

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  7. Bpy oh Boy am I jealous! That spinach looks delicious and what a big leaf...I'd eat that one Raw so as not to lose any flavor :o) At least you remembered what you planted :o) I'm still struggling with the onion,leek,? that I planted in the first box :o(

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  8. Villager, I never had a problem with them until the past 3-4 years, now they just ruin my spinach, beet greens and chard. My other big problem is wire worms, which are impossible to get rid of.

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    Robin I can usually get a few pickings of lovely spinach, but this year the leaf miners ruined all but the crop under the netting. I'll be planting it there again in the fall.

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    Ginny, we did eat it raw, in a big salad yesterday. I forgot where I planted my chard, and planted a row of beets practically on top of it!

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  9. Granny your greens are sure looking good and those radishes are to die for. I am so envious of everyone that is harvesting and I can't even start planting yet.

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  10. Wilderness, the greens are especially lovely this year. I'm going to have to start pulling entire heads soon, rather than outer leaves, and I hate to....they are just so pretty where they are growing!

    Radishes are a very short-lived crop here, they get eaten and/or damaged by birds, insects and slugs. This year I'm losing a lot to splitting.

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  11. Wow, nice spinach! This is the first year I've planted spinach, and it's not doing so great.
    ~~Lori

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  12. Lori, some of mine is growing well, some not so well. It's really a touch and go crop, but I normally get a pretty good harvest from it.

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  13. Looking good Granny!! Glad you beat the leaf miners to that lovely spinach!!

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  14. Lots of greens this week! Everything looks great and I'm already missing the lettuce from my garden. :(

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  15. When you track your harvest weight, do you weigh it as it is pulled from garden, or is it weighed after it has been trimmed? Like carrots, do you weigh with tops on or after they are cut off? I am asking because I have considered tracking my harvest weight this year, but I am still on the fence. I am afraid it will become too much of a hassle to keep up, any suggestions?

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  16. Katrina, I'm loving it now, but there's an awful lot left out there, I'm sure I'll soon tire of it.

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    Kris, I weigh everything after it has been cleaned and trimmed, ready for storage. The exception is if it will be fed to our pet rabbit, as it replaces something that would otherwise have to be purchased. For instance, I sometimes weigh my radishes with the tops, as the rabbit eats the green tops. But the next time I'll weigh them with the tops trimmed off, because Cookie can't eat as many as I manage to harvest. Green onions are cleaned and trimmed to look like those at the grocers. Winter squash and pumpkins are weighed whole, as are melons, even though the rinds are not eaten. In other words, basically clean and trim everything to look like what you would buy at a grocery store, then weigh.

    I weigh everything as I clean it for storage, jot it down on a piece of paper, then transfer to a spreadsheet that has all the formulas already in it. It's a spreadsheet I made three years ago, and I just reenter the data each year. It's a bit of a hassle at times, and not every single thing always gets weighed, but once you get into the routine, it's pretty simple. I update the total every Monday, when I do the Monday Harvest post.

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  17. That spinach is really pristine and beautiful. I am still waiting for my spring planted spinach to wake up and get growing! It has been dawdling something fierce. Your radishes are way ahead of mine... I have red roots but nothing edible at this point.

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  18. Kitsap, I've learned my lesson. All future spinach will be planted under net or row cover.

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  19. Even in the dead of winter here my spinach doesn't look that good! Amazing. I have high hopes for this falls spinach and carrots. This year I proved to myself it could be done, so next year I am so gonna ROCK IT! :-D

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  20. Barbie, I've learned my lesson...finally! In the future, spinach will be grown under netting (or row cover) only.

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  21. Would you mind sharing your spreadsheets, I find that building them is more difficult than keeping up with the numbers?

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  22. You, a link to the spreadsheet is in my sidebar, near the top: 2011 Harvest Totals By Crop. You should be able to do a copy and paste and the formulas should transfer.

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