As the season wears on I am slowly harvesting the remaining unprotected fall crops. Day by day I am getting aware that a hard frost is possible any time now, the kind that freezes the top layer of soil. Judging by the 14 day trending forecast a hard frost may be coming during the last few days of the month. Today I harvested the roots crops and started on bringing in a few other crops that you will see below. Things that are remaining unprotected in the garden now are lettuce, chard, fennel and radishes. Things that didn't make it to maturity are parsnips, brussels sprouts & leeks. They will be left in the ground and I will see what happens to them. Once all the fall crops growing in the open are harvested I will start working on eating up the crops growing in the tunnel & frame.Saturday's harvest:
Red celery & broccoli, both went into........:
Chicken pot pie topped with buttermilk biscuits.....
and chicken stock. For stocks I just wash everything and through it in skin and all. The pot pie was made with left over roast chicken and the stock was made with the leftover cooked chicken carcass, waste not want not!Today's Harvest:
I harvested all the fall beets today, these are 'detriot dark red'. I seeded these mid June and they matured nicely, seems like a good planting date. I found the spring planted beets were devoured by leaf miner but the later sown ones were not bothered much at all.
Here is the biggest beet harvested, weighing in at 13 oz. Not the biggest one I have seen but pretty good for a home gardener.
I also pulled the last of the carrots. These are 'atomic red' carrots that have been in the ground since the beginning of May. Pretty disappointing variety, they should be monsters by now. Not growing them again and they are not even red!
The broccoli are still putting out side shoots, I nipped out all that were a good size today. There are quite a few left that are very tiny so weather permitting they may produce another flush of florets.
Lastly I brought in all the tatsoi that the slugs left me. These grow very well as a fall green so they will now be a staple in the early spring & fall garden. Some will be used for an asia inspired noodle soup tonight and the rest will be kept in the crisper for another day. A stir fry sure sounds good some time this week.... The seed for the tatsoi was shared by Daphne who also hosts Harvest Monday.
Dan, what a great harvest! Your celery looks fantastic...and I especially like the fact that you made pot pies...of of my favorite dishes.
ReplyDeleteI knew I harvested my beets too early...I was so afraid that they would be harmed by frost that I jumped the gun. Now I'm wondering how large they would have been if I had just left them in the ground. Lesson learned.
Sorry to hear about your carrots...mine are finally starting to fatten up.
Great harvest! I've never grown celery - when do you plant it?
ReplyDeletegood looking grub, too - :-)
Thomas - The pot pies were excellent and a pretty fast meal with left over chicken. Beets can take a lot of frost, they take as much cold as carrots.
ReplyDeleteGumboot Goddess - The celery I seeded on June 1st in cell packs and I planted them in the soil July 1st. They then were covered with the poly tunnel just before the first light frost. I thought they would be hard to grow but they are really easy. The only ones that are hardy enough to take fall weather is red celery though, your typical celery will turn to mush after a frost. With that said the red celery is not good to eat fresh as it is a little woody but excellent in soups/stews/stocks etc.
Wow what a harvest! I was going to plant red celery this eyar but given our lack of rainfall decided against it. The beetroots look amazing!
ReplyDeleteThe pot pie and stew look delicious!
ReplyDeleteOh my, everything looks delicious! Funny, I do the exact same thing with chicken. One bird will make at least 4 meals for my husband and me, plus the bones and trimmings go into the stock pot.
ReplyDeleteMy beets are nowhere near as good looking as yours. They seem to want more water than I want to give them. Maybe they'll size up once we get some rain on a regular basis.
The atomic reds did ok for me but they certainly weren't all that red either.
Yummy, Dan! All that soup is missing is som Matzoh balls and you'd be living the high life.
ReplyDeleteDan,
ReplyDeleteYour beets look great. I planted some in July but they never went beyond seedling so most got pulled to make space for winter greens.
I enjoyed tatsoi this year and agree it's better spring and fall. My mid summer planting of it was horribly eaten by flea beetle or something that put little holes in the leaves. Now that its recovered its doing great.
Great looking pot pies, carrots, broccoli side shoots, beets, etc. I'm still getting side shoots but they're getting smaller and smaller...
ReplyDeleteThe mild weather has really extended the season. Look at that lovely brocc still putting out ! Your celery looks fab (I know I say every time, but it does !).
ReplyDeleteOh, I so regret not trying a fall crop of beets, just look at that amazing detroit dark red.
Gosh, reviews on atomic reds have not been good at all. I think I'll stick with Emily's purple haze instead and may throw in a yellow variety as well.
November's been very mild but the ground is (finally) starting to freeze up now. They're calling for another mild weekend coming up (unbelievable!), surely it's gonna (gotta) dip after that ...
Nice harvest Dan ! The pot pies look scrumptious.
The fall crops look outstanding Dan. The broccoli is particularly nice looking. I get lots of side shoot production in the late fall but they often start looking a little ragged - yours look beautiful. I think I need to make some potpies this coming weekend. We had cornish pasties this past weekend and they really hit the spot - pot pies sound like a great follow up!
ReplyDeleteVery nice looking harvest! Plus, those pot pies looked scrumptious!
ReplyDeleteThis looks amazing! I've never tried celery either. Maybe I will next year.
ReplyDeleteDid I ever ask if I could adopt you, Dan? I'll bet those pot pies are a lot better than the Marie Calendar pot pies in my freezer ;-)
ReplyDeleteYou're making me hungry!
ReplyDeleteLeeks, sprouts and parsnips will take a lot of frost. In fact, in the case of the latter 2, people say they are all the sweeter for a frost.
I grow the purple sprouting broccoli - we call the type you grow Calabrese. The PSB is another plant that will stand all winter and not bother about frost.
You're making me hungry!
ReplyDeleteLeeks, sprouts and parsnips will take a lot of frost. In fact, in the case of the latter 2, people say they are all the sweeter for a frost.
I grow the purple sprouting broccoli - we call the type you grow Calabrese. The PSB is another plant that will stand all winter and not bother about frost.
Yum! I make chicken broth from my carcasses too. It is so much better than the canned stuff. I still buy the canned since I never have enough, but I wish it were all homemade.
ReplyDeleteYour veggies look wonderful still. I know the freeze will come sometime. We had one on on the 7th already, but since it has been pretty above normal and now the predictions say it is going to stay that way for a while. The only damage I had during the freeze was the Deer Tongue you gave me got a little tip burn.
Those chicken pot pies look incredibly delicious! Now I'm hungry!
ReplyDeleteThis is the good blog with good images and good details. Please keep on posting the more stuff. I will like to hear more from you.
ReplyDeleteLoved both meals....
ReplyDeleteall the photos are amazing... :)