Harvest Monday - April 23rd 2018

This post is part of the Harvest Monday series over at Our Happy Acres.

Before I show the handful of things I pulled out of my garden this week, I have a question for the blogosphere. About a year ago I found this blog (I can't remember if it was recent) by a couple who grow a crazy amount of food in only containers neatly arranged on a concrete pad. Do you know this blog? Let me know!

This onion was masquerading as a leek. It was in with my bucket of leeks and also bolting. Gardening is full of surprises when you suck at labeling things. I am relieved my leeks are not bolting.

Fennels and rotten dog.

Last of the fennel. I finally harvested one at the right size. It went into my favorite fennel/pork dish.

I did not know fennel grew back after being clear cut until recently so I was very surprised to see this root grew two fennels!

I also thinned my beets.

Doin' it.

And that's about it as we transition from Los Angeles "Winter" to Surface of the Sun Summer.

Harvest Monday - April 16th 2018

This post is part of the Harvest Monday Series at Our Happy Acres.

I pulled up my carrots! I assumed there would only be a few runty ones left, but there were so many. All gorgeous! I was listening to a WWII thriller about a precious treasure and it really amped up the drama of my discovery.

Purple Haze on the left Cosmic Purple on the right

I found a few surprise Purple Haze carrots in the mix. The Purple Haze were straighter with less wonky shapes than the Baker Creek free seed carrots, but I wasn't crazy about the way they tasted. Sort of blah.  

PH / CP

In fact I think they're just the standard carrots that come in the TJ's mixed bag colored carrots. You know the ones I'm talking about right?

IN SUMMAatION: Cosmic Purple is, really, a very tasty carrot.

Last lettuce. Truchas from Territorial seeds. I'm into it. 

(This pot is one of the the many Very Ugly Potteries I fished out of the goodwill box. I had to buy a new concrete masonry drill bit because it was so thick that my tile bit didn't work.)

Getting down to the last of the fennel. They grow approximately one inch every time I turn my back. 

Last of the loquats. Sad this season was so short.

How are these still blooming?

Yes.

Harvest Monday - April 9th, 2018

This post is part of the Harvest Monday Series over at Our Happy Acres. 

Castelfranco Radicchio and a perfect tiny joker lettuce wearing radicchio camouflage. There was a pale little heart inside that radicchio, but I did a spit take it was so bitter. It was a good try, but radicchio is - unsurprisingly - not a great fit for my climate. Wish I had gotten it together to force some heads in the basement.

More loquats.

Chard. Kale. Fennel. Lettuce.

Kolibri. This variety was excellent.

Pulled up the rest of the spinach in anticipation of some 90 degree days. Bloomsdale. Very lightly blanched and tossed in the freezer.

Jewels. 

Harvest Monday - April 2nd 2018

This post is part of the Harvest Monday series over at Our Happy Acres.

I grew a cabbage in Los Angeles! It's Renee's Pixie, but it's formed a nice tight head and is pretty heavy! A+++++ for this hybrid.

Fennel. Blush lettuce. Joker lettuce. Loquats. Celery. Collards.

BEAUTY SHOTS. Pink Plume Celery. I'm veeerry ambivalent about this variety. I don't know about the taste. It's got an intense"celery" taste that I think is intriguing/nice for soup/stock, but it's weird for just eating raw. It also grew so slowly. I sowed this in August, but I really only have reasonable sized from one plant now. On the other hand it is pink.

Joker lettuce is easily my favorite lettuce.  It's really bolty compared to other varieties, but it's so tasty and so pretty. Worth it.

Monster orion fennel. Rotten dog for scale.

Still drowning.

Jewels.

Harvest Monday - March 26th, 2018

This week's Harvest Monday is part of the series at Our Happy Acres and is just some more of the same.

More tomatoes.

More Batavian lettuce. More unpictured chard and kale.

More carrots. More scallions. More herbs.

Loquats! Finally! Loquats are, in my opinion, one of the most under appreciated fruit trees in Los Angeles. (Runner up: the Jujubee tree)

Also, this carrot is a sashaying little fat belly with little chubby thighs.

These guys.

Still going strong.

Harvest Monday - March 19th, 2018

Renee's scallion seed mix. I'm not sure those red scallions taste significantly different, but they look pretty.

I've been experimenting with blanching them. Top is one I grew, bottom is store bought. 

Gratuitous rain shots. Renee's Blush Batavia.

Side shoots! Batavian Broccoli. 

More Batavia Blush. Radichio is not suited to my climate, but it was still tasty, if a little sad looking. These went into a really killer salad with sliced apples, feta, toasted walnuts, and a vinaigrette.

Harvest Monday - March 12th, 2018

This post is part of the Harvest Monday series over at Our Happy Acres. 

Potatoes! This feels like a magic trick. I put one potato...sprout? in the ground and now I have many. 

Side shoots! Still collected fistfuls of these every few days. I grew other winter flowers, but these. I mean...look at this.

First of my second succession carrots. I'm pretty sure this is the Baker Creek free seed Cosmic Purple. I hosed it off and ate it on the spot. It's good! It's less sweet and more "carroty."

Ocean State Job Lots Discount Seed Variety Collards going strong.  Last of this years Arugula.

Succession planting fail. Drowning in Mikado turnips.

 Spinach.

ONE LAST ONE:

*sigh*