Deb and I have harvested so much lettuce that we are becoming tired of looking at it. Today I picked another 5 lbs of lettuce(to give away to friends), added to 2 lbs more, a few days ago that we picked for ourselves for the week. Earlier in the week we harvested over a pound of greens, and I picked for friends 2 lbs today. We have almost a pound of spinach from the big garden chilling in the fridge. The spinach is nearly done for the Spring crop. We have plenty of spinach going to flower to collect seeds for our fall planting. I picked nearly a pound of snap peas today. I noticed a few pods going to maturity quickly. The production will be slowing/shutting down within a couple weeks, I think.
Today I picked 10 strawberries! This is the most we've been able to collect in one day. Almost all of our strawberry plants are producing ripe berries on a regular basis. I found a neat recipe for a strawberry fennel orange salad that I'll be making in just a few minutes. The fennel and lettuce came from our big garden, of course.
2 navel oranges
8 ounces strawberries (about 16), hulled and quartered or halved
1 fennel bulb, thinly sliced lengthwise, some fronds reserved for garnish
1 1/2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1/4 teaspoon coarse salt
Coarsely ground black pepper
8 Boston or Bibb lettuce leaves
We have been observing many beneficial organisms, doing their thing at both gardens. Today I spotted many wasps looking for preys for their parasitic eggs. There are ladybugs still going to town on some aphids. There are several green lacewing flies joining the ladybugs on the quest for aphids. The spider population has exploded. I have seen a 3 foot green snake at the home/small garden, and a few small blue tailed skinks lizards. The bird bath is keeping the birds happy, so they spend plenty of time in the yard, looking for bugs. There have been plenty of butterflies visiting all of our flowering plants. The local bee population seems to be very plentiful. There certainly is no shortage of pollinators.
Total produce count for the year:
lots of parsley, basil, peppermint, spearmint, lemon balm, burnet, fennel, thyme, dill
36 strawberries
1.5 lbs carrot roots
2 heads of garlic
2 garlic scapes
2.4 lb sweet/snap peas
14.7 lb assorted dark greens
7/8 lb baby radishes/greens
1/4 lb mature radish roots
42.75 lb assorted lettuce
3 1/2 lb spinach
2 1/2 lb turnip roots
2.63 lb miner's lettuce
3/16 lb mache/corn salad
5/8 lb baby greens
1/3 lb arugula
3 asparagus spears
3 trays of wheat grass(inside)
3 trays micro greens(grown inside)
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