Memorial Day Weekend Planting, Rhubarb, and Radish Sandwiches

You know summer is here when you bite into your first radish sandwich.

Have a four day weekend and boy do I need it! It's the perfect thing to gear up for a high octane end of another school year. And what a weekend it is! It's really warm, in the mid 80's. Perfect for that traditional Memorial Day weekend of garden work. Because of this heat I've decided to take the remay covering off of the bed of radishes and greens.

This picture was taken about a month ago. This is one of the tunnels I took down today. This remay is a bit heavier than what I've used in the past and I was told it can cause what's underneath to heat up which I don't want since I have cool season greens under it. I put it up as a flea beetle barrier. It didn't protect from flea beetles perfectly but the radishes that grew under the remay, while full of little holes from those dang flea beetles, don't look half as bad as those not grown under the remay. Since the leaves of the unprotected radishes are almost totally eaten I can only guess that flea beetles love the first "leaves" aka the cotyledon. These are not true leaves but are "seed leaves" or structures that house lots of nutrients to get the plants going. So losing them is never a good thing. In the row of radishes not covered by the remay the leaves are almost totally gone. I doubt they will make it. I just need to figure how to keep the flea beetles out next year. I think I'll try moving the radishes and kale to the extreme other end of the garden. The kale under the remay and the kale outside the remay all look the same; horrible! It appears flea beetles love kale as much if not more than they do radishes and pak choy!

The photo above shows new radishes coming up. You can see the massive flea beetle damage. These seedlings were planted 2-3 weeks after the ones below. The ones below were also covered with the remay hoop:

The radishes were so thick that I had to thin them. I got enough radishes for a few sandwiches for lunch :) I snipped a few herbs that are growing such as sage, thyme, chervil, chives, garlic chives, spearmint, and oregano to mince up and mix with some local butter. A thin layer of herb butter on some good bread along with a thick layer of sliced radishes and you have the very best first garden sandwich of the season.

Now put the two pieces of bread together and voila! Radish sandwich:

Last night I made a rhubarb strawberry crisp. I had 1 bag of frozen strawberries left from last summer and freshly picked rhubarb from the garden. It came out great. Here's the recipe:
STRAWBERRY RHUBARB CRISP
This came from www.animalvegetablemiracle.com/Strawberry%20Rhubarb%20Crisp.pdf
3 cups strawberries, halved
3 cups rhubarb, chopped
½ cup honey (I also added a bit of maple syrup)
Mix together thoroughly and place in an 8”x8” ungreased pan

½ cup flour
½ cup rolled oats (I also added about 1/3 cup chopped pecans)
½ cup brown sugar (or a bit more, to taste)
¾ tsp. cinnamon
½ tsp allspice
1/3 cup butter
Mix until crumbly, sprinkle over fruit mixture and bake at 350° for 40 to 50
minutes, until golden.
Opt- serve warm with vanilla ice cream
PS - This didn't even last 24 hours in my house :)

After the heat of the day I went out and planted pumpkins, summer squashes, and cucumbers. The mosquitoes which were the size of pterodactyls and with appetites to match chased me inside. That is a first! And I won't even discuss the number of ticks my very loving husband has pulled off of me this year; another first. But no...we aren't experiencing the effects of climate change. But don't get me going on that topic!!

That's it for now. Hope you are enjoying your Memorial Day weekend.
Mary