Today, I also harvested two Asian eggplants. This deserves a separate post and needs to be celebrated, as I have not had much luck with eggplants in my plot in the past. I did not grow this particular plant from seed but rather purchased it from Neighborhood Farms back in May. It did exceptionally well in my plot, and today, I harvested the first two eggplants.
Today, I harvested my Roderique shallots, a French banana-shaped type. It is the first time I have a real crop, yay! I am so excited as I absolutely love shallots, and they supposedly store very well. Last year, I only harvested three bulbs total (the rabbits got the rest), but this time around it is 34. I had planted them on April 26, and they were ready for harvest as they had started to lean with the bulbs pushing out of the ground, and the foliage was starting to yellow.
I will now let them cure in the shade on my porch for the next two weeks before I prepare them for long time storage, either by braiding them or just cutting off the stems and storing the bulbs in the pantry.
I found three seed shallots from back in April. The have come a long way since 🙂
I cure my shallots on my south-facing back porch. It is shaded for part of the day by large trees, but there are a few hours of full sun in the afternoon. Last year, I devised a method to shade my garlic while curing – weighted-down umbrellas. It worked great, so here we go again.
UPDATE (July 12, 2026): I had to move the shallots inside a little earlier than planned. Ideally, I had wanted them to air out on the porch for another day, but the garlic was ready to be harvested, and I needed the space. So, I carefully brushed off much of the dirt this morning and hung them in 4 bundles of about eight each in my back hallway to cure. They will stay there for two weeks, and I will check on them regularly and move them around to ensure they dry out and cure evenly.
Last night, I harvested the remaining lettuce from the garden plot. About five heads total. I cleaned them all and stored them in the fridge. Just in time for the big heat wave that is supposed to start the day after tomorrow, Wednesday. We are expecting temperatures of 100F (feeling like 113F), so I will not be turning on the stove. Salad it will be for dinner.
This morning, I harvested two heads of lettuce form the garden plot. The garlic scapes are coming in, and with the recent heat, things are growing nicely. I also finished weeding the communal bed, planted the last Zinnias there and mulched the entire bed with straw.
Today, I harvested my porch radishes. So crisp and sharp. So good!
Last night, I harvested my overwintered leeks. They looked pretty rough in early spring but recovered beautifully, and some of them are enormous. I also pulled green garlic from a forgotten and accidentally overwintered plant. I am thinking leek quiche or leek tart; not sure yet what to use the green garlic for, maybe pesto.
This morning, I harvested the spinach on my back porch. We have had a couple of warm days (in the eighties), and it was starting to bolt. Tomorrow, it will be in the nineties, so time to harvest. In total, my two 12-inch containers yielded 190 grams (6.75 oz.). Not bad. It will be a nice addition to our dinner tonight.
One of the two containers has a parsley plant in the center, and I am adding nasturtium around it. In the other, I planted some tiny Iceland Mix poppy seedlings. It is my first time growing poppies. They are supposed to be difficult to transplant as their roots do not like to be disturbed. Fingers crossed.
Forgot to post my first real harvest of the year (May 11). A handful of rhubarb, which I turned into a strawberry-rhubarb compote served over vanilla ice cream for dessert. So good!
It was time to make the calendula salve. I gathered the ingredients – homemade calendula oil, beeswax, unrefined shea butter, and essential lavender oil. I also needed a water bath, a spatula and tins for the finished product.
I started by weighing out the beeswax and the shea butter. The recipe calls for 1 oz. beeswax and 0.5 oz. of shea butter for every 8 oz. of oil. I had 12 oz. of oil and adjusted the amounts of the other ingredients accordingly. I melted the beeswax and the shea butter in a water bath and then added the calendula oil.
Once it was all melted – taking care not to heat the oil too much so it would retain its medicinal qualities – I added a few drops (around 8) of lavender oil for fragrance and filled four 4 oz. tins.
I left the tins undisturbed for the salve to harden and settle and added labels.
Voila! My first-ever batch of calendula salve.
The next step in my calendula salve project was to make the calendula oil. I needed dried calendula flowers, a carrier oil (I used 500 ml of sweet almond oil) and glass jars. It is a simple process: Fill the glass jars with the flowers (about 2/3 to 3/4 full) and top them with the oil. There should not be much room between the oil surface and the lid as contact with air can make the oil rancid.
I initially used non-standard jars that held a bit more than a cup each. But I miscalculated the volume and ended up having to switch to smaller jars half-way in the process to make the oil fill all the way to the top (to minimize exposure to air). As I had already covered the flowers in the initial jars with oil, in the end, my jars held more flowers than intended. This will make the oil more potent, but also potentially will yield less oil as some of it will be absorbed by the flowers.
I let the oil infuse for about 6 weeks in a warm, dark place (under a cardboard box next to the radiator in my dining room), turning the jars every couple of days.
After those six weeks, I strained the oil using a sieve lined with one layer of cheese cloth. I tried to squeeze out as much of the flowers as I could.
In total, infusing the flowers with just under 16 oz. of almond oil yielded 12 oz. of calendula oil. As expected, some of the oil (a surprising amount, actually) had been absorbed by the flower petals and the cheese cloth. I then stored the oil in a dark bottle in a dark corner of my cool bedroom for a few days. The oil can be stored this way until the original expiration date of the carrier oil. Onto the next step: calendula salve.