Harvest Monday - May 25, 2015
My first harvest of the year. All I can say is…it’s about time! I thought that with everything I learned last year that I would be ahead of the game this time round, but building the new beds and our vacation in the middle of April stuck a wrench in my plans to be on top of things.
Well, the one thing I wasn’t going to be was LATER than last year when it came to my first harvest. I needed to prep the tomato beds and my perennial bunching onions were in the way. The original plan was to transplant them to my onion bed in early spring. But then I decided that I wanted to try other varieties as this particular one (He-Shi-Ko) wasn't really what I was looking for, so I just left them where they were & figured I would pull them up when I needed the space...which is now.
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| He-Shi-Ko Perennial Bunching Onions |
And since I wanted to harvest something that I actually sowed this year, I decided to pick a few leaves from two of the spinach varieties that were a halfway decent size.
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| Spinach - Renegade (right) & Viroflay (left) |
My harvest totals this week were:
Green Onions – 1,210 grams (2.67 lbs)
Spinach – 76 grams (0.17 lbs)
Total for Week – 1,286 grams (2.84 lbs)
Total to Date – 1.286 grams (2.84 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…
Those are some beautiful spinach leaves! I've never had success with spinach and I am impressed. I bet they are very delicious! And while you might be late with some of the gardening chores, better late than never, right?
ReplyDeleteThat is definitely the best way to think about it - I'm slowly but surely getting things going and I know in another month, I'll be glad I did.
DeleteAnd I'm quite happy with the spinach leaves I did pick, but I just wish there were more of them!
Wow - that is a lot of green onions! I've never tried preserving them as I've never had enough at one time. Congrats on those harvests!
ReplyDeleteI definitely could have been picking (and using!) some of the green onions over the past few weeks, but I just didn't think about it...oh well, I'll know better next time!
DeleteWhat a lot of onions. I think freezing them and adding them to cooked dishes is a good idea. It's great when the harvests start, isn't it?
ReplyDeleteIt sure is...seeing & tasting the results after several months of seed starting is so gratifying!
DeleteThat is a lot of green onions. I could probably go through them in a couple weeks if I worked at it. But I would really have to work at it. I do put onions into everything and when the green onions start I use those for a while until the bulbing onions are ready.
ReplyDeleteThat's actually a good point - I bet there are many dishes where I could use them instead of regular onions. Hadn't really thought of that. I do still have some of last years bulbing onions to use up too & I have to get to them quickly as several more started to sprout this week - I think it may be time for some French onion soup.
DeleteYay for the first harvest! I must admit that I've not found a bunching onion that I like. I would rather use scallions or bulbing onions, perhaps I've just not figured out a best use for the bunching types.
ReplyDeleteI don't generally use a whole lot of them, more as a finishing ingredient in a stir fry or in yoghurt dips, that sort of thing. The ones that I grew were a bit big, some being almost 1" thick - I prefer the skinny ones which is one reason why I decided to pull these up and try a couple of other varieties.
DeleteThose onions look good - for a few years now salad onions have been a problem for us.
ReplyDeleteOh, that's too bad. I had issues last year with onion maggots, so now I've had to cover all of the allium beds with netting. Pretty soon I'll have no uncovered beds left!
DeleteSounds to me like a good start... Like Sue Garrett, I have recently had real problems with growing Spring Onions. They just never seem to come to anything - in fact many of them never germinate - your mountain of them would therefore be very welcome over here!
ReplyDeleteSounds like my situation with leeks - at least we each have an allium that does well for us!
DeleteYour bunching onions look marvelous. I'm envious also of your spinach. I am cursing myself for trying that old seed. Now I sit here full of envy. Well, I guess that's the best way to learn this lesson!
ReplyDeleteHave a wonderful week
Seems like no gardening year is complete without at least a few failures...and I have no lack of those! While I did harvest some spinach I definitely have spinach envy of all those bloggers that have overflowing beds of spinach. After harvesting the few big leaves from each plant, they are now tiny again and some are even starting to bolt...oh well, I guess I can always try again in the fall. Have a great week too, Sue!
DeleteCongratulations on your first harvest, Margaret! I can't recall ... did you end up direct sowing this spinach? It looks terrific.
ReplyDeleteThose are actually from the transplants that I put in. I did direct sow some pre-germinated seed as well and those are still tiny, with only one true set of (very small) leaves. With all the heat coming our way now, I have my doubts as to whether they will amount to anything.
DeleteWhy do you discard the bunching onion flower stalks? Like Daphne, I use the bunching onion in recipe calling for onions. I also freeze extra and use them to flavor broth. Grilling whole stalk and use as a side is another option.
ReplyDeleteThe flower stalks were quite thick & they seemed a bit tough - or should I have kept them? I didn't even think to try them - I suppose next time I won't be so quick to toss them out! And thanks for the grilling suggestion - I'll definitely give it a try.
DeleteI used the flower stalks in cooking and did not find them tough. I harvest at the early bud stage.
DeleteMargaret- well you and I both finally got our first harvests this week. I t was really interesting to read about your bunching onions. I have read about them a number of times and was interested in maybe trying them. But you sure do get a lot of them at once! I think your idea to freeze them is a winner. Enjoy your spinach!
ReplyDeleteWell, technically you are supposed to just harvest what you need & leave the rest of the bunching onions in the ground to multiply (I needed the bed, so I would have transplanted them to another bed). But the variety I chose last year was a bit too slow to multiply & I found the stalks to be larger than I liked (I would prefer thin stalks, maybe about 1/2" thick), so I didn't want to continue growing it, which is why I harvested them all instead of transplanting some of them - I'll be trying out a couple of new varieties this year.
DeleteI have tried growing bunching onions, but the theory that you just pull one when you need it doesn't work for me. The roots get fairly intertwined and you can't just pull an onion out when you want one. The stem will snap off. You have to dig them out, which disturbs the whole clump and is a nuisance. I should go back to buying some sets and then pull them young as green onions.
DeleteYou are right in that it is a bit of a pain to pull and then replant. Each seed I sowed produced one "clump" so to speak - usually around 3 - 5 onions each - and I had at least a dozen clumps. I figured I would lift out one clump, remove the extras and then place a single onion back in the soil. The next time I needed green onions, I would move on to another clump. With that many clumps, I would probably only disturb each of them once per season. That's the theory anyhow...since I decided to replace the variety, I don't really know if that would work in practice or not.
DeleteAfter looking at your onions I wish I would have grown some now.
ReplyDeleteWell, if you are after green onions, I think there still may be time to get some going for a fall harvest...
DeleteThe onions look good. Good idea to use the spinach for the frittata- love frittata. I know what you mean about getting ahead on the planting game. I did some seeding and some sprouted and others didn't. So I had to go buy starters.
ReplyDeleteThanks REA. From what I have seen, everyone seems to have at least one or two bad seeding experiences every season. I suppose it's just something you have to get used to.
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