The First Harvest of 2012

Today I took my first harvest from the garden. I harvested a few leaves of spinach and swiss chard from plants that I had started late last fall and kept under a cold frame all winter.

A bowl of spinach and swiss chard.

The spinach was very sweet. In fact, I never before had spinach that tasted that sweet. It is the Bloomsdale variety of spinach and it’s a keeper. The swiss chard was also very good.

I had plans to make a homemade white pizza for dinner, so I decided to add a little spinach and swiss chard to the white pizza. What a great addition.

Homemade white pizza before baking.

I made a homemade white sauce for on the pizza with heavy cream, olive oil, onions, garlic, thyme, salt, and pepper. This was the first time I had made this sauce and it was great.

Homemade white pizza after baking.

This was a great pizza, but then I never met a pizza I didn’t like.

Happy growing….

Garden Update 4-5-12

Spring is in the air and the garden is starting to show signs of life.

Pea seedlings

Pea Seedlings

All the pea seeds have germinated and the seedlings are growing well.

Peas and onions in the garden

Peas and Onions

Lettuce, Arugula, Swiss Chard and Spinach Seedlings

Lettuce, Arugula, Swiss Chard, and Spinach Seedlings

The arugula is off to a strong start but the lettuce, swiss chard, and spinach are not far off.

Plant from my fall planting

Plants from my late fall planting.

The carrots, swiss chard, and spinach that I planted late last fall and over wintered under the cold frame have started to grow again and should give us an early spring harvest.

Close up of plants from fall planting.

Plants from my late fall planting.

The year is off to a great start here at The Year Round Harvest.
Happy Growing…

Late Summer Planting – The Arugula is Looking Good

Several weeks ago I decided to do a late planting of some greens for a late fall harvest. I planted: swiss chard, spinach, arugula and two types of lettuce mix. I also planted some old green onion seeds as a test, but the seeds must have been too old because none of the seeds germinated. Right now the arugula looks the best.

This was even after a week of record-breaking rain in the northeast 2 weeks ago, we still have a lot of seedlings doing well. In order to protect the seedlings from the hard rain I had covered the cage with a plastic-backed drop cloth, this helped slow down the hard rain. It also helped deflect some of the rain which kept the seedlings from washing out.

Last spring the rabbits quickly ate all my greens, as a result I decided to build two 4′ x 4′ x 14″ high cages to keep the rabbits out. After years of working in a garden that was surrounded by a chicken wire fence, I was tired of stepping and tripping over fencing. Making these simple cages seemed like an easy way to keep out the critters and allow easy access to working in the garden. The cage also helped make it easy to cover the seedlings from the hard rain. Lets just hope the rabbits don’t try going under the cages.