Thinning, Harvesting, and Eating
Thinning
It’s important to thin your seedlings. Thinning is carefully pulling out the smaller plants to make room for the larger plants to grow to maturity.
Think of how big the plant is going to be at harvest time. Remove enough little plants to give the biggest plant space to grow to harvest.
For larger thinning, if you have the space, try transplanting them to grow even more vegetables.
Eat the thinnings. They are delicious!
Harvesting and Eating
Radishes and greens are loving this cooler spring! But, as soon as it turns hot, they can bolt. They will shoot up a middle stalk and then quickly flower. It will make your radishes woody and your greens bitter. So harvest while you can!
Most vegetables are root-to-stem providers so you can eat the root and the leaves.
Radishes - make pesto from the leaves (add a few radishes for a nice kick) and make pickles from the roots, or just eat them right out of the garden.
Greens - can’t eat them all? Wash them and put them in a container will a damp paper towel. Then you can eat them all week. If they go limp, pop them into a bowl of cold water. It’s a refreshing drink for them.
Your garden can provide for you all year round through freezing, canning, drying, etc.
Make radish pesto in the spring. Freeze some to use through the summer. Make carrot top pesto in the fall. Freeze it to use through the winter. Presto! The garden that keeps on giving.
Hardier greens like beets, kale, Swiss chard, even radish tops, can be chopped up and frozen. Then, after you have used all the fresh greens, you can use the frozen ones in stir fry, add them to your eggs, etc.
FAQs
The radishes are done. What do I plant in their place?
If it is a cool spot, you can replant radishes. The forecast is for cooler days for the next few weeks.
Any fast maturing vegetable can be planted now. Look on the seed package for days to maturity + germination period = when you can harvest. Examples:
Bush beans - 50-60 days
Beets - fast maturing 40-50 days
If you didn't do it this year, next year plant the radishes where slower maturing plants are planted. Examples:
between the bean rows. Beans will be planted later than radishes.
around the cauliflower, cabbage, broccoli, or other large plants.
Weeding, thinning, harvesting, washing ... it’s so much work. Is it worth it?
Absolutely! Growing your own food is hard work, but so rewarding. You know that food on your plate was grown by you, is free of pesticides and herbicides, was harvested at peak perfection, and is so much better for the environment and for you. You are becoming more food independent!
Tips to make gardening easier:
Visit your garden for 5-10 minutes every day - pull a few weeds, thin a few plants, and bask in the wonder of it all.
Use a harvest basket - this makes gathering your harvest easier and allows you to rinse the majority of the dirt off outside.
Buy one that allows for easy washing and is large enough. Two excellent baskets are:
Use the Lee Valley Tool’s World's Kindest Nail Brush for cleaning your vegetables. It removes dirt from the tiny crevices and doesn’t bruise your vegetables.
Don’t stress about eating it all. If you have more than you can eat or you aren’t able to harvest it, that’s ok. Just because it’s growing doesn’t mean you have to eat it. Sometimes watching something grow is reward enough.
If you do have excess you can donate them to the Calgary Food Bank, dirt and all!
Question? Reach out to grow@gardentofork.ca.
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