Spring Greens Growing Ever So Slowly

If we were in Massachusetts, most of my spring greens would be ready for harvest by now, but alas, this is Vermont.

Last Harvest of April

We're finally starting to get a good amount of greens from the garden now that the weather is heating up. I harvested the first of the Shanghai bok choy this week along with the first asparagus spears. All of my Asian greens are sizing up nicely and should provide for many meals in the coming weeks. The slugs have kept away for the most part (Sluggo has worked awesome so far) and I will start applying Dipel dust once a week now that the white butterflies are out.

I've also been surprised by how quickly the Asparagus spears are growing. They put on at least 4-6 inches of growth per day. If I forget to check on them, chances are there will be one or two that have grown too long and tough to eat. I'm looking forward to the crowns being even more productive next year and being able to harvest for a longer period of time.


So I read a really interesting post about "mock broccoli" the other day and decided to clip a few flowering buds from my Red Russian kale to sample. (I have to thank one of my local MA readers for pointing this one out to me!) In it's raw state, the buds tasted pleasantly sweet and surprisingly a lot like broccoli. I decided to harvest all of them, which I then sauteed very quickly with a bit of butter for dinner. The results??? All I can say is "WOW!" It was like eating broccoli raab without any of the bitterness. The buds, stems and young leaves were sweet and very tender (unlike the stems and leaves on most mature kale).

The best part about harvesting the main flowering bud was that a couple days later, I went out into the garden and there were tons of side shoots. Who knew that overwintered Red Russian kale would offer this added bonus? Not me. Now I feel really silly about not harvesting my flowering kale before.


Sadly, I did have to dig up all of my kale plants today in order to make room for my potatoes. However, I did manage to pick a good amount of leaves to freeze and also gave a ton to my next-door neighbor.


Finally - the claytonia is still hanging in there. Even at this flowering stage, the leaves are delicious.

As a side note -I kind of regret deciding not to weigh my harvests this year as I'm sure the heavier numbers will slowly begin to roll in as the season progresses. Oh well. I might just weigh a select few crops this year like cukes, corn, tomatoes, zucchini, melons, peppers and potatoes. That way, I can at least have some figures to archive without feeling obligated to whip out the scale every time I pick something from the garden.

Around the April Garden

I thought I'd give a quick update on what's happening in and around the garden right now. In no particular order:


Now that the weather has warmed up a bit, the spring greens are growing rather quickly.


I will begin harvesting the Shanghai bok choy (right) in a couple days. Personally, I like my Asian greens on the smaller/younger side. The tatsoi (middle) will require another week or two.


I can now harvest some spinach leaves as well (right). The variety I'm growing this spring is "Regiment" and I have to say, I like it much better than "Space". I'm growing several varieties of lettuce this spring. Winter Density (middle) is growing particularly fast.


The French Breakfast radishes are up. Unlike carrots and beans, radishes always seem to germinate well in our garden.


My red and yellow wonder strawberries are leafing up fast. The first flowers don't seem too far behind. I have a second bed with three times as many plants, which will need to be located to another part of the garden. I'm hoping to use them as a mini hedge around my garden fence to keep the weeds down.


My snow and shell peas are up. I was really happy that germination was close to 100%. These will have to be thinned. The shoots are really tasty in salads or stir-fried.


Another photo of my speckled romaine lettuce.


It didn't take very long time for last year's thyme and sage to bounce back.


After a very long wait, the fava beans are up. I'm growing three varieties this year. I decided to hedge my bets and start additional seeds indoors. Germination ended up being around 90% so I transplanted my excess seedlings in another bed. We have about 80 fava bean plants - 10 times as many as last year, which is fine by me since they are one of our favorite veggies.


I also planted some red onion sets this weekend. Is it awful that I don't feel bad about not starting them from seed this year?


Finally, I harvested my first Jersey Supreme asparagus spears today! They sort of sneaked up on me as the shoots were tiny this past weekend. Luckily, I made a point to check on them again today. I would hate to have missed out on this first crop. Oh, and boy were they delicious simply steamed with a bit of butter. I'd never eaten asparagus that was cooked within minutes of being picked. I don't think you can find anything as sweet or tender at the supermarket.

