Small gardens have small harvests and first crop harvests are celebrated here. After replanting the strawberry bed in January with our favored ‘Seascape’ ever-bearing variety, the first fruit ripened last week. It was deliciously sweet and as I’d expect the best homegrown strawberry to taste. I cut it in half and shared with my husband. The dozen plants have many blossoms and small strawberries coming along. ‘Seascape’ usually produces into September in our garden.

The kumquats on my patio tree are fully ripe and the small branches are laden. I snipped a few of the ponderous branches which yielded about three dozen kumquats. I usually just snack on them as I pass by or add slivers to my salads. Here’s what I did with the bounty yesterday.

To a light simple syrup I added the quartered slivers of kumquats sans seeds. The mixture cooked over moderate then low heat for about 45 minutes. The syrup thickened and the kumquats became translucent. As I write, I’m eating vanilla ice cream with a few spoonfuls of my kumquat creation atop. We also find it irresistible on waffles or pancakes.

I continue “thinning” my carrots. I get some almost full-size carrots and smaller ones for snacks and salads. A neighbor reports her “rabbits are always happy to eat local produce.” They don’t mind impossibly misshapen carrots, kale with holes and lettuce we wouldn’t put in a salad.

After the most recent rain, the broccoli plants revived and began producing larger side shoots. I collected a quart of such side shoots three times last week. I made sure they had more harvested rainwater to continue the production. It is another few weeks before the tomatoes go in that raised bed.

I like to grow lettuces in the red hues for the artistic compositions in the garden and my salads. Here are two favorites, ‘Dark Red Lollo Rossa’ and ‘Sea of Red.’ I have seedlings of ‘Pomegranate Crunch’ coming along for the summer garden. It is reported to be more heat tolerant.

For more flowers I see on my daily walks check last week’s post March in SoCal.

You may enjoy seeing what other garden bloggers harvested last week at Harvest Monday hosted by Dave at Our Happy Acres.

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