Monday, February 27, 2012

Harvest Monday - February 27, 2012

I had a tiny harvest this week. An ounce of cilantro. The cilantro out in the main beds had gotten pretty ratty with the freezes and thaws, but the cilantro by the foundation is still beautiful. I've never had cilantro self seed as an overwintering crop before, but it has been very nice to be able to pick it whenever a want to.

I bought some tunnel clips from Pinetree. Total with shipping was 15.93. So that got added on to my tally. Again I have more negatives than positives.

Soon I'll have more negatives in the fruit tally too. I'll have to build my trellises for my fruit trees that are getting espaliered along the street. Technically that spot isn't mine. It belongs to the private way that is our road. But I'm responsible for its upkeep. So of course I planted mostly edibles. I do have one spot that has flowers in it for most of the year. In the fall I transitioned it to Asian greens since it is one of the few places in my yard that gets good sun in the fall.

  • Cilantro: 0.1 oz
  • Spent: $15.93
  • Yearly harvested: 3.21lbs
  • Yearly tally: -$554.47

Harvest Monday is a day to show off your harvests, how you are saving your harvest, or how you are using your harvest. If you have a harvest you want to show off, add your name and link to Mr Linky below.

31 comments:

  1. Its the middle of our summer harvest season and I still find myself slightly envious of your harvest - ridiculous I know but I do like coriander and its still too hot here for it not to bolt the moment its planted.

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  2. That does look like fabulous coriander. Our weather has been milder than Liz's so mine hasn't bolted, but yours it so lovely and lush!

    I have posted for Harvest Monday, but I posted again this evening (so you'll need to scroll down on my blog to read it).

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  3. Your cilantro is so bright green. Here is my green too!

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  4. Cilantro self seeding as an overwintering crop, do you think this is due to the mild winter in the northeast this year?

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  5. That is some amazing cilantro. I must confess that I have trouble growing it even during the regular growing season because it always bolts so fast on me. Does yours do that and then just keep reseeding itself - or is it slow to bolt and I just have a brown thumb when it comes to cilantro?

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  6. Beautiful cilantro! Good luck with your espalier trees! We love ours! What kind of trees will you get?

    I've been inspired by your tracking and have created my own spreadsheet. I'll post about it later this week! It amazing to see in black and white how much money we've spent in the yard! I'm sure it'll pay for itself eventually, though :-)

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  7. I only harvested spinach and broccoli again but it is great to be harvesting in winter!

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  8. Our cilantro is surviving too, but it looks nothing like that beautiful bright green harvest you have. That spot near your foundation must be a nice and warm spot!

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  9. Nice cilantro, I grew some last year but it didn't do much. Don't really use it much anyway. Am hoping however that my parsley overwintered.

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  10. I don't have any cilantro overwintering (wish I did), but the fennel volunteers are going strong. It's been a weird winter for sure.

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  11. I love that you planted mostly edibles in the area in the front for which you are responsible. I wish I could understand espaliering. It seems hard, but maybe there's a trick.

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  12. MMM... cilantro is definately a family favorite here. We all dive into it. TOo bad it goes to seed so quickly in FL>

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  13. Laura, It does bolt and reseed itself. Cilantro really hates hot weather so bolts when it gets hot. But it comes up early in the spring and I usually get a good harvest before it flowers. I can never get it to grow in the summer. But until the end of June I'm usually harvesting it. Rarely can I get a stand to grow in the fall, but I often try. I have to have a really cool summer for cilantro to get a start before fall starts. Shade helps a lot, but usually it just isn't worth the effort except as a spring crop.

    The ones that are getting espaliered are two figs (brown turkey and paradisio) and a Green Gage plum. The figs are just going straight up, about a foot apart (if I can make them do that). The plum I'm just going to let it go free form, but I want it to be flat against the fence. I suppose I ought to make pretty patterns, but I'm not sure I'm good enough to do that. I'll just let it go fan shaped fairly naturally. The hard part will be keeping it in bounds. It gets 16' high but I don't want it over 6'. So I'll have to keep it well pruned. I might have to root prune it occasionally. I hate doing that. I also have two peaches and two apples in other parts of the yard, but they are growing as dwarf trees.

    Crafty Cristy, I don't know at all what I'm doing with the espalier. I've never done it before, but I wanted the fruit and that was the space I had. But I'll give it my best shot. Who knows it might even work.

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  14. We are also trying to transistion our yard to more edibles. We rent so we have to think about what the owner would be okay with but i think he will be really happy with what we have done so far

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  15. I'm with Laura.. Cilantro's tendency to bolt on me has made be shy away from it. And that I want to pair it with fresh tomato and tomatillo doesn't help my chances of giving it the weather it wishes. I have some seed left. I should plop them in now and give it a go.

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  16. It won't be long now and you will start having some positive weeks!! We have really transitioned our yard to mostly edibles as well. If you can't eat it we don't grow it!!

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  17. Cilantro always does best as a cool weather crop for me, later when it bolts I I use the flowers too but leave a lot for all the little bugs and butterflies.

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  18. Love cilantro, they bolt too fast for me.

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  19. My cilantro is still kicking, however the lettuce has started to bolt. Hope the cilantro can survive a few more months.

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  20. I get the vast majority of my cilantro harvests from the cool season and winter volunteers. It is so prolific in the winter, my plants just keep producing leaves and when they finally bolt they produce tons of flowers to lure the beneficial insects to the garden. I love it.

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  21. Letting cilantro self-seed is a great idea! I have to find a permanent location in my yard where I can do that! I heard this week that cilantro is a natural antibiotic. Do you know if that is true?

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  22. It so lovely to have self-sowed herbs. They are more hardy and thrive with neglect. Its too hot to grow coriander here in summer. Just sowed some seeds last week and they are popping out nicely this week.

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  23. Lucky you! I still have rosemary, thyme and some scraggly parsley ... I'd love to still have some cilantro growing ...

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  24. Lovely cilantro...we grow it commercially for seed...I have a picture on my blog somewhere of about 200 acres (the scent can be overwhelming). I finally posted a Monday Harvest...my garden has done very well this Winter, I'm the one that's been lazy.

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  25. I havn't tried growing Cilantro yet but as we are now entering cooler weather i may have a little time left to plant some along with the parsley.
    Wow you are going to have a wonderful fruit harvest when all your trees start to produce!!

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  26. Three ounces of windowsill lettuce here! Not enough to do a harvest post, but soon.....

    I just wanted to comment on your new comment format.

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  27. It is always nice to get something this time of year! I'm still on the fence with cilantro. Maybe I should give it a try again this year.

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  28. Hello!
    I am new and wanted to be in a team! I am reading all your post guys 2 weeks, and wanted to learn how to grow veggies more! Thank you!

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  29. I really want to grow cilantro this year! Cilantro is excellent for removing toxins and heavy metals from our body. A lot of supplements contain cilantro for this purpose. My son is autistic and our doctor recommend it for him. I also had many amalgam filling and need cilantro. Is it hard to grow it from seeds?

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    Replies
    1. Cilantro is sometimes hard to start from seed. Sometimes it just pops up. Start it early in the spring by direct seeding. This seems to help. Once you have a stand of it up, let it flower and go to seed. As long as you let it go to seed every year, you will have cilantro easily in the spring. It likes to self seed.

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