May 14, 2012 - Harvest Monday

They look like radishes, but they are Chioggia beets!  These are some I started indoors and transplanted into the garden.  I do think it was worth the trouble to start them indoors, as they were not only much earlier, but very delicious!


We ate both the greens and the roots, so they added 21.6 ounces to the week's total.  The greens were sauteed with bacon and onion.  The beet roots were peeled, quartered, tossed with a bit of olive oil, and roasted with store bought baby carrots.  I do believe they were the sweetest beets I've ever eaten.  I really wanted to wrestle Mr. Granny out of his half, but I didn't.


The 1.2 ounces of herbs included some young celery stalks and leaves, with two sprigs of parsley.  These were added to a chicken carcass to make broth for soup.


 The first harvest of rhubarb.


 17.7 ounces, cut up, gave me exactly four cups of rhubarb.  Just what I needed for a pie.  I must say, it was the best rhubarb pie I have ever tasted, but I'm saving that for Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard post.  Recipe will be included.


 The radishes really aren't as large as the beets.  They're in a very small bowl.


 My largest basket was filled with lettuce, a smaller basket with spinach.


 I wish you could see the varied and beautiful leaves of probably 20 varieties of lettuce.  I have Ed, of Tales From the Mountainside, to thank for sharing his many lettuce varieties with me. This is just the beginning, there are many, many more varieties yet to be planted!


The spinach is producing well, considering the small amount I planted.  I don't know why I underestimated how much we would use, but I could easily have used ten times as much.  Not that I didn't try, but when an entire 12 foot row of seedlings just up and disappears, it's beyond my control.


 More radishes.  It won't be long now until the radish harvests will end for the summer.  They have been very good this year, just ask the ants that have been feeding on them  :-(  


This is a sight I love.....the crisper filled with three big bags of fabulously fresh salad fixings.



Harvest for the week of 5/7 through 5/13


Lettuce 17.1 oz.
Radishes 9.3 oz.
Tomatoes 0.7 oz.
Spinach 12 oz.
Beets 21.6 oz.
Rhubarb 17.7 oz.
Herbs 1.2 oz.

Total for week: 79.6 oz   (4.98 lb.)
Total for year: 163.5 oz (10.22 lb.)

Daphne's Dandelions is the host for Harvest Monday, where everyone can share links to their harvest for the week. Please visit her blog and leave a link, so we can enjoy your harvest photos!




38 comments:

  1. I think you meant to write 79.6 oz for the week. ;) A bit jealous on the beets. hrmf. Still waiting on the gold ones.

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    1. Good catch, Stay @ Home! That's what happens when I stay up late to write my blog ;-) I did have the correct amount on my spreadsheet, don't know where I got that number, LOL!

      I sure will plant Chioggia beets in the future. I planted them once before, I think in 2009, and I don't remember them being so sweet. In fact, I wasn't impressed because they don't "look" like a beet. Beets are supposed to be dark, dark red. Last year was the first time I roasted carrots and beets together, that's when I found the flavors complimented each other so very well.

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  2. A very nice harvest. Your indoor started beets are way ahead of mine. Mine are just starting to form bulbs.

    I'm glad your enjoying the diversity if your lettuce. I've been fascinated by the diversity of the 'Wild Garden Mixed'. This has some classes I can't identify.

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    1. Ed, I mixed the lettuce up even more. I put a little of everything in a shaker and sprinkled the seeds into potting mix in a big container, where they're growing nicely and waiting to be transplanted into the garden. The only ones I didn't add to the mix were the summer varieties, which will get their start next. I'm so in love with every single variety I've tried! I did mix in a lot of romaine for a crispy textured leaf. That keeps the Mr. happy.

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  3. Lovely harvest Granny. I harvested my first rhubarb too. The stalks were supposed to be red but they were totally green. They are huge though. Each stalk weighed in at a fifth of a pound. I do miss the pretty red coloring though. I'm waiting for my strawberries to come in to make pie. I love rhubarb strawberry pie.

    I'd share my spinach with you if I could. I've never ever had a spinach harvest like this year. I just hope I can repeat it. Usually I have trouble with germination or like you the plant disappearing, or just not growing.

    And my son totally surprised me yesterday. I knew he was coming, but he brought chocolate and flowers. He has NEVER done that before. Except for grade school when they made gifts for mom at school, he has never ever given me anything. This time he bought a vase of flowers filled with water and walked it half an hour to the train station and brought it home. Really? My son? Wonders will never cease.

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    1. Daphne, That's so cool about your son. Let's hope he saw how happy it made you, and continues to act the same in the future! ALL of my kids surprised me! I wasn't expecting any of them, but they all showed up bearing food and/or gifts. The first one here caught me with dirty garden knees!

      My rhubarb stalks were quite small, but this is its first year. I did take one harvest off of it last year, which I shouldn't have, but it's growing well. I put Sluggo around it, even though I never saw slug slime, and it looks like the culprit that was eating holes in the leaves might have been thwarted.

