Harvest

I've been eating salads from our container garden for 5 or 6 weeks now, I suppose. One of the things I used to love about being a part of a CSA in Maine was the salad I used to make throughout the season. These salads were nothing fancy and mostly consisted of many different kinds of leaves and herbs with a simple, freshly made balsamic vinaigrette. I added other veggies, too, but I do love a bowl of freshly picked leafy things. We have different lettuces, mixed mustards, herbs, scallions, spinach, baby beet greens, radish microgreens (and radishes), and chard.

The spinach is perpetual spinach and the more I picked, the more it would grow. I couldn't keep up with it for salads alone so today, I picked most of it, blanched it, and stuck it in the freezer. Now it has plenty of room to grow.

In the garden we had a couple years ago, the spinach did not do well at all--it bolted really quickly. We didn't mind, because the chard was abundant. This year, they're both doing well so far and I expect I will eventually have some of both for the freezer. Incidentally, the small containers are perfect for freezing and refrigerating leftovers or other small bits--they stack well and I can see through them. They originally held hummus. I often make hummus, but when we're out and about for a day or a few days, hummus is a good lunch/supper food to pick up in the grocery store. I save the containers and reuse them for this purpose.

Hopefully, we'll have some beans for the freezer eventually, too, but I'll have to freeze them in something else.

one of two bean boxes

In addition to being delicious, some of the veggies are pretty, too.

a few small courgettes in there

colourful lettuces--we have another box of a different kind of lettuce further down the wall

assorted mustard greens--I have some of these inside, too

The chards and the beetroot are also lovely, with the red, yellow, and white stems and the dark green leaves.

I thought maybe the abundant rain would sog everything out, but everything seems to be pretty happy and that makes me pretty happy, too!

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