Another Harvest from My Vegetable Garden
There’s always so much to harvest in the vegetable garden this time of year. What are you picking from the garden this weekend?
Yesterday, my head gardener, Ryan McCallister, harvested another large bounty - artichokes, carrots, eggplants, radishes, beets, potatoes, leeks, and some of the season's first tomatoes. Once the vegetables are picked, they're brought up to my flower room where they are washed, bagged, and placed into the refrigerator until they're ready to use.
Here are some photos.
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- It’s so rewarding to pick such beautiful foods from the garden. These are just some of the radishes. Radishes are easy to pick – one can just pull the entire plant straight up from the soil.
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- Here’s Ryan with a bunch of beautiful carrots. Most are familiar with the orange color, but they also come in red, yellow, white and purple.
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- I always like to grow many carrot varieties and colors. Some carrots are more sweet, while others have a more earthy or peppery flavor.
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- And look at all the beets. Beets grow so well here at the farm. The beetroot is the taproot of the beet plant, and is often called the table beet, garden beet, red or golden beet or simply… beet.
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- Do you like leeks? Like onions and other members of the Allium family, leeks are a bulbous vegetable with white flesh and leafy green tops. In the kitchen, Leeks can be boiled, braised, fried, or roasted.
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- Some of the tomatoes are ready. Tomatoes are heat loving plants. We’ve had a lot of warm days this season, so the tomatoes are looking really good. Here’s Ryan picking the ripest straight off the vine.
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- Tomatoes are an excellent source of beta-carotene, vitamins C and K, calcium, potassium, folate, and of course – lycopene.
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- Bucket by bucket, the freshly picked vegetables are brought up to my flower room, where they get washed if needed, then bagged and stored in the refrigerator. Here, Enma cuts the green tops from the carrots. They will be saved for my chickens.
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- Enma uses a brush specifically made for removing dirt, debris and any bacteria left on the surface of the vegetable.
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- The carrots are so beautiful. Each color not only adds visual appeal to the plate, but also offers varying flavors and distinct nutritional benefits.
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- Enma also trims off the tops of the beets leaving one to two inches of stem.
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- The beets are then placed into the sink for a good washing.
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- Next, Enma cleans the radishes. Radishes come in many varieties – both long and round. The flavor can range from very mild to very spicy, depending on the kind.
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- Radishes are grown and consumed throughout the world, and mostly eaten raw as a crunchy salad vegetable. Have you ever tried radish and butter with pinch of flaky salt? It is a popular French low-carb snack, and it’s delicious.
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- The leek roots and dark green leaves are also trimmed. The vegetables are then brushed and rinsed thoroughly.
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- The edible portions of the leek are the white base of the leaves, the light green parts, and to a lesser extent, the dark green parts of the leaves. They have a mild onion-like taste and smell. In its raw state, they are also very crunchy and firm.
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- Ryan brings up a bucket of eggplants. I prefer to pick them when they are smaller – these are perfect.
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- After cleaning, the vegetables are blagged and placed into the refrigerator.
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- Ryan also picked some of our first potatoes. Potatoes are just wiped clean. As the world’s fourth-largest food crop, following maize, wheat, and rice, potatoes are grown from “seed potatoes”, which are certified disease-free and specially grown in nurseries for planting purposes. I’ll have a bigger potato harvest next week.
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- And the artichokes are still producing. Artichokes have good keeping qualities and can remain fresh for at least a week. Freshly picked vegetables are so much more flavorful and packed with nutrients. I’m excited to eat everything and share the bounty with my family.
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