Fenton Friday: The Lettuce is Ready for Its Close-up

 

The interns stopped by the plot this week and were each able to go home with a small bag of the Lettuce Leaf 'Salad Bowl Blend' along with a handful of Cherry Tomatoes, a few Okra pods, and some Peppers 'Roulette'. I am going to pause to here to say, have you ever seen a more pretty lettuce leaf?!? Gorgeous! Behind it is the cover cloth fabric we pulled back to harvest it, that cloth keeps the bugs off of it and the leaves from getting chewed up.

I pulled that pepper plant and stripped off all the remaining peppers - some red, a few orange, but mainly still green. I stopped counting at 50! They are sweet, with just the barest touch of heat on some random peppers. I cored them and cut them up then froze them spread out on cookie sheets overnight before placing them in freezer bags. I use them by the handful on pizzas -- I suppose I could add them also to an omelette or to other dishes, but I just love peppers on pizza, so they are reserved for this.
   By the way, do you like the bag I use to collect the peppers in (see photo)? It is the one from my breakfast cereal. I really like how thick they are and collect them in a cabinet and grab a few whenever I go out to the garden to harvest a few things. (I used to use newspaper sleeves, but I find they tear so easily.) I give many of the cereal bags away with my excess produce that I share too. At least they get re-used once or twice.
   I am not the only one in my household who likes the thickness and texture of these bags. As Santino, the bigger of my two cats, is obsessed with chewing on them. I often catch him when I hear "crinkle, crinkle, crinkle" in another room and jump up to stop him. If you look closely at this photo, you may see teeth marks around the top of this bag as well.  

From the seeds I planted two weeks ago, the Arugula and two rows Watermelon Radish 'Mantanghong' are growing well.

The seedlings for the White Bunching Onions, Cilantro, and Moss Curly Parsley are barely discenerable - if there at all. I will give them another week.

The Snap Peas 'Sugar Magnolia' are still climbing up their trellis -- no flowers or pea pods yet - but they have the biggest leaves on a pea plant that I have ever seen, along with the thickest stalks - I am talking pencil thickness!

The Broccoli seedlings are doing fine -- getting taller, but no florets forming yet.

My goal this week is to plant the Garlic and maybe a row of Carrot seeds. If time, I will also pull all the Basil and finally get that big batch of pesto made for freezing.

What are you harvesting in your garden this week? 

About Fenton Friday: Every Friday during the growing season, I'll be giving you an update on my community garden plot at the Fenton Street Community Garden just across the street from my house in zone 7 Mid-Atlantic MD/DC border. I'm plot #16. It is a 10 ft x 20 ft space and this is our 8th year in the garden. (It opened in May 2011.) See past posts about our edible garden by putting "Fenton" into the Search box above.