Harvest Monday - May 23, 2016


Each year I think that my first harvest will be earlier than last year - and each time I don't get that 1st harvest until the May long weekend.

With our very late spring, I actually feel lucky that I'm harvesting anything at all as the spring sown crops, including lettuce, spinach and rapini, all crops that I've harvested in the past at this time, are still babies.  But what finally put on some growth was a veg I had sown in the fall with the hopes that it would overwinter to give me an extra early harvest.  Giant Winter Virolflex Spinach.

Giant Winter Viroflex Spinach

It didn't exactly give me an extra early harvest, but at least it gave me a harvest by the Victoria Day weekend.  Just like everything else, the overwintered spinach took a long time to size up.  At one point, I was doubtful that I would even get a harvest as the tiny plants just sat there for weeks with seemingly little growth.  But once the warmer weather kicked in, they swung into action.

There are so many exciting moments in the veg garden and the first harvest of the season is right there at the top of the list...and everyone at my house is well aware of that as I parade that basket of spinach around :)

If the weather keeps up (which it looks like it's going to), I'm hoping to add one or two more goodies to the harvest basket next week.

My harvest total this week was:

Spinach – 256 grams (0.56 lbs)

Total to Date –  256 kg (0.56 lbs)

To see what everyone else has been harvesting over the past week, head on over to Our Happy Acres where Dave is our host for Harvest Mondays.

Comments

  1. Ha ha, I'm imagining you proudly showing off your spinach. It's true though, there's so much that can go wrong when you grow you're own veggies that the first harvest of the season is like its own little miracle.

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    1. So true - it really does put the pep in your step :)

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  2. Oops, your link on OHA takes one back to a December post...

    Yay for that first harvest, it looks great! I can only imagine how wonderful it is to get something from the garden after a long winter wait, what a treat.

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    1. Oy - I didn't realize that; the link was auto-filled and I didn't bother checking the tail end, assuming it was for the main page. Thanks for the heads up! And a HUGE treat it was - it all went into a frittata, which I know is a fav at your house :)...so good!

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  3. Congratulations on the harvest! Almost all of our "winter veg" bolted immediately at the first sign of warmth.

    This summer we're trying "New Zealand Spinach", which really isn't spinach at all, but it's supposed to like being warm.

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    1. I've had bolting issues with spinach too and in fact, a couple of the overwintered plants look like they are about to bolt, so I'd better get picking! I've not tried New Zealand spinach, but it is on my list for the future - I'll be interested to see what you think of it.

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  4. I smiled when I thought about your spinach parade! I am often carrying something from the garden in to show my wife, or vice versa. Here's to more goodies in the harvest basket too!

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    1. Thanks Dave - noone in my house was surprised by my antics, which goes to show how often that type of thing happens :)

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  5. Well, it may be small in size, that harvest, but it's big in significance! With the advent of warmer weather your garden will soon take off.

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    1. Very true, Mark - I can already see a huge difference in how well everything is doing since our weather turned last week. Now if it would only rain a bit more...

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  6. Congrats on your first harvest of spring! It's always so exciting to finally get rewarded for all the work that goes into gardening.

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    1. Thanks Julie! It is a long haul at the start, isn't it? But SO very worth it once those first fresh-from-the-garden tidbits hit your mouth!

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  7. That's a good looking basket of spinach. It's funny how weather plays such a huge part in gardening, there's only so much we can plan for.

    I was potting up leftover tomato plants to give to my coworkers and found blooms on the Sun Gold. :) Hopefully my plants aren't too far behind.

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    1. You are so right, Phuong - like you, we have had very little rain in the past month, so I'm also out there watering all the time...and finalizing those plans for the drip!

      Those lucky co-workers! I'm sure they will be shocked by Sun Gold's flavour (in a good way!) if they've not tried them before.

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  8. I'm like you--I so look forward to the start of harvests. We share those LATE springs and it's frustrating when seeing others harvests for weeks (and weeks!!). Enjoy that spinach--it looks so good.

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    1. I know! Harvests are seemingly all around the blogospere EXCEPT in my garden! I hope the harvests in your garden have started to come in - the good news is that once they start, they go from trickle to flood in no time. And then we start wondering what the heck are we going to do with all that lettuce :)

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    2. Margaret--that's a problem I'm HOPING to have real soon!!
      :D

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  9. Congrats, you've overwintered something in our climate!! You MUST tell me when you planted it ... I have to buy some right away for fall planting. :)

    I have a friend who recently told me he overwinters a specific type of radicchio here - I need to order some of that too!

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    1. The variety is Giant Winter Viroflex from William Dam - I'm actually wondering if our mild winter had anything to do with its success. I'll be growing it again this fall and it will be interesting to see if it survives a "normal" winter. Oh, and I started the spinach last year in the 2nd week of September. I'll be watching out for your radicchio trial :)

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  10. It's hard to believe that soon we will be inundated with fresh fruit and vegetables as it is rather slow at the moment.

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    1. It is hard to believe right now - but I think the trickle will become a flood for both of us very soon.

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  11. It's so fun to follow your harvests during the growing season! As you know, I only have a small plot for edibles, but the best ones are those that we eat fresh from the garden. We also have a CSA share, and our first box delivery is tomorrow! Life is good! Enjoy your spinach: It looks delish!

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    1. Thanks Beth - fresh from the garden is truly the best, isn't it? But having a CSA share is the next best thing - the farm I volunteer at has a CSA program & I received a few baskets of goodies in the late fall last year. Even for those of us that grow our own, it was still a treat as it topped up my supply of certain veg, such as squash, so that I've not had to purchase any all winter.

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