Harvest Monday - August 11, 2014

My first harvest of onions is in – well, technically they’re shallots.  ‘Camelot’ shallots grown from seed to be precise.  But does this look like a shallot to you?

 

Camelot Shallot
 

Me neither.  These have got to be the biggest “shallots” I have ever seen.

Three of the shallots were what I would consider more or less “normal” for shallots – all of the rest were huge.

 

Only three of the shallots were
a more typical shallot size
 

What will be interesting to see is how long they keep.  My regular ‘golden’ shallots stay firm & fresh for over a year – if these have similar storage abilities, then that would be incredible.  This would mean that I could potentially have homegrown onions year round, with no need to supplement from the store.  The Ailsa Craig sweet onions would be used up first, followed by the storage onions (Copra and Rossa di Milano) which are said to last up to 10 months.  The Camelot shallots would be last in the lineup.

Of course, how well onions store is not only dependent on variety, but also on storage conditions.  Since I have never stored homegrown onions before, this will be the year when I find out how long they last for me.

 

Camelot Shallots Curing in the Sun
 

I placed the shallots on the picnic table to cure in the sun for a couple of days.  Now they are in the garage on a bed of newspaper.  Hopefully I remember to turn them every once in a while so that they dry out evenly.  The onions, err shallots, will not be included in the tally until they are dry and ready to store.

I also harvested one of the Ailsa Craig onions to use in a bean salad…love these onions, they are so good!

 

Ailsa Craig Onion
 

New this week were the Golden of Bacau beans.  I am not letting them grow as large as I normally would in an effort to keep ahead of the bacterial brown spot that has infected the vines.

 

Golden of Bacau Beans
 

The cool, wet weather we had up until last week really sped up the progress of the disease.  I was able to harvest another bowlful of the Contender bush beans, but they were really hit hard.  Even the beans that were the farthest away from the Golden of Bacau were starting to get heavily infected.  I ended up pulling up all of the bush beans.  Now that the weather has dried up a bit, I'm hoping that the progress of this disease on the pole beans will slow down.

I have been picking more tomatoes each day and this week we had a few more varieties start to ripen.  The first slicing tomato to be picked was a Brandywine – and it was a biggie, weighing in at 502 grams (1.11 lbs).

 

Just Picked Brandywine Tomato
 

I had recently learned that you are supposed to pick heirlooms before they fully ripen to minimize bug damage and, in some cases, splitting.  The first Brandywine was left to ripen in the safety of my kitchen.  I also picked the first Gypsy tomato, another slicer & a gorgeous one at that.

 

Tomatoes Clockwise from the Top:
Mountain Magic, Ildi, Gypsy, Yellow Pear, and that same Brandywine after it is ripe
 

I harvested a bunch of chard and, getting an idea from Susie at Cold Hands Warm Earth, I used the chard as a substitute for spinach in a warm spinach & artichoke dip I made this past weekend.  I simply removed the stems and then blanched & chopped the leaves.  Yum yum…the dip was as delicious as always.

Fordhook Giant Swiss Chard
 

I also harvested the last of the rapini for this year, which I blanched and then froze.  Once again, I was a bit tardy in harvesting and a couple of them had started to flower.  They are such quick growers that I am having a hard time keeping up with the succession planting.   Instead of another round of rapini, I have decided to fill this spot with some broccoli transplants that were originally intended for the onion beds (which won’t be empty for at least another couple of weeks).

 

Zamboni Rapini
 

Also included in the tally is bowlful of sugar snap peas that I forgot to add to the harvest totals last week.  I never did get around to sowing that second planting of peas and I think that it may be a bit too late now.  I’m not willing to take the chance and, as the rest of my broccoli & kale transplants are still looking for a home, I’m thinking that I will be transplanting them into this bed instead of the onion bed.

The collards were harvested & pulled.  These were getting way too tall for the netting that is over that bed.  I have a replacement set of transplants all ready to go and these will hopefully be planted today.



Vates Collards



Beira Tronchuda Collards
 

During our recent wet weather the diatomaceous earth I used to deter slugs is not as effective.  I don't automatically re-apply it once the rain stops, however.  I wait until I start seeing damage that I think warrants another application.  I don't really mind the occasional hole.  The only exception is seedlings.  I will apply the diatomaceous earth on seedlings that are susceptible to slugs right when I transplant them as they are so small that one slug can easily decimate a few overnight.

 

Notice the difference in size between the two collard varieties?  It's hard to miss.  The Beira Tronchuda significantly outperformed the Vates in the same amount of space.  I had 3 plants of each - Vates produced a total of 2,050 grams (4.52 lbs), while I harvested 3,421 grams (7.54 lbs) from Beira – almost 70% more!  And not only was Beira a better performer, but it also had a slightly better flavour.  My new seeding consists solely of the Beira Tronchuda.  I just hope it has enough time to give me some good sized leaves.

Also harvested this past week were several pickings of lettuce (which is doing very well under the row cover), a bunch of cilantro (which I minced & froze), a few cucumbers and one zucchini (that is not a typo).

My harvest totals this week were:

Beans – 1,398 (3.08 lbs)

Collards – 2,450 grams (5.40 lbs)
Cucumbers – 960 grams (2.12 lbs)
Lettuce – 692 grams (1.53 lbs)
Onions – 186 grams (0.41 lbs)
Peas – 674 grams (1.49 lbs)
Rapini – 488 grams (1.08 lbs)
Summer Squash - 546 grams (1.20 lbs)
Swiss Chard – 580 grams (1.28 lbs)
Tomatoes – 2,072 grams (4.57 lbs)
Herbs – 130 grams (0.29 lbs)

Total for Week – 10,176 grams (22.43 lbs)

Total to Date – 54.20 kg (119.49 lbs)

To see what everyone else has been harvesting over the past week, head on over to Daphne’s Dandelions, our host for Harvest Mondays.

 

Till next time…☺