Harvesting is underway in the garden beds and the plastic tunnel. Tomatoes are ripening in all colors and sizes, cucumbers hang thick and fast from the plants, and the zucchini are growing so fast that they need to be harvested several times a week. The watermelons are also thriving and are slowly taking on color. A real highlight of midsummer.

Midsummer in the plastic tunnel

Tomatoes, cucumbers, and zucchini are now in full production in the plastic tunnel. The plants continue to be regularly tended, pruned, staked, and monitored so that they remain healthy and can channel all their energy into the fruit.

Right now, we can see just how important the ongoing care we’ve provided over the past few weeks has been. Week after week, we tended to the plants, pruned them, and nurtured them. Now they’re rewarding us with a harvest that tastes like summer.

Fresh from the Field

The full vigor of summer is also evident in the garden. Herbs such as basil, parsley, chives, and thyme are growing abundantly and are being harvested regularly. Spring onions are especially tender and aromatic right now and can be used in a variety of ways in the kitchen.

Another particularly delightful find is the rare “Rossa Lunga di Firenze” onion. This mild, slightly sweet red onion variety from Italy is now showing off its characteristic elongated shape and delicate aroma.

In addition to the ongoing harvest, there is still plenty to do. The garden beds are being tended, harvested areas are being cleared, and the ground is already being prepared for fall vegetables and later replanting. So while we’re harvesting in one spot, something new is already beginning to grow in another.

Straight from the garden to the end of the workday

The current harvest is a true celebration of summer: cucumbers, zucchini, tomatoes, watermelons, herbs, and much more are delivered fresh every week to our two after-work restaurants. Many of these products are prepared and served the very same day.

It is precisely this connection—from the garden to the plate—that gives them their special flavor. Our open-pollinated varieties, in particular, now show just how much flavor they have when they are carefully tended, given time to grow, and harvested at the exact moment when they taste their best.

Now it’s time to keep watering, tending, harvesting, and preparing. The garden is in the midst of midsummer and gives us a little bit of that “end-of-the-day” feeling every day.

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We harvest from the garden beds almost every day. Various lettuces, kohlrabi, fennel, and many fresh herbs are constantly making their way from the garden to the kitchen. The variety the garden produces right now is especially wonderful: from the first zucchini to crisp cucumbers and the first ripe tomatoes.

Summer in the Greenhouse

There’s a lot going on in the plastic tunnel, too. The tomatoes, cucumbers, and bell peppers are growing well. The first colorful tomatoes are already ripe, and the cucumbers are also producing a steady supply of fresh crops.

To ensure that the plants stay healthy and can channel all their energy into flowers and fruit, we continue to tend to them regularly, prune them, and tie them up. Week after week, the plants are checked, pruned, and cared for. Because right now, proper care is what determines how well they’ll sustain us through the summer.

Harvest, tend, and start over

There’s plenty to do outdoors, too. In addition to the ongoing maintenance of the garden beds and mowing the paths, the first harvested areas are already being prepared for new crops. Lettuce, carrots, bush beans, and red beets are being replanted so that we can continue to harvest from the garden in the coming months.

That’s exactly what makes this time of year in the garden so special: while you’re harvesting in one spot, something new is already starting to grow in another.

Straight from the garden to the end of the workday

Week after week, we deliver freshly harvested vegetables and herbs to our two after-work restaurants. There, they are often prepared and served just a few hours after being harvested.

It’s this direct connection from the garden to the plate that gives our produce its special flavor. Our heirloom vegetable varieties, in particular, now show just how much flavor they have when they’re given time to grow, are carefully tended, and are harvested at the exact moment they taste their best.

Now it’s time to keep watering, tending, harvesting, and replanting. The garden is in the thick of summer and gives us a little bit of that “end-of-the-day” feeling every day.

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It’s starting to feel like summer in the plastic tunnel, too. The tomato and cucumber plants have taken root well, are being trained upward as they grow, and are already showing their first flowers. Now is the time to start pruning, staking, and tending to the plants regularly so that they can channel all their energy into flowers and fruit.

