Harvest Monday for February 27th, 2012.

With the mild winter almost being over, there's still more broccoli for the freezer from this week's harvest!

This week we picked four pounds nine ounces of crisp, fresh organic broccoli! It may be the last harvest for these plants though, given the warm 82 degree weather we had for a day or two.

That warm weather is all the plants needed to start thinking about bolting and going to seed. The weather has cooled back off into the mid-50's, but it may be too late for another picking. Right now, these are the only flowers I see on any of my plants, so the others might still produce. We'll just have to wait and see.

It won't be long and I'll be pulling them anyway in order to plant the spring garden. The broccoli was very good while it lasted as the total harvested was 20.38 pounds!

Be sure to visit DaphnesDandelions for more exciting vegetable gardening experiences in a northern growing zone.

Thanks for stopping by and visiting my blog!

Have a great vegetable gardening day!
Veggie PAK

Harvest Monday for February 20th, 2012.

Last week the weather was pretty cold here so I didn't have a report put together for sharing with you on Monday. The temperatures of the last two nights of the week was 28 degrees and then 26 degrees. Pretty chilly for the plants, but it seems like they were not damaged.

The garden is looking pretty good for February! This is today's view of my east plot.

This is a view of my west plot. As you can see, I didn't do additional work on the giant marconi pepper stalks to prepare them for the winter temperatures. It's been so mild for the vast majority of this winter that I felt it was unnecessary to do anything else for them. Maybe the weeds that grew up alongside will help protect them from the cold. The stalks are very dry so I leave them alone. If they sprout new growth, it would be great. Perhaps new growth may come from the base of the stalks and not the stalks themselves. The stalks may actually be dead, but I'm hoping that the roots are still alive.

I checked the soil temperature to see if it was warming up for seed planting. After four full minutes in the ground, the probe thermometer only rose to 48 degrees. The cooperative extension publications basically say that anything planted before the ground reaches and maintains a steady 60 degrees is just wasting seed because it will rot. At least for the non-cool-weather crops anyway. Using that line of thinking worked well for me last year, so I'm sticking with it for this year too. The air temp today was only 42 degrees, so that could be a contributing factor to the low soil temperature. Daytime temps this week are supposed to be in the mid-50's all week. I hope so.

I picked 15 ounces of rainbow Swiss chard this week. It's really starting to sprout!

I harvested three pounds of broccoli this week! After fertilizing the garden and watering it in, then we had rain.  Now there are several dozen dime-sized florets throughout the garden. Hopefully I'll be picking them for the next Harvest Monday!

During the last two weeks I picked two pounds of buttercrunch lettuce for salads and sandwiches. This picture is of the full pound that was picked just this week.

Be sure to visit DaphnesDandelions for more exciting vegetable gardening experiences in a northern growing zone.

That concludes another Harvest Monday report from our garden. I hope no one is having too much trouble in their gardens with cold temperatures. Spring is right around the corner!

Have a great vegetable gardening day, and thanks for visiting!
Veggie PAK

Harvest Monday for February 6th, 2012.

This week's harvest brings only one veggie to the table, but it's a favorite!  Fresh, crisp broccoli!

I harvested three and one-quarter pounds of broccoli from our back yard organic garden this week.

Tomorrow I'll be fertilizing all the growing vegetables using organic dried blood with a makeup of 12-0-0 at almost twice the rates prescribed by the cooperative extension recommendations for when using fast release chemicals rated as 33-0-0. Since the dried blood is slow release, there should be no problems.

I have been unable to reply to last week's comments thus far due to blogger problems. I'll reply as soon as it doesn't delete what I have written when I click on Publish.

That's all for this week's harvest report.

Have a great vegetable gardening day!
Veggie PAK

My Garden Status as of February 1st, 2012.

I thought I'd share a few pics of my garden with you since we've been blessed so far with a mild winter. Please excuse the dots on the first picture. I don't know what they are, especially since I didn't clean the lense and they're not in the other pictures.

This is a shot of my entire east plot a day after using the Mantis tiller on it. It looks pretty good, especially after the night of gentle rain we had. I figure that if I nicked any of the plant roots when I was tilling, the moist soil would certainly help them recover quickly.

