Yeah! The lettuce thinning I brought home from Locust Grove Heritage Vegetable Garden mid-September and transplanted into window boxes are all growing well and all survived Friday night’s frost.
According to weather forecast this week day time temperature will range from 57°F to 84°F with night time temperature above freezing. Lettuce should grow quite a bit more. Planning to harvest the outer leaves sometime this week.
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Needed some carrots so pulled a few from the container. Pretty good size, sweet and tender.
The remainder carrots should be sweeter after Friday night’s frost.
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Got a basket of Red Giant Mustard, all are volunteers.
Made a simple stir-fry using the same method I used with the Semi-Heading Mustard. Click here to learn how.
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Leeks sized up quite a bit since mid-September. The beautiful long leeks in the photo below are a little under 4 inches in diameter. Long and fat, so cool looking! They went to a friend’s home.
King Richard Leeks
King Richard has produced well for me every year, a keeper.
Now if only I could grow onions. Tried again this year and the results were better than last year, will try again next year and hopefully I get a good onion harvest.
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My Lutz beets continue to grow. The 2 in the photo below each weighs 1 pound and even at that size is not at all pithy.
Lutz Beets
Below is the cross section of the beet on the left.
Cross Section of Lutz Beets
While shopping, came upon packages of nice looking pork soup bones. Just what I needed to make a big pot of Pork and Beet Soup.
There is no recipe for the soup, besides pork bones and beet, I added tomato, leeks, bay leaf, peppercorn, fresh ginger and salt to taste.
While going through seed catalogs, I learned that my Lutz Beets are not true Lutz Beets.
True Lutz have glossy green tops without any purple veins.
True Lutz Beet (Photo courtesy of Sustainable Seed Company)
But as you can see from the photo below my Lutz leaves are sporting purple veins and stems.
What happened?
Some years ago Lutz got crossed up and as a result true seeds were hard to find. Thankfully Fedco Seeds has the real McCoy so for next year’s planting I am ordering from Fedco.
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Other harvests for the week include: sweet potato leaves, Peppermint Swiss Chard, broccoli florets and baby bok choy.
Got my garlic bed ready for planting. May plant later this week but most likely next week. Definitely planting German White and Duganski, both hard neck, may plant a row of German Red, also a hard neck, can’t make up my mind. Toying with the idea of planting a soft-neck variety as well.
Washed and sterilized my seed starting equipment. Sure glad that’s done, this is my least favorite part of gardening. Hoping to complete my garden clean up this week, if not next week the latest.
Still waiting for RAIN!
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Copyright © by Norma Chang. All Rights Reserved. Do not use/repost any photos and/or articles without permission.
Do visit Dave at Our Happy Acres for more Harvest Monday
Garden to Wok 
Those lettuces are doing really well and I love the cross section of Lutz beets…so beautiful!
Hello Angie,
I too love the cross section of the Lutz beets not only beautiful but tasty too, a winner.
Those lettuce plants are looking great Norma! And what a pair of big beets, even if they aren’t the true Lutz variety. I too have trouble growing onions, but I did get better results this year. I think earlier planting was the key for me, but it’s too early to tell if I can get good results next year as well.
Hello Dave,
Thanks for the idea, I will try planting onions earlier next year and see if I get better results.
Nice lettuce, wish I had planted some. Interesting about the Lutz beet. Never been interested in huge beets but maybe I should plant a few for soups and borscht.
Hello Dave,
Lutz beets can be harvested at any stage. I space the seedlings closer than recommended and thin as needed through out the growing season. By late summer they will be properly spaced. Using this method I need only plant one variety of beet to enjoy the whole year.
Nice looking harvests, the leeks in particular. I am bad about washing the starting pots; how do you sterilize them? I planted garlic this weekend as I’m sure many gardeners did, so you are right on track.
Hello Will,
Thanks. I sterilize using 1 part bleach to 9 parts water, soak pots for at least 10 minutes in solution then rinse in clean water, drain and let dry, in sun if possible.
What a particularly nice looking harvest you have this week, Norma! I’m envious of your cooler temps and yeah, we all need some rain. It’s so dry here that everything is dying. Not a prayer for a winter garden.
Hello Betsy,
My trees and shrubs are showing signs of stress due to the drought hope we get some good rains before winter sets in.
An impressive harvest, Norma! We love beets. We usually plant the red or gold.
Hello Cynthia,
Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to leave a comment. Did not plant golden beets this year will be doing so again next year.
I bought some organic hard neck garlic from a farmer on Saturday and although it’s a bit early, they are snuggled into a nice paper bag in the vegetable crisper. Your harvests look wonderful, particularly the beets. We love to eat raw beets grated like coleslaw, so tasty. It’s going to be fairly warm here too, we’ve had your rain for a couple of days, would be happy to send it down to you, if I could!
Hello Eva,
I eat raw sliced beets but never thought of grating them, I just love them pickled or in soup. Lucky you with the rain, my trees and shrubs are showing signs of stress from the extended drought.
Those are some impressive beets! Your lettuce also looks delicious. We’re having warmer weather here too with no rain or frost in sight.
Hello Julie,
I am happy with no frost in sight but really need the rain, am hoping we get some before winter sets in.
Those lettuce plants look great! The ones that I got from the farm are growing, but ever so slowly. I’m hoping they pick up the pace a bit in our current warm spell, otherwise, there may be little to harvest over the next month or so.
Hello Margaret,
I am sure your lettuce will pick up a fast pace this week.
I have never left carrots in the ground until after a frost although I do it regularly with other veggies (parsnips, brussels sprouts). I must try that next year.
Hello Susie,
Carrots become sweeter after frosts.
The carrots look good and the beetroot looks interesting even if it isn’t the one that you wanted.
Hello Sue,
Thanks, I think I will plant both varieties of Lutz beets next year for comparison.
Those beets are gorgeous when sliced, Norma. I have made all kinds of soup but never have I used pork bones. The next time I make sausage and use a bone-in pork butt, I’ll make soup instead of using the bones in a tomato sauce. I bet it would be a tasty change, Thanks for the idea.
Hello John,
In Chinese cooking pork bones are used more often than beef bones I also like to combine pork bones with chicken bones.
Yeah sweet potato leaves are one of our favorites. You had mentioned that the carrots will be sweeter after the first frost. I did not know that, very interesting. Just following your conversation with John above and yes this is the perfect time of the year for some Pork and Carrot Chinese soup. It is so damp here.
Hello Bam,
Carrots response to frost by increasing their sugar content to stop ice crystal formation thus preventing damage to carrot’s cell resulting in sweeter carrots.
Thanks Norma. Good to know.
🙂