Harvest Monday, 5/31/20

It's been such a wet cold spring the garden didn't get planted until last weekend. My husband actually had to re-till because the only things that had germinated were lettuce, carrots, beets, and grass. We ended up growing a nice lush lawn.

The two beds closest to the house that were home to herbs, greens, and lettuce were saved from being re-tilled. So, we have loads of lettuce to harvest. Yesterday, I harvested as much lettuce that could fit in our fridge since 90 degree weather is headed our way.

Giant Caesar lettuce has a buttery texture. I was actually expecting more of a crunchy romaine type, but the tender leaves and flavor were still nice.

I'm pretty sure this is a Bibb lettuce and that the Nevada lettuce never germinated. It has a very nice tender leaf, but it very much was planning to bolt.

Black Seeded Simpson lettuce is as lovely as ever. It didn't look like it was even thinking about bolting.

Here's a picture of the lettuce bed before harvest. I do think the mountains of rain made the leaves a lot more delicate then they normally are.

What to do with so much lettuce? Lettuce cucumber salad with crunchy Vietnamese eggrolls sliced up on top accompanied by a sweet, sour, spicy dressing. Also chicken, celery, cucumber salad with walnuts and dried cranberries. The chicken is baked with a soy sauce, HappyWorcestershire sauce, brown sugar, ginger, lemon grass, and pear infused balsamic vinegar.

I might grill a couple pork chops marinated in a lemongrass sauce for a rice noodle lettuce salad. Which is usually served with cucumber, bean  sprouts,  chopped roasted peanuts, and the sweet and sour and spicy dressing.

Summer is here to stay. I hope we all get some glorious weather with just the right amount of rain.

Please join us for a fun filled Harvest Monday hosted by Dave at Happy Acres.

First Harvest of the Year, as well as Germinated Beans and Squashes

First harvest of the year is Mizuna and Tatsoi greens, and there's lots more where that came from.

The 2 fifteen foot beds of bush beans have come up. There's Bluelake 274, Bountiful, Golden Butter Wax, Romano, Stringless, and Cherokee Wax bean varieties.

The bush beans were planted 3 to 4 inches apart in the beds. Normally we grow them in rows a foot apart with just a couple of inches between plants, but last year most of the seeds rotted in the ground. My thought was that the troughs used for the rows held too much water during wet years, especially with our heavy clay soil. With the new way, the beds filled out nicely and hopefully we'll get some snap beans in 4 to 5 weeks.

The pole beans are up although there's sparse germination in places which have been reseeded. The three varieties are Cherokee Trail of Tears, Greasy Grits (although the seeds don't look right), and Meraviglia Venezia a yellow bean.

On the left is a row of Queensland Blue winter squash and the row on the right is a row of Beck's Big Buck okra.

Thai Rai Kaw Tok pumpkin looks healthy.

Black Futsu winter squash is up.

Lunga Fiorentino zucchini. (And if you're wondering, that is a pair of child's footprints)

I plant lots and lots of seeds for each variety of squash and zucchini because squash bugs and especially squash vine borers usually kill the plants. If the borers don't kill the plants outright then they'll really weaken them and limit production. This year I'll be trying spinosad as an organic method of control.