Vegetable Harvest

The vegetable garden is getting into full swing. The peas, sugar snaps, spinach, and lettuce are done. This week I harvested the first (and probably only) cabbage, and the one experimental clump of broccoli. The cabbage is a bit ragged--since I didn't use any pesticides, various insects have chewed up the outer leaves quite a bit. Even so, the whole plant was almost three feet in diameter! Once I took off all the outer leaves, I had a nice looking head of cabbage weighing about a pound and a half. The other plants are much smaller, and don't seem to be forming solid heads. My daughter bought me a small broccoli plant at an Earth Day festival. We stuck it in the ground to see what would happen. It grew into a gorgeous head--tasted yummy for dinner tonight, too! It was an awfully big plant for the relatively small edible amount, so I'm not sure it's worth the space in the long run to plant enough for a reasonable crop.

The beans are doing quite well. First up were the yellow wax. The pole beans are just beginning to produce. The filet (bush) beans were the last in the ground, and they're just in flower. We're hoping to have a lot of fresh beans to eat, plus plenty to blanch, vacuum seal, and freeze for the winter.

After a brief rest this week, the cukes are kicking back into production. We picked four more today, and there are plenty of little ones coming along. My daughter's a big fan of the little carrots. I find them a bit bitter.

I'm enjoying the progression of different crops through the season, and I'm looking forward to the tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants later in the summer!