The December Garden

I noticed the other day how well my Imperial Star Artichokes were still doing, which is in stark contrast to how they looked this time last year. Maybe this has something to do with the fact that I'd side-dressed the plants with compost and organic fertilizer in August after they'd stopped producing.

Temperatures are expected to dip down to 26 degree F later in the weeks so I have a feeling they will fade fast soon after. In any case, I'm hopeful that they will overwinter in the garden this year. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.


Even if they don't overwinter successfully, it's definitely worthwhile to grow artichokes as annuals in our climate. I got an especially good crop of artichokes from my seven plants this year. Aside from the tasty flower buds, the plant's leaves are very decorative in my opinion and would add a lot of eye candy to any garden.


My Rhubarb Chard is hanging in there. The leaves have turned a deep burgundy color. Too bad I'm not a fan of this vegetable.


Even though they don't produce florets in their first year, my purple sprouting broccoli plants seem hardier than my fall broccoli. I'll cover them with fabric grow cover and see if they come back next spring. I have no idea whether or not they'll overwinter successfully in our Zone 6 climate.


Finally, the kale still looks virtually unfazed by the cold weather. You can tell that the nighttime temperatures are approaching freezing when the Red Russian kale takes on a purplish hue.

This Week's Harvest - Disappearing Greens

This week's harvest was a mix of odds and ends. At the moment, we're waiting for the next big thing to come along. A few weeks ago, it was the Asian greens. I'm guess pretty soon, it will be either the cucumbers or zucchini. But for now, I'm expecting our weekly harvest to remain pretty modest.

The broccoli harvest from our nine plants has been decent, but nothing extraordinary. They along with our remaining Asian greens account for most of the veggies on our present dinner plates.


I picked the first of our snow peas a few days ago. I'm sure we'll be seeing more of them in the weeks to come. Snow peas have proven to be a fairly reliable crop in our garden.


On a sweeter note, the wild strawberries are pouring in. I'm glad I planted them last year. Hopefully, I'll be saying the same thing about our Seascape strawberries this time next year.


This is just to give you a sense of how big they are. As you can see, it'll take more than a few to satisfy one's sweet tooth. However, what they lack in size, they more than make up for in flavor.


On a sad note, the last six heads of lettuce in our garden have turned bitter. It was bound to happen sooner or later but I was hoping for the latter. My plans to have a consistent supply of salad greens this summer has come to an abrupt end. I started two heat-tolerant varieties (Manoa and Anuenue) a few weeks ago but it will be a while before they're ready. I guess we'll be relying on our local farmer's market for salad greens this summer.

Death of Chard - Goodbye to 2010

Earlier today, I was contemplating what to write about on this last day of 2010. Then I thought, what better way to pay tribute to this awesomely productive growing year then to post about the picture above, which was taken just prior to this week's snow storm.

I'll admit these Swiss chard plants look pretty sorry, but then again, it is to be expected this late in the year and at this stage of their growth. You see, these plants have been growing now for at least 18 months. I started them during the summer of 2009 and overwintered them underneath one of my hoops. To my surprise, they decided not to bolt this past summer, but instead provided us with more greens then we could have possibly eaten until very recently. In some ways, I feel like I'm saying goodbye to two dear old friends. I guess it's only fitting that they should meet their demise just as the year winds down to a close.

Have a wonder New Year's Eve everyone! Let's toast to a productive 2010 and hope for bountiful 2011.

A Mid-November Harvest

What a great weekend we just had - perfect weather for raking leaves and working in the garden. I finally got around to planting my hard-neck garlic for next year. In the end, I planted about 60 cloves, most of which came from this year's harvest. Next weekend, I might plant some supermarket soft-necks just for fun.

This week's harvest comprised of a good mix of cold-weather veggies. The chard above was planted over a year ago. The stalk is at least two inches thick. I'm amazed by how well it's held up. I started pulling a few of my winter scallions as well, which I should have done weeks ago. Hopefully, they won't become too ragged-looking as winter progresses.


The broccoli is still going strong despite the fact that temperatures got down into the upper 20's F the other week. I decided against pulling the plants as I'm curious to see how much longer they will continue to produce.


The carrots are tasting very sweet these days. We love munching on them raw.

Unfortunately, I had to pull most of them prematurely this week. The mice are going crazy and the carrots have become their food of choice. I was harvesting carrots well into January last year but have a feeling that the rest of this year's lot will be gone before month's end. What an absolute shame.


Finally, the Japanese turnips and French Breakfast radishes are still coming in. Jonathan loves dipping them (along with carrots) into some ranch dressing as a snack. I couldn't be a prouder parent!

