A Late July Harvest at My Farm
If you have a vegetable garden, how is it doing this year? Mine continues to produce bounties of beautiful and nutritious foods.
Last week, my head gardener, Ryan McCallister, picked another sizable amount of vegetables from my Bedford, New York farm, including some of the season's cucumbers, artichokes, peppers, cabbage, and so much more.
Here is an update on what we last picked - let me know what you're harvesting from your garden this week!
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- There has been so much growth in this vegetable garden in the last couple of weeks – there is so much to pick! Many of you ask what I do with all these vegetables. I share most of them with my daughter, Alexis, and her beautiful children, Jude and Truman – they love all vegetables. I also share them with my friends and staff here at Bedford. And, I use them for various television and magazine shoots whenever needed, or when we test recipes here at the farm. Nothing is ever wasted – whatever isn’t used goes to my chickens, geese, peafowl, and pigeons.
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- This year, we’ve had a lot of very warm days. This can sometimes be a detriment to growing crops, but some of the plants continue to do well such as our peppers, eggplants, tomatoes, and summer squash.
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- Here’s Ryan just before harvesting this week’s bounty. One can harvest any time of day, but when possible, the best picking time is early morning, when the sun is just clearing the eastern horizon and greens are still cool and dew-covered from the previous night.
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- Look at the cabbage – they’re the perfect size for picking. The right time for cabbage harvesting will depend on the variety of cabbage planted and when the heads mature. Look for heads that are firm all the way through when squeezed – that’s when they’re ready.
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- To get the best health benefits from cabbage, it’s good to include all three varieties into the diet – Savoy, red, and green. This is a Savoy cabbage.
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- Ryan picked two heads. The leaves of the Savoy cabbage are more ruffled and a bit more yellowish in color. Cabbage, Brassica oleracea, is a member of the cruciferous vegetables family, and is related to kale, broccoli, collards, and Brussels sprouts.
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- Here’ a head of broccoli, which is high in vitamins A and D.
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- This beautiful cauliflower head is brimming with nutrients. Cauliflower holds plenty of vitamins, such as C, B, and K.
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- This is kale – very pretty with ruffled leaves and a purple-green color. One cup of chopped kale has 134-percent of the recommended daily intake of vitamin-C – that’s more than a medium orange, which only has 113-percent of the daily C requirement.
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- This year, I planted lots of delicious herbs in this garden. We designated the center beds for this year’s crops – they’re doing great as well – sage, rosemary, thyme, and more.
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- And here are just a couple of the artichokes – I love artichokes. We have many growing! Artichokes are actually flower buds, which are eaten when they are tender. Buds are generally harvested once they reach full size, just before the bracts begin to spread open.
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- Artichokes have very good keeping qualities and can remain fresh for at least a week.
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- When harvesting artichokes, all you need is a utility knife to cut the stem approximately one to three inches from the base of the bud. The stem becomes a useful handle when trimming the artichoke. After harvesting the center bud, the artichoke plant will produce side shoots with small buds between one to three inches in diameter.
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- We planted more than 100-tomato plants this year. All the plants are now well-supported by bamboo stakes. We’re growing both hybrid and heirloom varieties.
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- Most tomato plant varieties need between 50 and 90 days to mature. Planting can also be staggered to produce early, mid and late season tomato harvests. Lots of tomatoes are developing on the vines, but they’re not ready just yet – they still need a few more weeks.
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- There are several types of tomatoes available in my garden, including globe tomatoes used in processing, and for fresh eating. Beefsteak are large, often used for sandwiches. Oxheart tomatoes vary in size and are shaped like large strawberries. Plum tomatoes are usually oblong, and used in tomato sauces. Cherry tomatoes are small round, often sweet and eaten whole. Campari tomatoes are sweet and juicy and of small to medium size.
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- Swiss chard always stands out in the garden, with its rich red stalks. Swiss chard is a leafy green vegetable often used in Mediterranean cooking. The leaf stalks are large and vary in color, usually white, yellow, or red. The leaf blade can be green or reddish in color. Harvest Swiss chard when the leaves are tender and big enough to eat.
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- A bit crunchier than spinach, Swiss chard is also more tender than kale. Swiss chard is actually a beet but doesn’t have a bulbous root. It’s referred to as a member of the “goosefoot” family due to the shape of its leaves. And always cut chard leaf by leaf, so the plant can continue to grow new leaves during the rest of the season.
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- Ryan also picked the first cucumbers of the season. I prefer small to medium sized cucumbers. Cucumbers, Cucumis sativus, are great for pickling – I try to find time for pickling every year.
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- These peppers are ready too. Be careful when picking peppers – always keep the hot ones separated from the sweet ones, so there is no surprise in the kitchen.
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- Here’s Chhiring tending the garden beds. Because of all the heat and rain this summer, the weeds are growing rampant. It takes a lot of work to maintain such large gardens here at the farm.
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- We harvested a full bucket of summer squash. Zucchini can be dark or light green. A related hybrid, the golden zucchini, is a deep yellow or orange color – all so delicious.
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- And to keep up with our program of succession planting, Ryan prepares seeds for another bed. Succession planting is the practice of seeding crops at intervals of seven to 21 days in order to maintain a consistent supply of harvestable produce throughout the season. Succession planting also involves planting a new crop after harvesting the first crop. It’s a great summer for fresh vegetables here at the farm.
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