Harvest Monday 2/18/13

Having a trusty side kick is a must for any gardener.  Maggie's newest trick.  Lots coming out of the garden and a few things still going in.  Warm weather the last week, high on 2/16 was 82.  Might get some rain tomorrow, we are at 50% of the norm for this time of year, 4.66 inches.  Ouch.

 

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Navel and blood for juicing and tangelos for peeling. One navel is almost done while the other is just starting. They are literally 20 feet apart, but bloom a month apart?

Fuerte on the right and Hass on the left.  Notice the squirrel's calling card on the one in the top left corner.  Grrrrrrrr!

TPW wanted some Parsley, well she got it.  This barrel has done well for us this year.

 

One of our new citrus, actually it went in last year.  The littlest farmer loves him some blood oranges, so this is his baby.

Newest member of 22trees, this is a Panamint Nectarine.  They do well in this area, low chill.  By next year we should have some fruit.

Next years crop.  Just finished pulling all of the fruit off of this tree, and not a minute too soon.

Santa Rosa Plum

 

 

Pomegranate

 

Blenheim Apricot

3 out of the 5 ladies are laying right now.  It's about time!

 

 

Lots of greens this year.  Rows of Cilantro, Spinach, Lettuce, 4 kinds, Chard, Kale, onions, beets, and rosemary.

 

 

Harvest Monday 2/11/13

So we had been getting eggs pretty sporadically and had chalked it up to cold weather, and new chickens. However, TPW was cleaning out the coop and found their cache. Looks like they are laying after all. So... went out to the garden cut some chard, and had omelets for breakfast.   Lots of fresh squeezed OJ as well.  We have two large Navel orange trees that have worked out a system, one tree's fruit ripens about a month before the other.  Perfect!  Valencia should be ready in a month as well.

                  
                                                   Lots of chard coming in these days, here is just a sample of the rainbow of colors they offer.

 

A small sample of the harvest for thw week.  Finally getting beets.  Looking forward to them for dinner this week.  Also radishes, lettuce, spinach and of course citrus and avocados.  Life is good!

Harvest Monday 2/4/13

 

Lots coming out of the garden.  All sorts of citrus, avocados, lettuce, radish, potato, herbs, and spinach.  Beets and onions should be ready in a few weeks.   Over an inch of rain last week, now in the upper 70's. 

 

 

Some of the ladies having a hard day.

Blood and Navel orange juice in the morning, the boys love it.

 

Small, medium and large

 

 

Getting a bowl of lettuce a day for us, and giving more away to friends.

 

Harvest Monday 1/21/13

From freezing to 80 degrees in less than five days.  Amazing how the temperature has switched so fast and, we might even get rain by the end of the week.  Oh well, no one is complaining about wearing flip flops!  Lots of citrus, as you can see, we have been drinking fresh squeezed orange juice for the past week, and if all goes well for the next 3-4 months.  The littlest farmer would eat the tangelos all day if we let him, when he gets home from school the first thing he does is head out to the garden to get his after school snacks.  The mandarin still has a couple of weeks, as does the Valencia orange.  Getting lots of leafy greens, 5 different kinds of lettuce plus spinach, chard, cilantro, a little kale, radish, and some potatoes. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

First strawberry from the plants the were given to us by friends.  Hopefully we'll get more in the months to come, unless the little guy eats them all before we get a chance.

 

Harvest Monday 1/14/13

 

Life is pretty good at 22 Trees, lots of citrus, to the delight of the boys. We have been enjoying our Tangelo's and Blood oranges as well as Grapefruit, limes and our first crop of lemons. We were a bit worried about the harvest, had two nights of freezing temps, but the citrus as well as the avocados seemed to have made it through. We are also getting lots of lettuce, see picture below, and spinach, radish, chard, and avocados.  Finally started cutting all of the decidious fruit trees back.  I am always a little hesitant about this as I have no idea what I am doing.  I have a couple of good books that have been a big help, and with a little luck I won't kill them.  This is my third year of pruning and they are all still alive...

Must have missed these when I dug up the potaotes last year.
This was part of my great potato experiment, these were the ones that were under the straw.  Oops.
















The chickens were happy to get out and warm up in the sun today.

This one must have hurt!

Harvest Monday 12/10/12

Things are starting to get down right cold around here.  I know to some of you that sounds funny, 48 degrees and we think it's cold.  But seeing as how it was in the 90's just a few weeks ago, we're cold!  I finally cracked under the pressure of the little guy, and started picking Blood oranges, below is a picture of a Blood next to a Bearss lime.  Around here everyone gets excited for the citrus, but the littlest farmer loves him some blood orange

 

Rain from the begining of the week, 1 inch is a lot for the first week of December

Radishes are coming up.  Right after this picture was taken these little babies were gone.

 

Lots of Cilantro and lettuce.  I planted 6 different kinds of lettuce this year, they all seem to be doing well.

Harvest Monday 12/3/12

The rain has finally come.  We have been getting a steady drizzle for the past 4 days, nothing like our friends up in Northern California, but down here any rain is good rain.  All of the veggies that I planted in Oct & early Nov are now starting to be harvested.  Lots of leafy greens and herbs, beets are not far off.  The citrus continue to get bigger and oranger.

 

TPW makes the best compost around, the June bugs seems to love it, or at least that's what we think these guys are?  Feel free to correct us if we are wrong.  We spent the day having grub races, until the Giant, that's our Jersey Giant chicken, came in and ate them.  Game over! 

Cilantro, chard, and lettuce all set up for delivery.  The blood oranges are coming along nicely, the littlest farmer convinced me that we needed to try just one to see how they taste.  Man was it good!

 

Some strawberries that a friend of mine gave me have taken hold, and are starting to flower.

Mandarin's getting bigger.