Brae Farm Harvest Notes April 29, 2025

Hi everyone,

In abundance this week we have baby shungiku, Treviso radicchio, punterelle, leeks, large swedes, medium fennel, purple sweet potatoes, pistachios, quinces, rhubarb, parsley, chickweed, little gem lettuces and fennel pollen. 

Finishing up now are large and medium tomatoes, Malabar spinach leaves and flowers, most basil varieties, sweet potato leaves, and serrano chilies.  

Coming up soon will be large-leaf Tuscan and red Russian kale, rainbow chard, buckshorn, hispi cabbages and yuzu. 

The first punterelle have come on quickly. There are around 8 that will be ready to harvest this week, and we'll have the same again in another week or so. There are multiple successions coming on that will hopefully provide a fairly continuous supply into June. 

There are plenty of Treviso ready to pick. We could harvest at least a dozen a week from now on. The first half dozen precoe romea (round, deep red) radicchio have also sized up.

We have a bed of 150 medium-large leeks that we can start harvesting selectively as needed. They should hold (and keep getting bigger) until August if they're not needed for immediate use. 

Pistachios are ready to harvest. 

Chervil is looking very nice this season. There's not a huge volume yet, but we could be sending up a generous bunch each week if it's wanted. 

The medium-to-large tomatoes are just about finished. I'll do a final harvest on Tuesday. We will continue to pick cherry tomatoes for at least a couple more weeks. Tommy toes are still producing a decent quantity. We may have some issues with splitting if we get a lot of rain tonight. 

Most of the serranos have ripened. If we can harvest all the remaining red and green chillies I can clear the bed. 

I think we'll get one more week out of our various basil varieties, except for Greek basil, which I've taken off the list. It would be good to plan a big harvest for oil the week after next. 

We can probably find sweet potato leaves for one more week, but Malabar spinach is done for the season. 

Jo Lawson
Head Gardener