April Harvest Update and the Emergence of Asparagus

This weekend, I harvested a good amount of greens for an Easter dinner party we attended on Sunday. I picked a bunch of claytonia and added some mizuna, spinach and baby lettuce to the mix. Thankfully, it was a hit!


The Red Russian kale has started to flower. I've been trying to harvest as much as I could, but to be honest, after a long winter I'm looking forward to pulling them up and planting something different. Does anyone know whether kale buds are edible?


I've been harvesting some of our overwintered scallions as well. The remainder of these will have to be pulled, chopped up and frozen as they are showing signs of bolting already.


Finally, our Jersey Supreme asparagus are starting to emerge from the ground. It's nice to see a sight like this, especially on this Easter - a holiday traditionally observed by pagans to celebrate this time of rebirth and fertility.


I planted these asparagus crowns last spring and they eventually grew into healthy plants last year. There is some debate on whether you should begin harvesting the tender shoots in the 2nd or 3rd year, but according to Ohio State University:

The year after planting, asparagus can be harvested several times throughout a three-week period, depending on air temperatures. Research shows there is no need to wait two years after planting before harvesting. In fact, harvesting the year after planting will stimulate more bud production on the crown and provide greater yields in future years, as compared with waiting two years before harvesting.

Sounds good to me! In fact, the spears that are emerging now are of good size so I am looking forward to seeing them on our dinner plate soon.

Transplanting Spring Greens

This past Saturday, I decided to clear out some bed space in the hoop house and transplant some Spring greens. While temperatures only got up into the high 30's by noontime, the hoop house was a balmy 80 degrees. It felt nice to soak up some sun and do a bit of gardening.


From left - Shanghai bok choy, tatsoi, mizuna and mini Napa cabbage. I reserved a bit of space on the right for a couple heads of lettuce. Something told me it was still a bit too early for them.


My instincts were proven right as it got all the way down to 25 degrees that night. The bok choy and mizuna were virtually unaffected but the tatsoi and Napa cabbage suffered some frost damage to the outer leaves. Hopefully they will bounce back as the weather warms up. Otherwise, I'll have to sow some more seeds.

I also transplanted out some spinach - yet another invincible green this time of year.

2011 Seed Order

I placed the bulk of my seed order for this year back in December and am happy to note that they've all arrived. Now I can focus on drafting my garden plan, updating my sowing dates from last year and sourcing the ingredients for my soil block mix. This year's garden will offer a good mix of new and old. I have a lot of seed left over from last year and from this inventory, I narrowed down which varieties I'll be growing again. The rest will probably be fashioned into seed bombs (I'm sure there's a vacant lot or two nearby that I could raid.)

Anyway, here are some of the new varieties I'm trying this year as well as some 2010 favorites I had to reorder because I neglected to save seed (awful I know):


Petite Gris de Renne melon - I didn't really care for the Charentais variety I grew summer but decided to give this particular French heirloom a try. The Charentais was very fragrant but I'm hoping that Petite Gris will be sweeter.

Dragon's Tongue beans - I grew these last year. They were very tasty in my opinion and had a texture that held up well when cooked.

Paris Market carrots - Our soil is so heavy that I decided to give this particular variety a try. They have a more spherical shape and I've also read that they can also be grown in pots.

Blacktail Mountain watermelon - I was eying this variety even before I had a garden! Blacktail is an early variety and supposedly does well in cooler climates.

Gold Medal tomato - Seed Savers claims that this is its best tasting bi-colored tomato.

Brandywine (Sudduth's Strain) tomato - I've heard some rather good things about this particular strain. Hopefully it lives up to its reputation!


Here are some varieties I grew last year that I will be growing again: Windsor fava beans, Green Arrow peas, various beets (including Chioggia), Argent corn, American Flag leeks and Contender beans. Argent is a white corn and one of my favorite vegetables grown last year. Sure they take up a good amount of space and are heavy feeders, but for me it's worth it as the taste of fresh corn eaten within minutes of being picked is a true summertime treat.


