The spinach was all harvested and I put 9.9 pounds in the freezer!
I still can't believe that I was able to grow spinach that turned out so well. The two varieties were very different - the Regiment was much more sturdy and held up to triple washing much better then the Red Kitten. It also held up to being stored in the fridge for a few days much better. The leaves were bigger also. I never knew how fragile spinach was until I had to process it in big quantities -- I don't know how market farmers do this? There's got to be some secret to it that I need to discover.
A few pics of the other veggies from around the garden. Here's the Red Swan beans in flower -- very pretty!
This is the first time I've tried oak leaf lettuce and it is just so pretty, but also pretty much paper thin. Not sure how it will do when I bring some in. I'll have to let you know when I pick it.
I'm seeing more and more tomatoes on all of the plants -- all still green. I think it's gonna have to get a bit hotter around here for them to start turning. Meanwhile, I'll keep an eye on them.
We've started bringing in the peaches. These are all from our Rio Grande peach trees so far - 14.13 pounds to date. There's going to be many, many more. I love these peaches, they pull away from the pit so easily when they are ripe, and they peel very easily too! Highly recommend this variety.
The Chester blackberries are starting to show up! I'm expecting good things from this berry patch this year. Last year I logged only 9.2 ounces, but so many of them were eaten right from the bush and I didn't get a chance to weigh them!
The avocado tree is putting out new leaves like crazy -- I think it really likes the spot we have it in this year. Not much direct sun.
I was excited to receive a package from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds this week! I had ordered these plants from them way back in January and they finally shipped them out. There were three dwarf banana trees, 3 Sweetie Pie blackberry plants, and 3 Glencoe Thornless Raspberries.
We have two Truly Tiny banana trees that I got from them back in 2015, and they have done very well - one even had a baby during the winter! Those two spend the summers up on our pool deck and they love the sun, but they're only about 1-1/2 foot tall. These new dwarf banana trees will get a bit bigger. They shipped me three different trees in the batch.
First is a Dwarf Orinoco Banana tree - from what I've read this type originates in Venezuela. It can grow from 6 to 8 foot tall.
The other two were a Dwarf Green Banana and a Dwarf Cavendish Banana. These originate from the Canary Island and can get from 6 to 12 foot tall.
Needless to say, I'll be keeping these all in pots and move to the greenhouse in the winters (as long as I can get them in there and they don't get too tall!) I plan for these to spend the summers on the deck, too.
More weeding and fertilizing this week!
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