From the Garden

Baby beets from transplants ...

This has been the first year for me to start beets and set them out as transplants. Seems to have worked! I say "first year" but I tried several years ago but sowed the seed too late. They were the last things to come out of the greenhouse, I forgot them, and they burned up !

Anyway, the seed went in a tray insert with lots of cells. Of course, lots of plants showed up, multiples in each cell.

We set them out very early without any attempt to thin them and so they are very crowded ... but, okay.

We will have white baby beets soon (golden, too)!

Steve

Фигасе... (untranslatable Russian folklore, in this case the assessment of the situation as an unusual and surprising.)
Why am I not doing? There is cold too ... Steve, I'm your beetroot fan!

Beet greens are among my very favorite side dishes.

I'm very fond of that veggie and think that I always have been .

Thanks to @ninnymary , I have Verde De Taglio Chard this year. Here is how Seeds of Italy describes it: "Green cut & come again. Very thin stems, incredibly sweet & tender leaves. Harvest outer leaves or simply cut the entire plant as it will regrow."

What I don't really like about chard is the thick stems. So - thin! Chard and beets are so similar genetically, maybe I will discover a new favorite veggie.

The white beets in 2015 were so few, I didn't thin them. By the time I tried the greens, the roots were quite mature. I'm only so-so with mature beet roots. They are almost too sweet for me. The leaves were delicious! Looking forward to having them in greater supply this year and enjoying the small roots with the leaves.

Yellow beets are fine with me but they don't solve DW's problem with beets. They just stain her food yellow instead of purple/red.

Steve
Edit: fun looking at the images of surprise in a "Фигасе" search . Okay, I am kind of Фигасе that a plant with the root of a beet will transplant okay .

digitS' said:

Steve
Edit: fun looking at the images of surprise in a "Фигасе" search
. Okay, I am kind of Фигасе that a plant with the root of a beet will transplant okay .

Click to expand...

You want my death from laugh? 1:1 !!!

The last two years I've started chard and kale from seeds in January to transplant in early March. That has worked quite well. I've already put kale and chard in the freezer in addition to what we've eaten. Since beets and chard are so closely related I'm not Фигасе at all that beets would transplant very well too.

Larisa said:

You want my death from laugh? 1:1 !!!

Click to expand...

Nooo!

Now, I'm scared to make the "signature" change, I'd intended ...

Okay, I'll leave it to @Ridgerunner to cause trouble.

Will try something different.

Steve

Control shot!!! 1:2

I thought I'd return to this thread and go off in a different vine ... uh, vein!

Wow, there is an English idiom for you @Larisa ! What in heavens were they thinking about when we started using "vein" to mean "subject?" A different subject = a different vein. Yikes!

Anyway, my pea vines didn't burn up in the record heat of early June! I wasn't much worried about them in the recent cold but they transitioned through the sudden change, gracefully.

In the past, I have grown lots and lots of peas but I'm really happy to have kept them out of the big veggie garden this year and in the protection of the little veggie garden ... Strike that!

I know that I'm gonna be disappointed when I run out of snap peas, snow peas and shell peas! Oh, why do bad things have to happen to me?! I want all the peas I can get but only have one trellis, one bed for all 3 types!

Well, more good news is that some of the potatoes are so far along that it should not be any trouble to have creamed peas and new potatoes soon! At the moment, it's the Sugar Snap pea's season!

Like peas??

Steve

I always assumed (if I thought about it) that a different vein alluded to a vein of gold, or at least copper, as in mining. Chasing a more promising looking vein.
Now I'm looking at the veins in my arm. Eeek!