My main seed order this year was placed with Johnny's. In addition to the Envy soybeans, tatsoi, Imperial Star artichokes and Napoli carrots, all of which I've grown before, here are some factoids about the new varieties I'm trying:

Diamant (pickling) and Tasty Jade (Asian) cucumbers - these varieties will produce fruit even on flowers that are not pollinated. Tasty Jade is supposed to be very crispy like most other Asian varieties.

Hungarian Hot Wax Pepper - I'm looking forward to pickling the yellow, orange and red peppers (depending on when you pick them). I liked the pepperoncini I grew last year (and will grow again this year) but Hungarian Wax has thicker flesh and none of the bitterness.

Regiment spinach - I currently grow a variety called "Space". Regiment is supposed to be just as hardy but has larger leaves.

Athena muskmelon - I'm hedging my bets here. I'm growing this more common muskmelon variety just in case I don't like Petite Gris de Renne.

Sarian strawberry - Sarian is a day-neutral variety of strawberry that is easily started from seed and will produce fruit in the first year. You can grow it as an annual by transplanting the runners in the fall.

Snow Crown Cauliflower - My attempt at growing cauliflower last year proved disastrous. I'm hoping that I'll have much better luck with this very early variety (50 days to maturity).

Alcosa savoy cabbage - I will admit I've never really had an interest in growing cabbage, mainly because I've been under the impression that it can be particularly difficult to grow. Well we shall see. Hopefully I'll be able to keep the slugs and caterpillars under control.

Yellow Sunshine watermelon - A yellow flesh variety, I'm growing it just for fun. I remember being utterly fascinated by yellow-fleshed watermelon when I was a child and begging my dad to buy some. I guess that curiosity never really went away.

San Marzano tomato - I'm growing these because everyone else is. :)

I'm working on my seed-starting schedule now and will post it soon. Our first sowing dates are just weeks away! Can you believe it?

End of May Harvest

I hope everyone is enjoying their Memorial Day weekend. We couldn't have been blessed with better weather this year. May ends with a nice harvest of tasty greens.

I picked 2 more heads of Red Sails lettuce. I'm glad to note that despite my initial bitter encounter, the lettuce is tasting mighty good.

The ever so reliable Tuscano kale came through again. Grow this vegetable and you will never hungry. I've been trying to stay on top of the little green caterpillars that arrived a couple of weeks ago. After some handpicking and bit of Dipel Dust, I think I have them under control. (The robins have been very helpful as well.)

New to this week's harvest is Rhubarb Chard. The flavor is much more pungent than the Rainbow Chard I grew this past winter. Though I'm not a huge fan of this vegetable, I do love adding it to soups.


I also harvested some Shanghai bok choy and overwintered Rainbow Chard. The recent hot weather had caused the bok choy to bolt prematurely. Hopefully, it still tastes okay.

Interestingly, the overwintered chard started bolting weeks ago but still tastes good. It was nice to get one last cutting before pulling up the plants.

Finally, I pulled a few of my Red of Florence scallions to see how they were coming along. The color was amazingly brilliant. I added some to a grilled shrimp salad I made today. The taste was nice and not too overpowering. I will definitely grow them again.

Total harvest this week: 2.93 lbs

If you'd like to see what others are harvesting or share your own, visit Harvest Mondays at Daphne's Dandelions.

Growing Piracicaba Broccoli

Yesterday evening I went into the garden to take some pictures before the rains came. Low and behold, I spotted this little beauty! Admittedly, I danced around a bit. I just couldn't contain my excitement given the fact that all of my fall broccoli had succumbed to pests last year. This will be the first time I get to taste homegrown broccoli.

I started the seeds in March and then transplanted them into the garden at the beginning of April. This is an interesting variety called, "Piracicaba," which was specifically bred by the University of Piracicaba in Brazil to be heat tolerant. Given this fact, I'm crossing my fingers that it will go on to produce all summer long in our New England climate.

