I'll have to write about my travels later as my garden exploded while I was gone!
I spent this afternoon pulling all the giant spinach stalks out of the garden and harvesting the leaves I could. This gave me two giant bowls packed full of spinach, most of which I am going to freeze to enjoy over the summer. Mike already harvested and froze another giant bag of spinach while I was gone.
There are broccolis now! I find the broccoli plants a little annoying, because for the little heads that are on it right now the plants are about 20 times bigger. I'm hoping the harvest from these guys is worth the space they take up.
There are tomato flowers!
I need to find a recipe for chard soon.
The carrot tops look like real carrot tops now instead of whispy little weeds like they did before I left.
Lettuces are doing great. We are going to have to start having salads more often.
The peas are perhaps the most exciting. Before I left they were just starting to grow and I was afraid I would miss out on all the fresh peas. Boy, was I wrong. There is a container in the freezer already of fresh picked peas from when I was gone, and I went out today and harvested another big batch. I ate one and just about fell over. It was one of those moments when you realize you have never had a pea before in your entire life. You have only had some bastardized, dumbed-down version of a pea that is a mass produced and sold in a bag. My eyes have been opened. I love peas.
Some of the cherries are already starting to turn red. We think they might be Rainier cherries, which is a little disappointing since we both love Bing cherries. Damn.
The herbs are taking off and doing well.
Look, ma! My cilantro is big!
I'm going to have to make some Mexican food soon so I can put some more seed in the pot. Is there a Mexican dish with chard, spinach and peas? Hmmm....
I'm especially happy to be home because I get to see this every day again.
Until next time when I will cover Texas Gardens: part deux, Colorado gardens and riding horses is the rain.
Wow! Look at all your plants! That's awesome! :)
ReplyDelete1. jealous that you have a fruit tree
ReplyDelete2. how do you know when to pick peas? i have 2 on my vine...
3. how do you freeze your spinach?
4. watch out for slugs! my poor buttercrunch lettuce.
Sarah,
ReplyDelete1. I will have to pick your brain abut preserving and jamming because I am going to have fruit coming out my ears.
2. I don't know. I waited until they looked plump.
3. Probably the wrong way. We just straight up froze fresh spinach in a ziplock. I feel like it would have been better if we had cooked it down, sauteed or boiled or something. I don't know how well spinach will handle the freezing process, but I don't expect to have fresh spinach salads coming out of the freezer. They will probably have to be cooked on the back end.
4. Slugs!! So far the lettuce has fared well, but my broccoli leaves are getting nibbled to bits. Honestly, I'm not worrying too much about parasites and bugs this year, I'm just trying to get stuff grown and hope for the best. Next year I'm sure I will be all over the organic pest-control when I halfway know what I'm doing.
I have a few good tricks for aphids and one I'm trying for slugs if you're interested.
ReplyDeleteI looked up how to store mustard greens (of which I have many) and it said to blanch them before freezing. I don't know how much it matters.
Are you planting a fall crop? I just planted 2 types of peas and spinach (I didn't plant any of these in the spring) that I'm hoping to harvest in the fall. It seems impossible, but the packets said you can do it!
I'm still insanely jealous of your fruit. My blueberry bush still has only 1 blueberry on it... not enough for jam :P