May 2015 Harvests

There was a bit of a lull in my veggie production during April as the fall/winter veggies wrapped up and I was waiting for the spring and summer veggies to mature.  Now that we are nearing the end of May, my warm season veggies have started to produce, despite the cooler than average temperatures.

I got some of my first peppers of the season:  gypsy, pablano and mariachi (pictured above), as well as a flavorburst yellow pepper.

This week, I saw my first eggplant, tomatoes, as well as green beans.  The beans are going strong, but the tomatoes are splitting a lot more this year than I remember last year.  Maybe it is from the excessive rains we've been having?  Since I planted many more tomato plants than usual this year, I'm hoping for a bumper crop.  We'll see if that happens.

Finally, there has been plenty of Swiss Chard this year, more than I and the hubby can eat, so I've given quite a bit away to neighbors and friends.  Swiss Chard is certainly a Texas Superstar veggie in my book, at least, based on my last two successful years with it.

My family was in town over Memorial Day weekend, so they were able to help me eat a bit of the abundant chard.  We had sauteed chard with garlic, lemon juice and red pepper flakes (recipe here).  My mom used the chard stalks for a cream of chard soup, which she combined with some garlic, onion, potatoes, chicken stock, black beans and left over jalapeno cheddar sausages.  It was delicious, but unfortunately I do not have the exact recipe to share, as it was really just a left-over concoction soup and I was not involved in the process (besides growing the chard).

Hopefully May is an indicator of the productive warm-weather season ahead.

My harvest totals so far this year include:

• 7.5 oz Cherry Bell radish

• 3 lb 13.9 oz kale (several varieties)

• 6 lb 10.3  oz Flash collards

• 5 lb 13.2 oz Ruby Red chard

• 5 lb 13.9 oz Fordhook Giant chard

• 7 colanders salad greens (lettuce, spinach, arugula) 

• 1 lb 2.9 oz Meyer Lemons (5)

• 1 lb 1.2 oz Broccoli (5)

• 7.1 oz cilantro

• 6.5 oz parsley

• 4.0 oz spinach
• 2.9 oz Pablano pepper (2)
• 2.8 oz Gypsy pepper (2)
• 0.8 oz Mariachi pepper (1)
• 2.4 oz Flavorburst yellow pepper (1)
• 13.6 oz Black Beauty eggplant (1)
• 1.8 oz Grape tomato
• 4.2 oz Pear tomato
• 1 lb 1.7 oz Early Girl tomato (4)
• 1 lb 11.5 oz Blue Lake green beans