The Backyard

The Backyard

Monday, June 25, 2012

Harvest Monday - June 25, 2012

A few unexpected harvests pleasantly surprised us this week.  We discovered the Red Norland potatoes are ready (it's early) and the Arcadia broccoli I struggled with this year gave us our first pounder head.  I find Arcadia to be THE broccoli to grow as you'll see in my 2009 post.  It produces huge heads and the flavor is oh-so-sweet and luscious.  This year, the seed starting formula seemed to stunt the growth of many of my seeds including the broccoli.  So when it came time to plant, the 90+ plants were tiny and barely visible.  Couple the stunted plants with a few freezes and I thought they were all doomed.  I actually gave up on them and bought about two dozen "stock" seedlings from the local nursery which just finished harvesting, but tasted bland.  Low and behold a few weeks later, I started seeing Aracadia broccoli growing.  Then, last week, I noticed a cabbage worm infestation.  I ran for the BT and thank goodness it worked because those little green monsters would have eaten the entire crop (about 36 plants).   So I'm about to harvest the Arcadia -- my second broccoli harvest this year.  Even though we had a few hot days, the cooler days and nights outnumber the hot and the broccoli is still doing well.  We should have a good harvest of broccoli despite the challenges.  Other highlights this week are the wild black raspberries and the beets are coming in.  Here's the tally, and yes, thanks to Daphne's Dandelions for hosting Harvest Mondays.

Fruit:  
8 1/4 quarts black raspberries

Vegetables:
1/2 pound mixed greens
1 pound beet greens
2 3/4 pound onions
2 pounds sugar peas
6 pounds snap peas
2 pounds red norland potatoes
1/4 pound radishes
2 1/2 red beets
1 pound swiss chard

18 pounds total for vegetables

Arcadia broccoli and "Candy" onions

Cooking up the Red Beets

Prepping the cooked beets for pickled beets

Wild Black Raspberries

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

8 1/4 quarts black raspberries, how delightful, that's a lot of picking though. How many hours?

Mary Hysong said...

oooooh raspberries! The fruit to die for! I've never tasted the black ones, and I only get the red ones when they are on sale here, other wise this fruit is worth it's weight in gold!

Chili said...

Agreed Mary! The health benefits of black raspberries are incredible. I'm picking as many as I can while they are in season. I domestic red raspberries in my garden, but they don't compare to the black.

Chili said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Chili said...

It takes me about an hour to pick a quart of raspberries and I'm incredibly grateful to be retired to have the time to pick. It helps that the patch is in my front yard too! They grow in the wild in what used to be a wildflower meadow. It appears to be the perfect spot for them for there are many, many plants hanging thick with berries.

Cozy Thyme Cottage said...

Hi Chili, Thanks for visiting my blog! You have a really nice harvest. I should be writing down all these different kinds of broccoli and people's opinions of them. I would like to try growing some. Will have to look up when to grow them for fall. We use to pick wild blackberries or black raspberries when we live in MI. Now I have planted thornless blackberries. Not sure how they will do yet. Will look forward to looking at your blog again. Nancy

Stoney Acres said...

Great harvest. 36 more broccoli plants, wow. I'd love to have the space for that many plants. I have a hard time squeezing 10 or so in my little garden. So day I'll have more room!!

kitsapFG said...

Beautiful broccoli - noting the variety for potential future trialing in my garden. My daughter lives in central PA and I always enjoy following gardening blogs there as it makes me feel even more connected to her just knowing what growing conditions are currently like in her region (she keeps a blog too which I really love!) .

Robin said...

Great harvest! I'm going to have to try the Arcadia broccoli. I have never had heads that big!

Chili said...

And that wasn't the biggest broccoli head Robin. I just picked a 1.5 pound head yesterday and will try to get a picture before we eat it up.

Anonymous said...

Wow the raspberries look amazing, I've never come across black ones before. The broccoli looks fabulous too, glad the worms didn't get to them.