Garden Harvests
I forgot to mention a few weeks ago when I harvested my first salad from the garden. My spinach that I tried to overwinter didn’t make it so I wasn’t harvesting in February like I was last year. Last year my first harvest was in February, this year it was over a month later on March 17.
I harvested a salad of mache (corn salad), dandelion greens and garlic mustard. The funny thing is that I didn’t plant any of these. The mache seeded itself from a few plants that went to seed last spring. It’s growing around the edges of the raised beds and in the walkways around the raised beds. It overwintered without any protection whatsoever in the garden.
The garlic mustard is an invasive weed that we have lots of, good thing it’s edible! And dandelions, well we all have those, might as well eat them, they’re super healthy. We really loves salads, so we’ve been enjoying a few each week thanks to all of our “wild” plants. There’s nothing better than eating things you didn’t plant!
One of the things I really want to work on this year is winter gardening. I am currently reading Eliot Coleman’s newest book The Winter Harvest Handbook: Year Round Vegetable Production Using Deep Organic Techniques and Unheated Greenhouses. I’m hoping to use some of his techniques and have a nice harvest of greens throughout the winter.
Are you harvesting anything yet? Do you practice any cold weather techniques?
Share this:
Potatoes Coming out my Ears
Come this fall I may have potatoes coming out my ears based on the amount I’ve planted so far this spring. I do love potatoes, they’re versatile, quick, delicious and healthy. So I decided since they’re supposed to be the most productive plant for the garden space they take up it would be worthwhile to plant a lot of potatoes. Another great thing about potatoes is that they don’t require any processing for storage (besides proper conditions).
According to The Worlds Healthiest Foods:
Potatoes are a very good source of vitamin C, a good source of vitamin B6, copper, potassium, manganese, and dietary fiber.
Potatoes also contain a variety of phytonutrients that have antioxidant activity. Among these important health-promoting compounds are carotenoids, flavonoids, and caffeic acid, as well as unique tuber storage proteins, such as patatin, which exhibit activity against free radicals. Read this article for in depth info about the healthfulness of potatoes.
My sister and I decided to split a potato sampler from Seed Savers this year. We got 2.5 lbs of 8 different varieties of potatoes to try. This is what we received:
La Ratta: Long prized by French chefs as a top quality fingerling. We cannot recommend this variety highly enough, an absolute delight to cook with. Long uniform tubers, yellow flesh with firm, waxy texture and a nice nutty flavor, holds together very well. Especially good for potato salad or as a boiled potato. Commands a high price both in the restaurant and fresh market trade. 100-120 days.
French Fingerling: This is a wonderful variety! The rose-colored skin covers its creamy yellow flesh. Very versatile and good for any style of preparation. Peeling is not necessary or recommended. Rumored to have been smuggled to America in a horse’s feedbag in the 1800s. 90-110 days.
All Blue: Deep blue skin, blue flesh with a thin white line just under the skin. A good choice for baking and frying, nice for making colorful chips. When boiled the color turns to a light blue. High mineral content, good keeper. 90-110 days.
All Red: (a.k.a. Cranberry Red) Red skin with delicate pale pink flesh. Low starch content makes this variety a good boiling potato for salads or any dish that requires potatoes to retain their shape. Considered the best producing red-fleshed, red-skinned variety. Introduced to SSE members by Robert Lobitz in 1984. Consistently a good producer at Heritage Farm, regardless of the weather conditions. 90-110 days.
Carola: Our most popular variety. Heavy yields of medium-sized, rounded oval potatoes with straw-beige skin. Excellent when harvested as young new potatoes. Creamy yellow flesh, relatively low starch, great for soups, boiling or fried. Maintains new potato qualities for months in root cellar. 95 days.
Purple Viking: Quickly gaining the reputation of a great tasting, slightly sweet, general purpose potato. A choice variety for any preparation , snow-white flesh is excellent for mashing. Average tubers are 3½ – 4″ in diameter, but in a good year it can produce even larger tubers. Excellent storage qualities. 80-100 days.
