GA: Broccoli harvest definitely slowing, but still some

^^^

GA: Belstar side-shoot harvest ongoing -- very nice!

Today harvested enough side shoots for 1 x walnut-broc recipe and 1 x pea-broc recipe.  

GA: 3rd and 4th Belstar broccoli heads harvested -- still nice and big!

^^^

GA: 2nd and 3rd Belstar broccoli heads harvested -- nice and big! :D

Great big heads!  ~1 pound each.

With 1 head, I made two batches of the walnut-broccoli stirfy; next time I would instead try a single batch and just have a higher ratio of broccoli in it.

With the other 1 head, I made one batch of the Am veg soup -- 5 cups broccoli, no other vegetable (other than celery/onion/garlic).  At first I didn't put any tahini and it was just kinda okay -- then I added tahini and it was delicious!

GA: First head from Belstar -- some individual flowers drying/brown like last year

While piracicaba harvest has been ongoing for a week or two (puny harvests though), today the first Belstar head was ready.  Decent size, but not huge, but still plenty for the 2 cups needed for the walnut broccoli recipe, which is what it got used for.

Not sure why, but same as last year, some of the individual little flowers are drying and turning brown and falling off, but not a big deal.

GA: Broccoli harvest FOY! (piracicaba) And kale and chard too!

2 or 3 of the piracicabas have already sent flower heads up and a few flowers started opening so I harvested them.  Not very big, just enough to snack on during the ride home, none left at home.

Also did a first small harvest of kale and chard.

GA: APHIDS ON THE KALE/CHARD! AND BLACK FLIES IN THE BROCCOLI!!!!

Oh no!!!  I haven't looked at the kale in ages, and went I went to harvest some today, I saw that it's full of green aphids!!! There are some on the chard too, but the kale especially.  So, I'll pull and discard all of the kale and chard next time I go.

I didn't see any aphids on the broccoli, so I brought that home.  But at home I found that there were many little black flies within!!  It took many rinses/soaks to get them all out, but otherwise the broccoli is gorgeous, so I used it.

I have no idea how these aphids/flies got in under the netting (which is a sheer sheet thing, not tulle, so no holes to get in).... My best guess is that they may have overwintered in the soil and therefore popped up under the cover.

GA: Belstar broccoli is delicious -- so SWEET! and doing great!

Wow!  My first year trying Belstar broccoli and so far I sure do love it!  Several plants have given their first head and are now into side shoots.  The flavour is spectacular -- it's delicious raw and is actually so sweet when eaten raw!  Some of the heads have had "brown bead" (per google) -- where some of the little unopened florets are dried out / brown and tend to fall off -- but I just throw it all into the recipes and it's great, no issues.

The piracicabas on the other hand haven't been doing great.  Their flowers are long and spindly/measly.  Thank goodness for Belstar to the rescue!

Next year I'll definitely grow more Belstar and fewer piracicaba.

GA/BY: Harvest so far (seems puny)

Here's what's been harvested so far this year:

kale

chard

broccoli (including a nice head of Belstar tonight)

basil (not a lot though)

stevia

peppers -- mostly jalapeno or hungarian sweet, not a ton -- and all pepper plants look kinda pathetic

garlic scapes from the few garlics that produced scapes

No zucchini yet, though looking at last year the first was July 4th, and this year a few are on the way so it's not that far behind.

Broccoli harvest started -- but itty bitty

The broccoli harvest started within the past week or so, but no big or even medium head on any yet, just small shoots.

Leafy green harvesting galore: kale, chard, broccoli leaves

(The broccoli leaves are from pruning to avoid them touching the tulle, to hopefully avoid cabbage moth egg-laying.)

Alternating with a salad one day, and sauteed the next.  And OMG adding nutritional yeast to the sauteed version takes it to major NEXT LEVEL.

Broccoli harvest! First real one of the year

Not a ton, and mostly from the 4 in the central bed, but a nice amount for having with hummus.

Broccoli disaster!! MOTH LAID EGGS ONTO BROC THAT WAS TOUCHING THE TULLE!! ITTY BITTY WORMS FOUND!

Egads!!!

The piracibaba broccoli plants, which are quite big at this point, have been pushing up against the netting, i.e. making direct contact with the netting.  Well, today on lunch break while having a meander, I saw the moth land on top of the tulled broccoli and lo and behold lay an egg.  Then another in another spot.  And when I started closely looking throughout, there were multiple teeny tiny eggs laid where the plant was in contact with the netting.  I had seen the moth hover around there before but never saw her lay, and figured she wouldn't since she can't curl her behind under the lay the egg on the underside of the leaves.

Sigh.

So -- massively hacked all of the piracicaba plants wayyyy down in size, so that there's a buffer of space between them and the tulle.  I have a feeling they'll rebound and continue producing in a few weeks.  In the meantime, I plan to place new higher hoops, and will need to sow two pieces of tulle together to have a big enough piece.

While hacking the plants down, I took a final-for-now harvest, and did the "soak in warm water with salt and vinegar" thing.  Sure enough, found ~4 tiny caterpillars in the water.  Sigh.  

What a bummer.  But, live and learn; I'll do better next time.

Waltham broccoli head harvested

Pretty small head, but the Walthams were a second-thought, transplanted late etc.  A third of it was rotted or something, so pretty small harvest. Will leave the plant there to see if any side heads develop.

Broccoli (piracicaba) harvest ongoing! A basketful every ~5 days

Have been harvesting a basketful every 5 days or so.  Amazing!  I can imagine this going on all season, excited to see how long it lasts.

Today's harvest

Things are going gangbusters overall!  Today's harvest:

peas (tons)

broccoli (piracicaba) (getting a basketful every week)

zucchini (5th of the year)

kale (tons)

chard (tons)

dill (a few sprigs)

basil (lots)

stevia (good amount(

carrot (a bit too early)

Piracicaba broccoli harvests going great -- another basketful today

Loving the piracicaba!  Wow, today harvested another basketful after having harvested a previous basket on Wednesday!   Sure grows fast.  It's a "hassle" yes having to remove the tulle and place it back carefully each harvest, but totally worth it.

Piracicaba harvest -- nice basketfull today

 ^^^

Piracicaba broccoli harvest ongoing

Lots of side shoots to harvest.  Getting a nice amount every ~week or so.  Even if I'm a bit late and the yellow flower starts to appear, still tastes fine.

First piracicaba broccoli harvest

Nice loose "heads" from 5 or 6 of the 8 plants so far, harvested them all today.  Had these in my salad mix (didn't like them stand-alone raw).  Nice!

Apparently there should be lots of offshoots for quite a while.