Carrot Harvest

Today was my first sizable carrot harvest!

Red Cored Chantenay Carrots

They're fat, stubby little things right now! And tasty. I shredded them for a Moroccan coleslaw recipe that was The Awesome paired with turkey meat loaf.

Yum!

I know these guys aren't quite full sized yet, but they've still made me decide I definitely want to grow a long variety along side them next year. And some of them will definitely be purple!

Peas & a Shameless Plug

The sugar snap peas are already getting big enough to pick! We had a few with dinner tonight.

They don't really get quite as big as the sugar snap peas from the store, but oh, are they wonderful right out of the garden!

I've gotten a bit more into crafting again, so I've started an etsy store to see if I can get any of it to sell. Since much of it will be nature themed jewelry and maybe (eventually!) some gardening accessories, I thought it would be appropriate to mention here. So if you'd like to take a look, you can see the bare beginnings of my etsy shop here.

"Days to Harvest"

You know how the backs of seed packets often list "days to harvest?" Yeah, take those with a grain of salt. What I suspect they really mean is, "Days to harvest in precisely what we consider average conditions, even if there's no possible way you can reproduce our 'average' where you live."

I usually mark the projected "harvest day" on my calendar for non-fruiting items (carrots, lettuce, etc.) so I can check on them, but they're never accurate. Much of my lettuce could be harvested well before their date (but I let them keep growing!) and my carrots are nowhere big enough to harvest even though yesterday was the projected date. A million things effect the real harvest date. Weather, nitrogen levels, amount of sun, etc.

And for the record, many of the seed companies state that the days to harvest on the packets usually mean the number of days from the day you actually put the seeds or transplants out it in the garden. (See, isn't that silly? Of course a transplant will be ready to harvest sooner than a seed started on the exact same day!) This was one point of confusion for me when I started trying to read seed packets.

So, don't fret when a harvest date comes around and your carrots are still pencil thin (like mine!). Just use the "days to harvest" as a general indicator as to how fast-growing a particular variety is, or when it's almost time to start poking around the soil to see how big your root vegetables are.

First Radish Harvest

Yes indeed folks, we have our first mature radishes!

               

They're the White Icicle variety.  And, uh, yeah, that's my round face and bad hair day in the background.

I immediately seeded the spots left empty by this harvest, but the first batch of radishes I planted will probably be the last nice big fat ones I see until summer is over.  The one caution with radishes, which are so easy to grow, is that you don't want to leave them in the ground too long in the hot months of summer or their flavor changes and they can get spongy.  Pay attention to the "days to harvest" on the seed packet and pick them as soon as they're a usable size at all when it's hot.  You can start letting them grow big again in the fall.

Meanwhile, we were surprised to see one of these vibrant orange Dahlias rebloom in a deep, deep red:

Nature always has something up her sleeve.