Monday, April 19, 2010

Harvest Monday

This morning I brought in a few things, both winter & spring crops this time. There are a few things still in the garden that I will harvest soon to make way for new crops. Things that will be taking their place this week are peas, brassica's and lettuce transplants. I will also be direct seeding a few things this week as well.

The spinach is still going crazy. Also in the coldframe is
mache, parsley & thyme.

Here is the spinach I picked today. Some leaves are close
to 12" long which is the biggest spinach I had ever seen.

'Bonsai' Pac Choi. These are thinnings and are about half the
normal harvestable size. They will be tossed into tonight's
stir-fry.

Tatsoi thinnings. These are still tiny but will also be good
in the stir-fry.

Mache. They are all starting to flower now. Not sure
if they will be bitter now because of it. Anyone have
experience with bolting mache?

Be sure to check out Daphne's page for all the other blogs participating in Harvest Monday.

18 comments:

  1. Everything looks great Dan! It doesn't look like you have a problem with slug at the moment.

    The pac choi thinnings look tasty. I really should plant my Asian greens more closely to take advantage of the delicate thinnings

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  2. Looks wonderful, Dan! I'd like to plant some seeds this fall for asian greens. If you have some extra asian greens seeds let me know. I'd like to get some from you. I can also send you some seeds. Let me know and let's trade!

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  3. Great looking spinach and greens! I don't know about the taste of the mache, mine hasn't started bolting yet. I'd be curious to know also!

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  4. Beautiful greens Dan! Still wishing I had spinach!

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  5. Greens thinnings, they make the sweetest and most tender stir-fries, don't they?

    I have eaten bolting mache. I just cut the flower stem off and keep on harvesting. The leaves get tougher but I haven't found a difference in flavor. A caveat, though: my winters are warm and mache here doesn't taste like mache grown in a cold weather. In your case you might get a different result, but as long as you don't need the space for another crop, give it a try.

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  6. Thomas - We had an almost snowless and cold winter so I think it did in alot of slugs. It is so dry the poor suckers just can make it, HA! :-) I seed the asian greens about 2" apart and then thin to 4-5" once the start touching.

    Kalena - Sure! Drop me a line some time this summer for a Fall trade.

    Villager - Thanks, nice to see green things again.

    Megan - Still lots of time to seed spinach. These plants I sowed last September and have been picking all fall, winter and now spring.

    Angela - I'll try them out and see then. They were excellent all fall and winter.

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  7. mmmm.... delicious greens! I need to plants some spinach, chard, pak choi over the next few days!

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  8. Aerelonian - I just seeded chard, radishes & pac choi outside today. Also planted out broccoli, lettuce, tatso & pac choi transplants as well. The season is getting underway!

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  9. I just adore fresh spinach! Funny, because when I was little it was the one thing I hated and my parents always MADE me eat it because it was good for me!

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  10. Nice harvest, I love all kinds of greens.
    Can you grow pac choi year round in your area?

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  11. Lovely harvest Dan! I have harvested mache after it started to bolt, but usually it is time to move on to something else that is coming ready for harvest and I just remove the bolting mache and plant something else in that spot. In fact, I just removed the mache (that was bolting!) last Saturday to make room in the greenhouse containers for some tomatoes.

    Your Monday harvest post is quite impressive.

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  12. I envy your spinach harvest! For 2 years I have been trying to grow spinach and I get only few small leaves. Nothing.

    When my mache started to bolt, I just removed it from the bed. That same week I bought some mache, later I noticed it was also starting to bolt. I ate it, it was OK.

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  13. all the veggies are looking great...still. :)

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  14. Hmm I would have sworn that I commented already. Maybe I'm going crazy? Don't you just love your overwintered spinach. I found it so easy and I love the early greens. Of course you have a lot better protection and more variety than I do. Next year I need to do more.

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  15. More good looking spinach! So many gardeners are harvesting great looking spinach, I'm jealous. I guess I'll have to try growing it again some day.

    I've found that very mature or bolting mache just gets to be a bit too chewy for my taste, the flavor is ok though. Mature mache is supposedly good cooked like spinach but I haven't tried it that way yet.

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  16. Everything looks great!! I wish my spinach was that big...makes me hungry

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