Michelle of Seed to Table fame was kind enough to share with me some factoids regarding this variety. Apparently, the main crown only grows to about 2 inches in diameter in her garden and then goes on to produce many side shoots. Already I'm noticing that the buds on this small crown (about an inch in diameter at the moment) are much more pronounced and plump than conventional broccoli. And from what I've read, the miniature head and shoots produced by this variety are leafier in appearance and milder and sweeter in taste.


I spotted another mini crown developing on one of my other plants. Needless to say, I will be keeping an eye on them in the coming days and weeks to see how it all unfolds.

I find a great deal of satisfaction in growing vegetable and fruit varieties that are not widely produced or commercially available in our area. Again, a big THANKS to Marie from 66 Square Feet for sending me the seeds!

Spring Garden Tour

I just thought I'd update everyone on some of the things I had growing in the garden at the moment. In no particular order:


My mini white stem bok choy is already starting to bolt. I wonder if they are still edible.


Here are some of the Yellow and Red Wonder wild strawberries I started from seed. I wonder if they will produce any berries this year.


Speaking of strawberries, about 90% of the runners/crowns that I transplanted from the old garden last fall survived the winter and are beginning to flower.


Red Sails lettuce interplanted with some white onion sets...Florence fennel in the bottom right...parley, sage and thyme in the top right...snow peas top left.

Yesterday, I finally made a pea trellis out of old branches. I still need to make a couple more.


My mini Napa cabbage is getting huge! I hope they don't decide to bolt...Red of Florence scallions in the bottom left.


Pictured: white onion sets, Pirracicaba broccoli, several varieties of cauliflower, celery and Rhubarb chard. I have these veggies planted throughout my garden.


Behind the broccoli are snow peas and Fava beans interplanted with even more onions.


In the foreground are more cauliflower interplanted with leeks.

The garlic is getting HUGE!


Finally, I think I forgot to mention that I transplanted 9 of my February sown tomatoes a week and a half ago (Siberian, Black Krim, Cherokee Purple and Sungold). I planted them pretty deep with all but the top few branches snipped off. Into the hole went some compost, a good amount of slow-release organic fertilizer, bone meal, a bit of Epsom salt and some crushed Aspirin and calcium tablets. As you can see, they are starting to flower. They're pretty slow growing at the moment. Hopefully they will take off as the weather warms.

A Crispy Change

Today we picked the first Easter Egg radishes of the year. They were a welcomed change from our usual harvest of leafy greens. And I couldn't think of a better person to model them. Say, "Radishes!"

This Week's Harvest - More Greens

This past week, I harvested the last of my Shanghai bok choy, another head of mizuna and some overwintered Bright Lights Swiss chard. Surprisingly, one green missing from our spring harvest at the moment is lettuce. I would kill for some fresh cut-and-come-again salad mix straight from the garden. But alas, this is not meant to be. I will have to make sowing lettuce a top priority next February. And since my March sowings have gone nowhere, I broke down and purchased some red leaf lettuce (Red Sails) transplants a few days ago. (You do what you gotta do, right?)

Anyway, I harvested 1.80 lbs of greens this past week, which officially makes April the most productive month so far this year. Hopefully the numbers will begin to grow exponentially as the weather heats up.


In other news, the Easter Egg radishes are sizing up and should be ready in a few days. What I love about growing radishes during the cold/cool months is that you still get a quick harvest, despite the fact that the leaves don't get nearly as big as they do when you grow them during the warmer months. They also taste crispier and milder in my opinion. It will be nice to harvest something non-green for a change (which reminds me that I should have planted some Hakurei turnips back in early March as well).


Finally, it looks like I can start to pick some leaves from the Tuscan kale. Kale is one of those amazing garden veggies that keeps on giving. Its best quality lies in the fact that it's one of the earliest to produce and the latest to give up. What more could you as for from a plant?

If you'd like to see what others are harvesting or want to show off your own, visit Harvest Mondays at Daphne's Dandelions.