Monday, February 27, 2012

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.

12 comments:

Daphne Gould said...

I'm a little worried about my overwintered spinach. It has leaf miners on it in the fall, which means they overwintered in the bed I'm sure. I put a cover on my spring planted spinach, but the overwintered stuff usually produces before the leaf miners come out. With the warm weather that might not be true this year.

Curbstone Valley Farm said...

Awww...new peeps! I think we're skipping chicks this year, so I'm likely to have withdrawal ;) I'm sure you can't wait to have lovely homegrown eggs again though. Those orbs at the store just aren't the same.

Unknown said...

Aw, babies! How exciting to have new chicks to care for.

Michelle said...

Hmmm, I just harvested a bunch of beets with beautiful greens - no leaf miner eggs to be found. Perhaps I should check the spinach and chard tomorrow. It must be a big disappointment every time you crack one of those store bought eggs, they just can't compare to eggs from your own birds.

Anonymous said...

The aphids are already in the broccoli in my Oakland garden. So far they haven't found the Alameda broccoli. Knock on wood!

What breed of chicks did you get and where did you get them?

Birgitt

Erin said...

I detest the little white eggs I find on my spinach, what a pain! Love those little peepers!

Stefaneener said...

Daphne, I think it's the weather. I'm sorry if you think it's the bed. Maybe you could drench it with something this fall? They are nasty, nasty, nasty.

CVS, these are the first chicks in years. Cute, but it doesn't last long.

GrafixMuse, fortunately the kids do most of the care. I just have to supervise.

Michelle, you are probably a month? behind in warmth? And I bet these were stressed somehow. Yep, every single time I buy eggs I growl. Hey! I bet I have some frozen somewhere.

Birgitt, I got the chicks at Biofuel. Mostly Americauna with one Buff.

Erin, Yes, they're awful. I'm bound to miss some, too!

Dan said...

The greens look great. Leaf miner is such a pain isn't it!

Melissa said...

I just harvested a TON of greens and they all had eggs on them. No fun to rub off 15 cups of greens. I didn't have a problem with them until this last warm spell we had.

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Lisa said...

I really don't like leaf miner, although -- touch wood - we haven't seen any in months.

We're building our coop, and hopefully will make good progress this weekend.

kitsapFG said...

That is gorgeous spinach - worth the extra effort of removing the leaf miner eggs. Chicks are darling and definitely say "spring" !

Kristin said...

New chicks. Whoopee! We've got them now too as well as 5-6 inch tall turkeys. Lots of poop to keep them out of, and with the rain, can't put them outdoors for quite some time. Exciting to watch to the pin feathers erupt seemingly overnight.

I'm wondering what you ended up doing with our previous hens, who had all but stopped laying.

Your spinach is beautiful, much nicer looking than David's. The variety looks different. What seed stock did you use?