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  4. Love the various selection of greens! And have to try those speckled trout salad as it sounds like an interesting variety to try. Nice job on beets - mine are still the size of a pencil because I didn't put enough nutruients for them when planted.

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    1. Jenny, I have two or three of the speckled varieties. One has an oak leaf shaped leaf and is the prettiest thing in the garden! I have no idea what the names of them are, as they all came in a mix.

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  5. Replies
    1. Sustainably, I had a pretty good week....a couple of failures, but not a bad harvest.

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    1. Thank you, Vanessa. I know we'll be enjoying salads this week!

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  7. You made me very hungry with the description of the sweeet beets. I can't wait until mine are ready...

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    1. Melissa, they were certainly delicious. If you've never tried them roasted, be sure to. It makes them so sweet!

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  8. YUM! you and mr. granny really get your veggies in! must be why you have so much energy!=)

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    1. Kelli, Mr. Granny does no know that word. E-N-E-R-G-Y. I shouldn't say that. He opened a sealed jar of salsa for me yesterday, with his fingers. Of course, that was because he didn't have the E-N-E-R-G-Y to go to the kitchen for the can opener! :-D

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  9. Beautiful and abundant harvest this week! I was traveling and away so nothing to show for Harvest Monday - but hopefully I can catch up to all of you next Monday.

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    1. Kitsap, I think you are already ahead of most of us!

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  10. Very nice! The only kind of beets I've ever had were pickled beets as a child. Yuck! I have no idea what they taste like fresh. Your lettuces look delicious. And rhubarb- YUMMY!

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    1. Langela, I love pickled beets, but I like them sweet. I always add more sugar to mine when I can them. I don't want vinegar to be the first thing I taste!

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  11. what a great harvest it looks like you will be in the running for Mrs.Lettuce 2012!

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    1. Mrs. P., I'm really behind last year's lettuce harvest, but I'm not growing it for a rabbit this year. I still think I'll have a lot before the season ends :-)

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  12. Everything looks so beautiful and delicious. I still haven't reached a full pound of harvest! But there is just nothing like those first crisp leaves of spinach and lettuce from the garden. My double-planting system this year will either give me tons more produce... or a serious lack of produce. Whatever the case it is certainly affecting my planting time frame. Still no hot weather plants in yet, soon though.

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    1. Anywhere, with my new garden addition, I'm afraid I didn't plan for the best yields. Next year I'll know better what will grow where.

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  13. Your garden is so inspiring! But I'm jealous of the zone differences... I won't be getting beets for another month or so! Maybe next year I'll sow them indoors first.

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    1. Malia, my direct sown beets are only about 3" high, so it will be a while before I get a harvest from them. I didn't plant very many indoors, so the few I can pull early are a real treat.

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  14. Hi Annie, Those Chioggia Beets sure do look interesting. I wrote them down to maybe try for next year. You had a nice harvest. I need to do better and weigh what little I get during the week. I guess I am not good at keeping records! How all do you use your spinach? Nancy at Cozy Thyme Cottage

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    1. Nancy, we like it raw, either mixed with a variety of lettuces and tossed with a light vinaigrette or alone, with a hot bacon dressing. We also like it cooked, but I don't have enough of it this year, it takes so much.

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  15. Looks great Granny, especially the rhubarb!

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    1. Dan, rhubarb has always been something I liked to eat maybe 3-4 times a year....not my favorite. But that pie was soooo good, I'd be happy to eat one a week! My figure wouldn't like it though ;-)

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  16. Lovely lovely harvests! sometimes I simmer the beets in their skins and just dump the chopped greens into the pot when the roots are tender and cook a little more. Then eat them all together.

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    1. Thank you, Mary. I really do like beets just about any way they can be cooked. I usually just boil them in the skins, then slip the skins off. I like them sliced and buttered, diced and fixed as Harvard Beets, sliced or julienned and served cold with salad, pickled. But I think my very favorite is tossed with a bit of olive oil and oven roasted. I'm not a fan of the greens, but my husband eats them cooked like spinach, and he absolutely drowns them in vinegar!

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  17. Yum! Your harvests look delicious. The beets seem super early to me. That was a good idea to seed them inside. We aren't going to grow beats until the mid-season lull. I think we'll do Chioga too.

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    1. Jody, I really didn't think it was going to work well at all. I ended up transplanting all the larger ones that had been repotted in the Miracle Gro, and tossed the small ones in the compost. Now I wish I'd given them all a chance in the garden! I'm also going to find room for another planting or two of the Chioggia beets.

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  18. Beets AND Rhubarb in the same post? You are freaking me out, the non beet and rhubarb eater that I am LOL...

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    1. Erin, I normally don't care that much for rhubarb, but that pie was out of this world delicious! Maybe because it was such young rhubarb, and not too tart. Or maybe because I used a c**p load of sugar in it ;-)

      I've always loved beets, but I'll join you in the arugula hate!

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  19. The chioggia beets sound interesting. I'll have to check them out and see if hubby would like them.

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    1. Lisa, I found them to be milder and sweeter that those I usually grow.

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