Harvest Monday end of February

Daphne over at Daphne's Dandelions hosts a Harvest Monday every week. Now that my garden is producing reliably, and because I've remembered to photograph what I picked for breakfast, I can participate! If you'd like to participate, head over there.

This is just today's. Last week I might have harvested more -- I know we've had a couple of heads of lettuce from the yard. Kale is slowing down, or at least the volunteer kale in the onion bed is. This is probably attributable to the amazing aphid infestation. The cold, then hot, then wet, then very dry cycle has obviously made the plants much more vulnerable to our winter pests. That back corner is for some reason a favorite attack place -- maybe it has something to do with being under a tree? Anyhow, I either need to pull that kale or soap spray the aphids. Given what my life is generally like, I'm betting on using the kale as a trap crop in order to get the newly-planted kale big enough to resist. At least that's what I'll call it! Lazy and effective, or at least I hope so.

As I inspected the spinach, I noticed a few leaf miner eggs. Argh! The only effective control I've ever found for them is rubbing the leaves off, individual leaf at a time. Slow, and tedious when the spinach is growing almost rosette-style flat to the ground, but that's what I get for loving the same crop as those noxious pests. Today's harvest was almost five ounces of deep green yummy. It made two quick breakfasts, along with storebought eggs and vegetarian sausage patties.

Soon that aphid infested kale won't actually be going to waste any more, and the spinach won't be served with storebought eggs. The old birds are long gone, but in one of our bedrooms the replacements are peeping away:

Now it really feels like spring.