Harvest Monday 1.10.11

Hey it is ACTUALLY MONDAY!!! Whoot! Linking in to Daphne's for Harvest Monday!!

Guess what I got my first of this week? A strawberry! The first of the year - and I am hoping and praying there are many more to follow. My strawberry plants seem to have suddenly gotten lower. I don't know if that makes any sense at all but they are. I didn't dig them and divide this year and now that they are already flowering and producing I feel inclined to leave them until next fall. I'll have less of a harvest this year but less is better than none! So, one single 1oz strawberry. No picture, sorry. The girls devoured it before it even had the chance to get washed. Good thing I don't use pesticides!

This harvest Monday is all about the citrus.

I picked 5 gallons of citrus off the trees that wasn't ready prior to the frosts. Technically produced in 2010 but now it is succulently sweet and oh so juicy. I'm glad I waited to pick it. I turned it into 1/2 gallon of orange juice, 2 quarts of grapefruit segments, a citrus salad and loads of assorted segments for lunches. I also keep using the lemons on my salads in place of vinegar. Any time I can use lemon juice I prefer it anytime for my salads. Not to mention the 3 gallons of lemonade we drank this weekend.

There is still more fruit on my parents trees that they will never use. Namely the tiniest tangerines you've ever seen. I don't know if they are worth my while for segmenting out. As a fruit they don't last too long because the peels are thin, as a juice there is more pith than fruit...but I really ador the flavor of the fruit.
Garden progress? Well I seeded a small section. Some garden peas, carrots, a few broccoli, some lettuce and radish. I'm really just replacing what has been taken so far from the winter garden. As I've mentioned before I'm not much of one for cabbage or greens so those few things are the main stay of my frost tolerant garden. All in all it takes rough 10 square feet. Not much - it leaves a lot of the main garden empty, and the only remaining things in the smaller gardens are the year round plants like the trees, and vines.

This coming weekend is a 3 day holiday for me and I am looking forward to working my fingers to the bone. Our budget won't tolerate the new garden that was scheduled to go in but I'm going to try some 'artistic' financing to see what I can come up with. I don't technically NEED the planter finished until mid February but it would be so nice not to have to rush to finish the project if I don't have to. I've put off starting my tomato seedlings until next weekend as well so if I do need to wait on the new bed I won't feel so rushed to complete it then.