Red Gold: Bred by Ag-Canada at the University of Guelph in 1970. Beautiful reddish orange skin with creamy, golden-yellow, semi-moist flesh. Excellent variety for baking, frying, mashing, steaming or roasting. Good disease resistance, best used fresh, not recommended for extended storage. 90-100 days.
Yukon Gold: A favorite among gardeners, consumers and chefs. Delicious flesh is drier than most other yellow varieties, perfect for baking and mashing. Yellow flesh appears to be buttered. Bred and selected by AgCanada and the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food in 1966. Excellent yields and a great keeper. 80-90 days.
I spent Wednesday at my mom’s again this week planting most of these potatoes. If you remember last week we planted Yukon Gold and Kennebec potatoes. I’m hoping to have a pantry full of potatoes this fall. This year is a trial run of trying these varieties. I’ll probably narrow it down to a few different kinds next year.
Do you grow potatoes in your garden? Do you have a favorite kind?
Share this:
Plant Spotlight: Siberian Squill
I have these tiny little bulbs that bloom every spring in the garden. I always wonder if they’re going to emerge and then one day – there they are. They’re quite lovely and worth having around. They’re so delicate and lovely compared to most spring bulbs. They also produce food for the bees in an early time when they don’t have a lot of other options. My first scilla bloomed on March 21 this year.
The great thing about scillas or Siberian Squill is that they’re deer resistant (at least in my garden). I’m always searching for deer proof options for plants I love. Since crocuses are a deer delicacy here (although some places claim they’re deer proof), I’ll settle for lovely scillas instead.
Another think I like about these little bulbs is that they’re not very common. I’ve only seen them once in another garden. Having something a little lesser known in the garden is a great thing!
I won’t rewrite all the information about scillas here, if you want more info read this in depth post about them.
Do you have any lesser known spring bulbs that you like?
Share this:
Would You Rather?
Yesterday I spent the morning working outside, edging a new garden area and getting it ready for a cover crop. When it got hot in the afternoon I decided to stay inside spring cleaning the living room and cleaning the floors in the rest of the house.
When I was mopping the laundry room I noticed that the floor could be stripped and rewaxed. I tried to think the last time I’d done this task and I couldn’t remember, it’s been at least 2 years. I had to chuckle because I said, “Oh well, it looks OK and I don’t mind that it’s not shiny.” Six or seven years ago I stripped and waxed the floors every couple months. The floors were vacuumed and mopped several time a week and my house was really neat and tidy all the time.
The truth is that as much as we’d like to do it all, we just can’t. When we start a new hobby the time needs to come from somewhere. Now that I spend a lot of time gardening my house shows the change of interest. The gardens are much nicer and bigger than they used to be and the floors aren’t as spotless.
The house still gets cleaned, but it goes longer between cleanings, especially if we haven’t had a rainy day. At this stage in my life, I’d much rather have fresh tomatoes than a bright white freshly waxed floor.
So, what about you, would you rather clean or garden?
Share this:
How’s That Chiots?
It’s been a while since I’ve given an update on Lucy the garden namesake, I thought you might be interested in one. For those of you who are new, a little over a year ago she tore her ACL and wasn’t able to use one of her legs. We chose to take the least invasive method for treatment. No surgery, only therapy and dietary supplements.
She’s slowly gotten better and better and seems to be almost back to normal. She still can’t do really long walks, but she loves shorter ones. She’s also finally able to run a little bit this spring. She’s really enjoying the freedom of being able to follow me around the gardens again. Last summer she was still on limited mobility so she was only allowed to be outside if she was chained. This spring she’s been following me around as I work and is have a great time chewing on sticks and sleeping in the flowerbeds.
She just turned 8, so she’s far from the ornery little 10 pound chiots we brought home in a box from the pound so long ago. I remember her digging up all my plants, ripping out my clematis vines and running around the gardens like a crazy dog for several years. When she hit 2 she decided she was all grown up and became the best dog ever.
She isn’t destructive in the gardens any more, except for the occasional use of a flowerbed as an actual bed. She’s quite a nice gardening companion.
Do you have any gardening companions human or of the animal kingdom?