This week's numbers:

Asian greens - 0.50 lb
Radishes - 0.50 lb
Leeks - 2.72 lb
Carrots - 1.65 lb
Broccoli - 0.43 lb
Swiss chard - 0.74 lb
Scallions - 0.75 lb
Lemongrass - 1.15 lb

Total harvest this week - 8.44 lb
Total harvest so far this year - 687.57 lb

Fall Harvests

I thought I'd do a quick post on some of the things that I've been harvesting lately:


I started pulling a few of my spring-planted leeks this past weekend. I've only had leeks once before, so at this point, I'm still learning to appreciate the mild and sweet onion flavor of this vegetable.

I've also picked some baby beets, watermelon radishes and daikon radishes. The field mice are particularly active this time of year. Already, I've lost about 50% of my winter carrots and 90% of my beets and radishes. I don't remember it being this bad last year.


Boy I have missed my Japanese turnips. They are so mild and delicious. To me, they taste a lot like cauliflower but are much easier to grow and quicker to mature. I wish I had planted more this fall.

Out of four Napa cabbages planted, I ended up harvesting two. One was dispatched by a cut worm early on and another was devoured by slugs. Also, the broccoli plants are offering plenty of side shoots now that the main heads are gone.


The rhubarb chard is tasting really good now that the weather has grown colder.


Finally, I'm trying to take advantage of all of the herbs in my garden before they disappear for the winter. Fall sage is one of my favorite things. I love making an herb butter with it and some thyme and spreading the mixture all over a chicken I'm about to roast. The basil is gone at the point - The night chill got to it before I had a chance to make pesto.

Total harvest this past week: 6.33 lb

Fall Garden Update

I thought I'd do a post on how my fall garden is coming along. There's still quite a bit of work to do but I'm hoping to get all of my seeds planted within the next week or two. In no particular order:

The 8 broccoli plants I started back in July are doing rather well despite being assaulted by little green worms. Regular applications of Dipel Dust seem to help. I'm hoping they will begin to form heads within the next couple of weeks. To the left of them are my mini Napa cabbages.


The Tuscan kale desperately needs to be picked. The tops are getting a bit heavy at this point. I'm sure all of them will need proper staking in the near future.


My fall beets are growing rather slowly. Germination was good but then I lost quite a few at the seedling stage. Many of them damped off seemingly overnight. I really should check the PH of my soil.


The winter carrots are growing steadily. I only have one bed of carrots this year but had planted the seeds closer together. I'm also experimenting with growing my half-long Nantes carrots in buckets that had been used for growing potatoes. My spring carrots were a dismal failure, partly because our soil is so heavy. I'm interested to see how carrots fair when grown in containers. Hopefully the roots grow long and straight.


It's nice to have some lettuce to harvest again. These will have to hold us over until the Mesclun mix I just planted is ready.


The spinach is growing comfortably under row cover. Without it, the plants would have been toast by now.


I'm really surprised by how quickly the Red Russian kale has grown. These were started at the beginning of August. I should be able to harvest a few leaves in a week or two. In the same bed is some white stem chard. Hopefully, these will fair as well this winter as they did last year. To the left of this bed, I have some Watermelon and Daikon radish growing alongside the leeks.


Finally, not only are the snow peas up but some of the plants are already staring to flower. Boy that was quick. Despite the high temperatures of late August, they seem to be comfortable in the shadier part of the garden. To the right of the snow peas are Asian greens, including Tokyo Market turnips. Thanks again Winnie for the seeds!

Late August Harvest - Tomatoes and Peppers

Finally, we received some much needed rain today. This summer has been so hot and dry that I'm sure our plants appreciated it. I'm noticing that our nighttime temperatures have been to cool down as well. It seems that fall may be approaching faster than we think. For many reasons, I'm rather excited for it. Cooler temperatures mean indoor fires and roasted marshmallows. It also means plenty of baking and hence (my favorite) pies....Yum. Indeed, summer is beginning to wind down and the gardener inside me is looking forward to unwinding a bit.


At this point, the tomato picking is still going strong. Sometimes it takes me an hour or more to harvest them all. Picking 8 pounds of cherry tomatoes takes a lot longer than one might think, especially when the vines are overgrown and tangled all together like they are presently. Up until now, I've been giving most of them away but think I'll start to dehydrate much of the excess going forward. Their flavor and sweetness becomes more intense in the dried state. (My friend Tom seems to think they taste "like candy".)


