March 2013 Harvest Day

Today’s harvest (for March Harvest Day):
Dinosaur Kale
Flat Leaf Parsley
Green Onion
Red Russian Kale
Red Giant Mustard
Blend of Colors Carrots
Walla Walla Onion

Today's harvest (for March Harvest Day)

It’s been a long time since I harvested Carrots. They took a long time to grow and there wasn’t many, but you don’t find much white and yellow Carrots at the grocery.

Harvested Carrots

I want to grow more of the non-orange ones, especially the purple ones.

Chopped Carrots

I made a Pizza (or Tart) using only vegetables that I harvested…

Pizza/Tart

and had so much vegetables left over that I made, so I also made a Veggie Frittata.

Veggie Frittata

4 Squares Planted + Big Greens Harvest…

I did a bit of gardening today, since the weather’s finally cleared up. It’s been raining for the past few days and parts of the garden are slightly flooded, but most of the garden got a good dose of water, which is good. I placed out a bunch of empty buckets and plastic storage boxes and collected as much water as I can get. Our rain barrel was filled to capacity and my Mom placed an empty trash can under the rain spout in back for the garage, but we found out today that it had a hole at the bottom. :(

Our Red Giant Mustard are still growing, but they probably just have about 2 more harvests left before bolting… so I want to keep the Mustard as well as some Kale and Mizuna coming. I planted 4 squares (4 plants each) in the Square Foot Garden today:
Mustard ‘Florida Broadleaf’
Mizuna (Red Leafed)
Kale ‘Rainbow’
Mustard ‘Red Crimson’

I then went around the garden and picked a bunch of greens!!!… Mostly from the front yard, but also got some Kale from the back. The greens include: Collards, Curly Leaf Kale, Dwarf Blue Curled Kale, Red Russian Kale, Redbor (G2) Kale, Kailaan, Broccoli Raab, Bright Lights Swiss Chard and Beet greens.

Lots of harvested Greens: Collards, various Kales, Gailaan, Broccoli Raab, Swiss Chard and Beet Greens

Click the photo above to see the annotations on Flickr.

Harvested Broccoli Raab and Bright Lights Swiss Chard

I chopped then up and sautéed them with Onions, Garlic and olive Oil with a touch of Chicken Stock, Salt and Pepper… and they turned out so good!

Sautéed Homegrown Mixed Greens (and Yellows and Reds)

More Dirt Pot Plantings + Tatsoi & Purple Bok Choy Harvest…

I continued planting more Dirt Pots with veggies for the front yard, but first, I finished the Spinach and Elephant Garlic Dirt Pot (that I started yesterday) by adding bark mulch.

Spinach 'Bonnie' and Elephant Garlic

I planted two more Dirt Pots. One with Red Russian Kale and one with Rainbow Swiss Chard that I had left over from late last year’s planting. When I planted the Swiss Chard last year, there were so many seedlings in the cell pack. I only planted the biggest plants, divided the smaller ones left over and planted them into larger cell-packs, hoping they would grow… and luckily they did.

Pak Choi 'Purple Choi'

At the end of the day, I harvested the Gai Choy (photo below) and Purple Bok Choy (photo above) that were both starting to bolt. I have a feeling that the Gai Choi seeds I got were packaged wrong, because this actually looks like Tatsoi. I’ll do another planting and see what I get.

Gai Choi or Tatsoi

In any case, it still makes a good harvest. I saw a YouTube video where this woman made a Korean Spinach side dish, called Sigeumchi Namul. I made this substituting the Tatsoi and Purple Bok Choy for the Spinach.

Sesame Seasoned Tatsoi and Purple Bok Choy

I also saw another YouTube video of a rice substitute/side dish called Cauliflower Rice. It’s so simple to make. Ingredients is just Cauliflower, salt and pepper.

Cauliflower Rice

Lots of Gardening Done Today…

Went to a couple nurseries and big-box home improvement stores looking for 1/4 inch drip irrigation tubing with emitters spaced 6 inches apart. I didn’t find any but got a couple of plants.

New Plants from Mid City Nursery

I got the following from Mid City Nursery:
Celery Folia 6 cell-pack (I’ve never grown Celery, except for the Asian Leaf types)
Red Russian Kale Folia 6 cell-pack
Tree Collard Folia 4 inch pot with 2 plants which I later divided into two pots Flickr
Coleus ‘Dark Star’ Folia
Coleus ‘Big Chief’ Folia

I also bought a bag of Bonsai Mix which I will try making some String Balls planters with.

As I putting things away in the patio, I found a box that contained Gladiolus, Dahlia and Asiatic Lily bulb/tuber/corms that my brother bought at clearance a month or two ago. They were not in good condition, but I thought I would go ahead and plant them just incase I can save them.

Asiatic Lily 'Stargazer'

The plants included:
Asiatic Lily ‘Stargazer’ Folia
Dahlia ‘Heat Wave’ Folia
Gladiolus ‘Wigs Sensation’ Folia
Gladiolus ‘Pastel Mixed’ Folia

More Winter Veggie Seeds Sown…

I planted more seeds into Jiffy Peat Pellets (4 each):

Swiss Chard ‘Green Lucullus’ Folia
Kale ‘Red Russian’ (G2/2010) Folia – Seeds collected from this year’s plants
Cilantro/Coriander (G2/2010) Folia – Seeds collected from this year’s plants
Kailaan ‘Blue Star’ Folia (Chinese Kale/Chinese Broccoli)
Spinach ‘Bloomsdale Savoy’ Folia
Spinach ‘Correnta Hybrid’ Folia

I read that Spinach and Cilantro can be grown in the fall/winter/spring in free-free zones, so I’m going to try to grow them this fall/winter and see how well they do. I always though these two were summer plants.

Also posted on Folia Folia

Planting, Harvesting and Cooking…

12:48pm I’m cutting down the Kohlrabi that has bolted and I saw the first Aphids this year… Dangit!

12:58pm The Bumble Bees are going crazy of our Borage flowers!

7:35pm Planted 8 squares in veggie bed #3: White Russian Kale, Redbor (G2) Kale, Swiss Chard and Green Arrow Snap Peas

8 Squares Planted

7:39pm Harvested some Red Russian Kale, Dwarf Blue Curled Kale and Snap Peas

Harvested Kale

Harvested Snap Pea

I made Kale Soup with the Kale that I harvested today.

I used this recipe as a base: http://champaign-taste.blogspot.com/2007/11/portuguese-kale-soup.html

Kale Soup

11:22pm The Hybrid Thai Lemon Basil is sprouting…

Sprouts + Harvest…

6:44pm White Russian Kale, Marvel of Four Seasons Lettuce and Broccoli Raab are sprouting… #

First Snap Peas Harvest

Harvested Kale & Swiss Chard

7:19pm Harvested a basket of Red Russian Kale, Dinosaur Kale and Swiss Chard… plus a handful of Snap Peas#

I cooked it up with Sardines, Garlic, Onion, Lemon and Soy Sauce…

Kale & Swiss Chard with Sardines