The Backyard

The Backyard

Monday, July 2, 2012

Harvest Monday - July 2, 2012 - A Week of Broccoli

The harvest-of-the-week is broccoli.  We totaled 13.5 pounds this week with two of the largest heads weighing in at 1.5 pounds each.  The variety is Arcadia for those interested in huge heads.  Here's the tally for the week:

Broccoli  - 13.5 lbs.
Carrots - 2.5 lbs.
Mixed Greens - .75 lb
Beet Greens - .25 lb
Onions - 4 lbs.
Sugar Peas - .75 (finished)
Snap Peas - 1.75 (finished)
Red Potatoes - 3.5 lbs
Red Beets - 1.75
Total Vegetables:  28.75 (highest yield thus far this year)

Fruit: Black Raspberries - 1.75 quarts (just about finished)

Next week may be a light harvest being between the spring and summer crops.  The beans are flowering as are the cucumbers, so it's possible I might have a pickle or two by the end of the week.  There's a couple peppers and green tomatoes.   The cantelope, watermelon, and squash vines are doing their thing and vining everywhere.  All have beautiful flowers on them and the bees are busy loading up with pollen.   Thank you bees for all your hard work.  I'll continue to have swiss chard, spinach, carrots, and potatoes as needed for the rest of the summer.  Radishes also have been sucessively planted so they should be ready and waiting whenever I want salad or something different.  The same with the red beets. The onions are bulbing up nicely and will likely be pulled in about a month.  The celery is also maturing well.  Oh, and the zuchinni is getting ready to flower also.  I planted a late crop of dumpling squash and cucumbers to make use of the pea fence.  It seemed a waste not to use it for something.  In about a month, I'll plant the fall crops.  Red beets and carrots are on the top of the list.  Not sure of what else since the spinach and chard will continue to grow well into December.  I may do another crop of broccoli. I'm sooooo enjoying retirement (retired full-time in February) and growing our food.  Life is good.

4 comments:

Stoney Acres said...

Thank you for the suggestion on the large heads of broccoli. I was just having a discussion with another blogger about how frustrated we were with our small broccoli heads. Your harvest is more what we are looking for. I had 8 full size heads that were starting to think about bolting and they only weighed 2 pounds. I will be trying Arciada next year.

Susan said...

Wow - your broccoli looks fantastic! I've never had any that looks as good.

kitsapFG said...

That certainly is a huge broccoli head and I have noted that variety for future reference. Congratulations on your retirement this year - sounds like you are definitely enjoying it. :D

Mary Hysong said...

your broccoli looks good but oh am I jealous of those raspberries!