What did you harvest (eat, preserve, plant) today?

This time of year we are harvesting and eating broccoli, cabbages, celtuce, lettuce, tomatoes, Boc Choy and radishes. We also have kale, collard greens, Asian vegetables like mustard, pigeon peas and many different herbs.

It's been a wet and windy weekend and 90% of the free stone blood peach crop (aka black boy peaches in NZ) has fallen.

Been meaning to trim back the grass under the tree but not gotten around to it so it was a real treasure hunt and I had to be careful not to tread on any fruit.

Will be busy bottling the ones that have already been sampled by the birds.

I harvested the first of my radishes of the year for salad, and a lovely handful of chickweed which grew voluntarily that we put in a sautey.

Yesterday, me and a friend went and harvested a big batch of nettles and ground elder, a bit of dandelion leaves, bedstraw shoots and bittercress flower buds, and stir-fried it all with a bit of garlic. Yummy! We also got some ostrich fern fiddleheads, still waiting to be eaten.

I noticed an interesting thing with the ostrich ferns: the timing of fiddlehead growth is entirely different for older and younger plants. The old plants (with fertile fronds from last year) have barely started growing at all, while the younger plants in the same cluster are almost past the harvest window. I wonder if it's an adaptation to avoid the older, well-established plants shading out the young ones just starting? Did anyone else notice this?

Eino Kenttä wrote:Yesterday, me and a friend went and harvested a big batch of nettles and ground elder, a bit of dandelion leaves, bedstraw shoots and bittercress flower buds, and stir-fried it all with a bit of garlic. Yummy! We also got some ostrich fern fiddleheads, still waiting to be eaten.

I noticed an interesting thing with the ostrich ferns: the timing of fiddlehead growth is entirely different for older and younger plants. The old plants (with fertile fronds from last year) have barely started growing at all, while the younger plants in the same cluster are almost past the harvest window. I wonder if it's an adaptation to avoid the older, well-established plants shading out the young ones just starting? Did anyone else notice this?

I can’t answer your question, but your post made me remember my childhood foraging for food in the nature reserves in Denmark. We harvested so many things there, during spring, summer and fall.
While I don’t remember ferns, we always picked nettles, mushrooms, rosehips, walnuts, acorns, chestnuts, lingonberries, elderberries, pine nuts, blueberries, pine needles and probably other things I don’t remember.
This was the job for the women and children, while the men would go hunting and fishing.
Starting fall, my mother would serve elderberry or black currant juice with dinner every night. As a child I saw this as a treat, but now I am an adult it paint a much different picture. When I grew up in Denmark, fruits were hard to come by during winter and cold went from family to family. The elderberry juice supported our immune system, while the black currants gave us much needed vitamin C.
This also meant that my parents saved a lot of money on food, which was good since we were a family of six and poor. Even after my parents started earning more money and my sisters moved out, my parents kept being fugal with food. Once we had a garden, it didn’t change. Even though we now grew a lot of food, we still went foraging and the men hunting and fishing.
My parents past away years ago, but the tradition of hunting, fishing and gathering/growing food never went away. My family, including me, still have large gardens, where we grow our own foods, and we still forage.

Harvested a handful of cherry tomatoes and some basil today, not a big yield, but it’s always satisfying to pick something fresh.

I’ve been noticing that keeping the soil on the drier side between watering has made a noticeable difference, especially with how the plants are holding up in warmer weather. Still learning, but it’s interesting how small adjustments can really change overall plant health.

Harray lou wrote:Harvested a handful of cherry tomatoes and some basil today, not a big yield, but it’s always satisfying to pick something fresh.

I’ve been noticing that keeping the soil on the drier side between watering has made a noticeable difference, especially with how the plants are holding up in warmer weather. Still learning, but it’s interesting how small adjustments can really change overall plant health.

Here I use drip irrigation topped with garden straw. The straw will soak up any extra water, and then slowly releasing it, when needed. When gardening in a warm/hot climate, garden straw is your best friend, since it also protect the roots from temperature fluctuating, heat and frost.

It's spring time in the southern hemisphere and it seems that the rhubarb is producing new stalks overnight.

Chopped and cooked them overnight in with finely shredded ginger, Seville orange zest and 25% sugar to weight of rhubarb.

No added water, the rhubarb releases plenty. I strain the excess syrup to use as a cordial.

Water bathed all the jars and they'll remain shelf stable for years.

Have processed three batches already, will give away many of the jars - there's only so much that we can eat ourselves!

Megan Palmer wrote:It's spring time in the southern hemisphere and it seems that the rhubarb is producing new stalks overnight.

Chopped and cooked them overnight in with finely shredded ginger, Seville orange zest and 25% sugar to weight of rhubarb.

No added water, the rhubarb releases plenty. I strain the excess syrup to use as a cordial.

Water bathed all the jars and they'll remain shelf stable for years.

Have processed three batches already, will give away many of the jars - there's only so much that we can eat ourselves!

I am going to try and do the same, but add some roselle hibiscus as well. The Victoria rhubarb we grow, has almost no color to it.

Ulla Bisgaard wrote:
I am going to try and do the same, but add some roselle hibiscus as well. The Victoria rhubarb we grow, has almost no color to it.

Red stalked silver beet (chard) might also impart some colour and ought not to adversely affect the flavour?

There are several varieties of rhubarb growing at the community garden with red the entire length of the stalk.

They are widely available at garden centres but if any of your gardening friends are growing the red variety, perhaps they would share a piece of the crown with you?

https://www.kings.co.nz/rhubarb-crimson-sunrise-19l-129631?srsltid=AYCX9vL0qLE00k6iXr5eAIekbXfd6hBmIKRbHZVqRKP5G8mM4pDRVKhv

https://www.palmers.co.nz/products/998137674?srsltid=AYCX9vL4FcpTdpXA4E09NaueaY4-uVEofehPRgOQRVbEFEDjAHN4xCuq

I ate pears today and yesterday and the day before that and I'll eat them tomorrow and the day after that and the day after that. It was a very good year for pears.

Mark Reed wrote:I ate pears today and yesterday and the day before that and I'll eat them tomorrow and the day after that and the day after that. It was a very good year for pears.

My wife wants to relocate to your locale. She's a pear fanatic.

Megan Palmer wrote:. Red stalked silver beet (chard) might also impart some colour and ought not to adversely affect the flavour?

There are several varieties of rhubarb growing at the community garden with red the entire length of the stalk.

They are widely available at garden centres but if any of your gardening friends are growing the red variety, perhaps they would share a piece of the crown with you?

https://www.kings.co.nz/rhubarb-crimson-sunrise-19l-129631?srsltid=AYCX9vL0qLE00k6iXr5eAIekbXfd6hBmIKRbHZVqRKP5G8mM4pDRVKhv

https://www.palmers.co.nz/products/998137674?srsltid=AYCX9vL4FcpTdpXA4E09NaueaY4-uVEofehPRgOQRVbEFEDjAHN4xCuq

Victoria is the only one, that can handle out heat and the very few cold hours we get

Preserve:

- Starting on the slicing and dehydrating of the food grade apples. Big job, last big push of the season. These were pushed out of the fridge by the carrots and beets.

- Offered the last pick of big scarlet runner beans to a neighbour. They loved our surplus through the year. The focus is viable seed, and there is some I think. They need to dry slowly and mature. It will be a good treasure hunt for the kids.