Ate my first Harvests this Week!

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This is my first lettuce harvest. Of course it was a small yield, but when tossed together with some iceberg lettuce, and some carrots and cucumbers added the salad was simple with loads of flavor, and so much prettier than what I usually make (buying colorful lettuce from the supermarket is too expensive to justify).

The calming experience of sitting in my garden, carefully choosing each leaf to snip while my hubby started the coals on the grill and the kids played with their friends outside certainly beats the hassle of driving to the store, finding a parking spot, grabbing whatever is on sale, and waiting on long lines to pay. And I think that it took less time, too.

The basil was from a plant I bought at a PTA plant sale. I was really disappointed with the plants I got from the sale. This basil plant is very spindly, with some decent growth on top, then a long gap with a few other large leaves at the bottom. I plucked off all of the larger leaves (so now the plant looks worse) but I planted it deep, so the place where I snapped the leaves on the bottom is covered. I don't know if it will improve or not.

My second harvest (sorry forgot to snap a pic) was for Broccoli Raab. The Pagado seeds were starting to sprout on 3 plants. One of the plants was a good size, but all three together made a tiny single side dish portion. It was delicious, and I enjoyed every bite (of course there was only about 4 bites worth of the stuff after cooking it) Maybe I should have waited until more were ready to get a larger portion. The burpee seeds were slower starting and those plants are still tiny and not sprouting, yet.

The funny thing about the Broccoli Raab was that the largest, fullest, and most beautiful harvest came from a plant that was in a square where I thought I planted Brussels Sprouts. A Broccoli Raab seed must have snuck in there during planting, and when it came time to thing, that must have been the strongest looking seedling, so that was all that was left.

Now that the BR is cut down I don't know if I'm supposed to dig it up, or if
I might get a second yield from it. I cut them all the way down to the soil because I like to eat the whole plant--stems, leaves and florets. I can use the square to put in my cucumber or tomato plant since I never got around to building a third box. But the square that would be best for one of those vining plants is also the square with the strongest looking BR plant. So I am hesitating. The information I've found about growing BR seems contradictory. Some say it grows back, some it doesn't, some say only fall, others say year round. I don't know if the contradictions are because some people only eat the leaves and florets and don't eat the stems. Or if it has to do with climate, or if just the fact that it is not a common veggie to grow in the US so we are all just figuring it out together.

The broccoli Raab seeds (Cime di Rapa) are Pagano not pagado.

Beautiful! Nice writing too.

I have never grown raab before. I have some purple peacock broccoli-kale that I am looking forward too. Apparently I'll get raab like heads and kale-ish leaves. (I digress). I am a creationist who believes that plants live to reproduce. Under the worst stress they will try to produce seed for the following year. I suspect that your hearty raab, given some time, might just come back if the crown isn't damaged.

Deborah in Washington (the state)….harvesting a few sweet greens but no lettuce yet (though the slugs have had whole squares of it)

Thanks. That Broccoli-Kale plant sounds interesting--and delicious. I'd like to see pictures if you get a chance.

It is still only a couple of weeks old, still looks like kale, no buds yet.


Purple Peacock Broccoli