These are five of my total of eight rows of broccoli. They are doing very well in my opinion. I'm going to apply organic fertilizer this weekend in anticipation of two days of rain forecasted for next week. That will be perfect for watering it in. You can see the weeds around the base of the plants. I don't believe in going 100% weed free due to the level of work involved and also the possible damage to the plants I want to grow. When the weeds are large enough for me to grab without kneeling, I do so and remove them as is convenient for me, since my knees give me a fit sometimes.

You may have noticed the lush green annual rye that shows in some of the pictures. That's what I sowed in order to have it grow through the winter so I will have the mowed clippings for nitrogen for my compost pile. It works great!

These are my youngest collard plants. In the spring, they will grow like the wind! It has been my experience that when I let the plants winter over and then the weather begins to stay warm, they really produce a great deal because the roots have really become established. That's why I do it this way. I'm really looking forward to the spring harvest!

Here is a shot of my one row of Swiss chard and two rows of buttercrunch lettuce. The Swiss chard is like the collards. When the soil warms in spring, look out! It's collard and Swiss chard harvesting time! Just a few more weeks...

Here is the garlic that my two year old and four year old grandaughters planted. I'm so happy that it's popping right up! Now they can see what their little hands planted. Rest assured, they will also do the harvesting when the time is right. Then they'll always remember Poppa's garden. Hopefully, that will serve as an inspiration for them to have their own vegetable gardens one day.

Well, that's it for now. I hope you enjoyed seeing my garden as much as I enjoyed sharing it with you for your enjoyment and interest. I'm really thankful for the garden as I know it's really not me that's making it happen. I'm just prodding it along.

I hope everyone has a wonderful week and we'll see you on the next Harvest Monday!

Be sure to visit DaphnesDandelions for more exciting vegetable gardening experiences in a northern growing zone.

Have a great vegetable gardening day!
Veggie PAK

Harvest Monday for January 30th, 2012.

Now that we're at the end of January, I notice that I still haven't put any protective covering over my lettuce and Swiss chard. The Swiss chard is coming along alright, but the lettuce is doing pretty good without anything on it so far. Now I'm in a quandry. Should I or shouldn't I put a protective cover over it at this late date? It would be some work but a significant expense for the little extension of time that it might get from having it covered. Lettuce isn't that expensive, so I'm leaning towards not covering it.

This is how my lettuce rows looked today just before I picked one of the "heads". (More of a bunch than a head.) Some of the ones that I harvested weeks ago are growing out strong.

This is the plant that I cut today and got 12 ounces of lettuce towards this week's harvest. Remember the smoothie I talked about making in a previous post?

Well, here it is! I was in a hurry to work on the broccoli and I didn't have all the ingredients I wanted to use on hand for the smoothie, so I just made it with what I did have. I mixed in two tablespoonfuls of flax meal, one and one-half cups of water with the lettuce, and that was it. Lettuce juice. That sums it up right there! I drank some and my son Jonathan drank a glass of it. It wasn't bad, but it needed some additional ingredients like perhaps apple juice instead of water, a banana, a cored apple, and some parsley and cilantro. Next time I'll have it all on hand before I begin.

Broccoli comes through again with a wonderful harvest! From my east plot where I have been doing all the broccoli harvesting so far, I got two pounds and seven ounces of broccoli. Yesterday, for the first time this year, I harvested from my west plot and got 13 ounces, for a grand total of three pounds and four ounces of broccoli for this week's report!

I blanched some of it for freezing and gave the remainder of it to my son Jonathan for his family. Here it is in the ice bath after blanching.

This is my Ziplock vacuum sealing system that I used to seal my four 12 ounce bags of broccoli for freezing. I think this system is absolutely the best! No electricity needed! That simple little air pump at the top of the picture really works great! The bags are resealable, and you can vacuum out the air the next time you use them. I use it to vacuum out the air in the bag where I store my unused oxygen absorbers for my food prepping. They've been sealed for about sixty days or so with no leaks. I haven't dicovered how many times the bags are reusable though. I'm not promoting them, I just like the system.

Be sure to visit DaphnesDandelions for more exciting vegetable gardening experiences.

That concludes this week's Harvest Monday report. Thanks for stopping by my blog and visiting and for sharing your comments.

Have a great vegetable gardening day!
Veggie PAK

Harvest Monday for January 23rd, 2012.

This week's harvest is as productive as I hoped it would be when I was planning for it. I wanted to be able to get a little bit of broccoli each week during most of the winter. So far, it's been working that way. I know in February when it is the coldest time here, the growth will probably stop and then pick back up in March.