While we're on the subject of cherry tomatoes, I should point out our favorites this year. I have to say that Sungold is a very good hybrid tomato even though it have a tendency to burst when picked ultra ripe. Black Cherry is richly flavored with a complexity you don't ordinarily find in a cherry tomato. Finally, I was surprised by how much I like the Isis Candy variety. Its sweetness rivals (and in some cases surpasses) that of Sungold without any tartness whatsoever.

While the cherry tomatoes are producing stronger than ever, the slicers are beginning to wind down. The plants are forming a good number of green fruit but who knows whether they'll ripen before the first frost.


I also picked a good amount of peppers this week. Most of the Poblanos ended up in a Roasted Corn and Poblano Soup that I made. (Delicious!) I also made and canned a good amount of Annie's salsa.


I love the look of these purple tomatilloes. I'm waiting for more of them to come in before I make a big batch of salsa verde.


The smell of these Charantais melons is filling up the kitchen at the moment. I can't wait to cut into them.


I also picked my second artichoke and gave away some Rhubarb Chard to my sister-in-law.


Finally, I picked my remaining two Thai watermelons this week. They are oblong and each measure about 8 inches long. I didn't have much hope for the one on the right because it felt soft to the touch. Sure enough, it was WAY overripe, so much so that the inside had started to ferment. I can't believe that I had let it go unpicked for so long. So into the compost pile it went (and off of my harvest total). What a disappointment.


To end this post on a happy note, the the last one I cut into was perfectly ripe. In fact, if I had waited another day or too, it would have been over-ripe. It was intensely sweet and absolutely delicious! The flesh was a nice salmon color and, unlike the Sugar Baby, had a sweetness like honey. I will definitely be growing this variety again! Hopefully this time next year, I won't be batting 1 for 3.

This week's numbers:

Tomatilloes - 1.7 lb
Peppers - 2.87 lb
Tomatoes - 61.05 lb
Cucumbers (10) - 4.32 lb
Watermelon - 8.26 lb
Charantais melon - 5.20 lb
Swiss chard - 0.88 lb
Artichoke - 0.32 lb
Beans - 0.31 lb

Total harvest this week - 84.91 lb

The First Summer Harvest

Aside from saying that these are probably the best looking beets I've ever grown and that the chipmunks got to all three of my perfectly ripe Sungold tomatoes, I think I'll let the photos speak for themselves. Enjoy!













Zucchini (6) - 2.21 lb
Beets - 0.81 lb
Celery - 0.76 lb
Broccoli - 0.63 lb
Potatoes - 0.53 lb
Lettuce - 1.22 lb
Swiss Chard - 0.35 lb
Peas and Beans - 1.43 lb

Total harvest this week - 7.94 lb

A June Harvest

I would describe this week's harvest as "a little bit of this and a little bit of that." The greens continue to give and give and frankly, I can't complain. Lately, I've been mixing together chopped celery, chard and kale to freeze - perfect for adding to soups. The Red Sails lettuce is tasting great and still not showing signs of bolting. I need to motivate myself to sow some heat tolerant varieties this week as we are quickly going through what we have.

I also picked a handful of Fava beans - the first of the season. Having never tried them before, I was anxious to cook them up. The pods were tossed with plenty of sea salt and olive oil and then thrown on the grill. Prepared this way, the beans tasted smokey and buttery. We LOVED them! What a revelation. I will definitely be devoting more growing space to them next year.


The snow peas are still producing well. We picked over a pound of pods again this week. The plants are approaching 5 ft tall now but still looking relatively healthy.

I picked my largest mini-crown of Piracicaba broccoli thus far a couple of days ago. Unlike the other ones we've eaten, this one tasted perfectly sweet and without any hint of bitterness. This particular plant is twice as big as the others and was transplanted later in the spring, which leads me to believe that the bitterness we've encountered up until now has something to do with the fact that this particular variety may not taste or produce as well when transplanted too early in the year.


I also harvested my first ripe tomato of the year - a solitary Sungold cherry. I quartered this little nugget of sunshine so that each of us could have a little taste. This will surely become a family favorite. My fluke first tomato date this year is officially June 11. Since the rest are still the size of small marbles, I think I'll be waiting a while for my next tomato.

Finally, I wasn't planning on pulling any carrots this week, but then I noticed that the rabbits had stripped off most of the leaves on some of them. So I thought, "what the heck" and was happy to find a few sweet tasting baby-sized carrots. Being the big carrot fan that he is, Jonathan loved munching on them.

snow peas - 1.21 lb
broccoli - 0.2 lb
various greens - 2.85 lb
Fava beans - 0.3 lb
carrots - 0.5 lb

total this week - 5.06 lb