12th February 2023
We are harvesting Beetroot, Potatoes, Onions, Carrots, Shalots, Beans, Lettuce, Tomatoes, Peppers, Zucchinis, Cucumbers, Early Apples and Hazel Nuts.
We only grow new potatoes nowadays, and the crop had its tops cut off several weeks ago to let the potatoes harden up, so they will store better. We have only harvested 3 rows so far for use, but soon we will harvest the rest and put them in hessian bags in our store shed for the winter.
My wife has been harvesting a couple of beetroot at a time and boiling them up. The rest will be harvested soon.
We have been digging up carrots, as and when needed, for some time now and they will stay in place through the winter, harvesting rhem a bit at a time. We are fortunate here in Nelson New Zealand to be able to leave them in over our mild winters. In colder areas, you need to harvest them and store in peat, or wood shavings in a tub, placed in a frost-free shed or store for the winter.
My wife has been loosing the onions and laying them down for the tops to dry off befoe harvesting. She has already harvested the shalots and has strung them up - see how on the section on growing onions.
Very soon I will start to harvest any apples that are damged or inffected with apple moth grubs. These I will core and peel and cook them up and mash them to store in plastic zip-bags for the freezer. The reat of the crop will shrtely be harvested, when they come off easily from the tree, and will be stored in boxes in single layers with some crumpled news paper between them and placed in our frot-free store for the winter.