Although small in quantity, it is still nice to get fresh vegetables from my garden in January. Next year will see an additional two rows of broccoli to ensure the desired harvest is met... as long as Mother Nature cooperates.

The broccoli produced a 15 ounce harvest for this week. Recently our daytime weather temps are running between low 50's to mid 60's, and I'm very grateful for it.

I also picked 12 ounces of buttercrunch lettuce as part of this week's harvest. I'm going to try using this in a green smoothie along with some other ingredients and see how it tastes.

That's all the garden news for this week's report.

Thanks for stopping by to see how things are going in the garden during this time of year.

Have a great vegetable gardening day!
Veggie PAK

2011 Calendar Year Final Crop Report.

Once again it is the financial day of reckoning for the garden. This data is from my spreadsheets for calendar year 2011, and it is a complete and accurate accounting of all expenditures and harvests. The price per pound was gathered by visiting supermarkets with large organic sections in them, from organic co-ops and local farmer's markets.

I do my tracking in a simple manner. If I spend it this year, it goes entirely on this year's tally. I don't amortize my garden expenses.

In review of this past year I note the following:

I spent $283 for the Mantis tiller, not including the gift card from my brother Joe. That was a major expense.

I planted cucs this year using seeds AND plants, and didn't get a single cucumber. That's amazing to me. Seeds sprouted, vines grew, flowers came and then they all withered and died. I went through this exercise five separate times, all for naught. I even tried hand pollinating, but that didn't work either.

My tomato production was terrible compared to past years. This year I had about three times as many rows of tomato plants as in the past, and fewer tomatoes than in those same past years.

After caring for my grapes for three years, my two Reliance grape vines died. I think I overwatered them. At least that's what the cooperative extension thinks after analyzing everything.

Overall, my garden did pretty well. I would rather acquire my produce this way than buying it in a big box store, so I'm satisfied with it.

After all expenses were deducted from the value of the crops, I came out $424 ahead. Even if it was in the negative financially, I would still win. I know how to grow my own food.

Here's the tally:

Vegetable                                            Pounds            Price Per Pound     Total Value
Broccoli                                                  7.63                         $2.00                   $15.26
Collards                                                22.75                         $1.87                   $42.54
Lettuce                                                   1.38                         $1.76                      $2.43
Marconi Green Peppers                       41.31                         $2.01                    $83.03
Sorrel                                                     4.16                       $14.00                    $58.24
Fortex Green Beans                             97.25                         $4.00                  $389.00
Henderson Butter Beans                        0.28                         $2.23                      $0.62
Beet Greens                                            2.5                          $1.00                      $2.50
Swiss Chard                                           9.75                         $5.32                    $51.87
Sweet Corn                                             4.0                          $1.00                      $4.00
Blueberries                                             2.47                        $8.51                     $21.02
Figs                                                        1.04                         $4.00                       $4.16
Glenora Grapes                                      2.75                         $3.99                     $10.97
Himrod Grapes                                      1.06                         $3.99                       $4.23
Reliance Grapes                                    0.56                         $3.99                       $2.23
Raspberries                                           4.25                        $10.64                    $45.22
Chives                                                   0.25                          $1.00                      $0.25
Horseradish                                           2.5                            $4.97                    $12.43
Okra                                                      3.36                          $3.70                    $12.43
Onion, Green                                        0.37                          $1.98                      $0.73
Snow Peas                                            0.75                          $6.47                      $4.85
Banana Peppers                                  19.89                          $2.01                    $39.98
Red Beauty Pepper                               0.5                            $3.99                      $2.00
Salsify                                                  0.25                           $1.00                      $0.25
Tomatoes, Burpee Big Boy               25.19                           $3.99                   $100.51
Tomatoes, Cherokee Purple                1.63                           $5.99                       $9.76
Tomatoes, La Roma II                      21.06                           $2.99                      $62.97
Tomatoes, Park's Whopper               57.47                           $3.99                    $229.31
Tomatoes, Patio                                  0.27                           $5.32                        $1.44
Tomatoes, San Marzano                     6.94                           $3.99                      $27.69
Total Weight                                      344 
Gross Organic Value                                                                                      $1,242.00
Expenditures                                                                                                      $818.00
Net Profit                                                                                                           $424.00

Thanks for all the encouraging support during the past year, and I hope each of you and your families have a wonderful vegetable garden in the new year.

Have a great vegetable gardening day!
Veggie PAK