For this week on
Daphne's Dandelions Harvest Monday we begin with cabbage. We cut 4 heads for a total of 9 pounds and 4 ounces. Bel made a delicious potato and cabbage dish with ham.
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| Our biggest cabbage was just over 4 pounds. |
We also harvested 4 more pounds of kale. Bel blanched and froze it. After more than 14 pounds of kale this year, I asked Bel if we had enough. She said she could use 30 pounds of it. And if things keep going like they are, we'll get that much. Unless the heat ruins them.
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| Some of our kale with cabbage for sale roadside. |
Our funnest harvest was very small, we gathered 10 or 12 ounces of blueberries (they barely made it inside before the boys devoured them) and just a few yellow raspberries. We don't know what specific breed they are. They came from Ashcombes Nursery. We really like them. The berries are hearty and sweet!
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| Our first raspberry of the year! |
We made several cauliflower dishes with last weeks harvest while my parents have been with us visiting. Bel mixed it into mashed potatoes and made a parmigiano cauliflower dish that was delicious. My mom, "grammy", made a delicious vegetable stir fry with sausage.
All told it has been a very productive week here at springgardenacre. We also harvested about 20 gallons of water from the roof in a short storm on Friday. Be sure to check out our last post
Catching Roof Rain Continued to see the system I and my dad installed this week.
WOW - nice cabbage! I see lots if sauerkraut in your future ;)
ReplyDeleteBeautiful Big cabbage. Never have much luck growing them. Hope you have more kale to harvest and Bel gets the number she wants.
ReplyDeleteAwesome! We are trying cabbage this year for the first time too. But we are a long way off from harvesting! With any luck ours will look half as good as yours!
ReplyDeleteThat cabbage looks terrific! are you going to make some Kraut? or just freeze some..Everything looks good...Wonderful harvest..
ReplyDeleteSauerkraut, coleslaw... I see a whole bunch of cabbage dishes coming your way!
ReplyDeleteMy goodness....14 lbs of kale this year!!! That's a lot of kale! Your freezer must be packed full of kale and strawberries. My kale was in the cold frame over the winter and bolted months ago. I hope to see a sauerkraut post in your near future :)
ReplyDeleteOh the cabbage looks great!!
ReplyDeleteWonderful harvest week! I like how you are putting all that produce to good use too. The cabbages look particularly nice.
ReplyDeleteI planted two cabbages this spring, but they never headed up. I'm going to try again this fall. Maybe, just maybe I'll get some cabbage.
ReplyDeleteAlicia@eco friendly homemaking, thanks for visiting our site. We'll be harvesting a second batch of cabbage soon.
ReplyDeleteKitsapFG, thank you. I wouldn't know what to do with it myself, but Bel is very good at preventing waste.
Daphne, I hope you have better luck this fall. I recommend starting your seeds early. Our average first frost date is Oct. 10 and we'll seed plant the cabbage under lights in the second week of July then plant it outside in the first week of September.
Your cabbage looks beautiful! I really have my doubts about growing cabbage, broccoli or cauliflower here in Indianapolis. It seems like our cool spring/fall season is just way too short. I experimented with broccoli this spring and started early (or what I thought was early in March, I think) indoors, but it hasn't grown that much since being transplanted outside. I think the weather's been too warm for it. And with July right around the corner, I feel silly even hoping to see some quick growth at this point!
ReplyDeleteI read your comment reply to Daphne - does your cabbage transplanted out in the first week of September grow fast enough for harvesting by your first frost date? Or do you let them overwinter? Only cabbage, or also other brassica?
Hi Thyme2garden, thanks for commenting on this post. I don't know how your broccoli will do. Honestly, it could be too late, but who knows? That's the great thing about gardening. You never know. In fact, we keep waiting for our kale to bolt, but it just keeps producing! Maybe you'll have success despite the heat.
ReplyDeleteAs for fall planting, with a bit of extra attention, I think you could have great success with brassicas. I've seen the way you garden. Amazing! Extra care and attention is your thing. So go for it!
Your cool seasons may be short (are you zone 5b) but isn't your first frost date around the same time as ours -sometime in the first 2 weeks of October? I think the idea (at least for fall planting) behind putting brassicas out so late (September) is that they can take some of the frosty, even freezing temperatures.
We don't plan to overwinter, We'll just keep them in the garden to grow until they begin to wilt in the cold. Even though our first frost date is in early October, they could keep growing well into November.
You're zone may not give you all the way to November. And maybe you should plant them outside a little sooner than September, but you might be surprised. You're working with very hardy plants.
None of this is our own. We follow the seed schedule that Brett L. Markham, a third generation farmer, who is also a full time engineer, offers in his book, "Mini Farming: Self Sufficiency on a Quarter Acre". We like that he bases his seed planting schedule, not on zones but on frost dates, so anyone can use it no matter where they are.
He has a very aggressive approach to seeding an planting. He recommends getting seeds started earlier than most, and he recommends putting plants out much sooner in the spring and later in the fall than most.
This is the first year we've followed his schedule and we've been very pleased with the results. Thanks for asking. Happy gardening, and with great success!
Thanks for your detailed explanation about broccoli planting and kind words about our gardening! I may not be the best gardener, but I'm pretty stubborn, so I'll probably keep at it until I end up with a good head of broccoli, even if it has to be by luck. :-) Thanks again!
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