It grows, blooms, and buzzes

It’s not just the vegetable garden that’s bustling: The currant bushes are already bearing small, green-and-red berries; the sage is in full purple bloom, attracting bees; and the elderberry is also displaying its fragrant white flowers. It’s exactly this combination that makes the garden so special in early summer. Everything is growing and blooming everywhere; life is stirring all around, and every day you discover a new little piece of summer among the flower beds.

The first salads can now gradually make their way into the kitchen. This year, the deep red lettuces are especially beautiful; they’re not only delicious but also quite a sight to behold.

Croissants, Kornspitz, Semmerl, and Kipferl

Our mallards are once again busy in the garden. Crossaint, Kornspitz, Semmerl, and Kipferl regularly check to make sure everything’s in order, chatter their way through their area, and have by now become almost as much a part of the after-work garden as lettuce, tomatoes, and herbs.

Now it’s time to keep tending to them, watering them, training them upward, and harvesting them. Early summer is always the time when many small plants slowly come together to create a true summer garden.

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Auch unsere Paradeiser- und Gurkenpflanzen durften in den Folientunnel einziehen.

Not without our chefs

As in previous years, the varieties were selected together with our “after-work chefs,” always with the primary focus on flavor, not yield. Our single-variety plants are grown by Jungpflanzenhof Mogg from their own seeds—this year, there are 10 different varieties of tomatoes and 4 different varieties of cucumbers.

Before planting, we make sure the soil is especially healthy and rich in nitrogen for these heavy-feeding plants. Thanks to our stale bread compost, sheep’s wool pellets, and rock dust, we can give the plants the perfect energy boost for rapid growth.

Just one week after planting, we begin pruning and training the plants weekly. By limiting the tomatoes and cucumbers to just two shoots, the plants can focus better on flowering and fruit set, rewarding us with the maximum number of fruits.

Now all we have to do is wait… until the end of July, when we can enjoy the first sun-warmed tomatoes and deliver them to our two after-work restaurants.

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The first plants are emerging from hibernation

The first crops—such as radishes, a wide variety of Asian and leaf lettuces, and the first spring onions—have already been planted.

The start of the year is especially important for vegetable gardening, since this is when we can best prepare the soil for a productive season. The garden beds are freshly tilled and enriched with the necessary nutrients using organic fertilizer and compost made from our stale bread. This way, we can provide summer crops—such as tomatoes, zucchini, and others—with the nutrients they need for a healthy growing season. The crops are planted in our plastic tunnel as early as mid-April.

Outdoors, we will gradually plant the beds with spring crops such as fennel, kohlrabi, a wide variety of herbs, and, of course, a variety of lettuces.

Full of energy, we’re looking forward to a new and exciting season in the vegetable garden.

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Hibernation is slowly setting in

The days are getting cooler and shorter, but the lower temperatures make the vegetables more flavorful. Cold temperatures cause vegetables to store more sugar as a defense against frost, which is why carrots, radishes, and other vegetables are significantly sweeter and more pleasant-tasting.

To ensure we can harvest fresh greens for our two restaurants even during the winter, we have been continuously planting and sowing winter crops in our plastic tunnels and in open fields since the end of September. From a variety of salads, radishes, and herbs to specialties such as rosette tatsoi, butterhead lettuce, and young fall turnips, which are ready for harvest by Christmas.

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Thanks to Austria’s mild winters, it is possible to grow many crops even during the cold season. However, since daylight hours decrease significantly during the winter months, vegetable plants require a much longer growing season. To ensure we can still harvest as much as possible, we start planting the first crops as early as mid-September. For us, that meant radishes, Asian greens, bok choy, spinach, and fall turnips. The first young plants were also planted. After we had removed our tomato plants in mid-September, we tilled the soil with a tiller and spread a layer of fresh stale-bread compost about 5 cm thick. It suppresses root weeds, provides plants with essential nutrients, and creates a warmer soil environment. The first batch of young plants consisted of lamb’s lettuce, various types of leaf lettuce, parsley, cilantro, and specialty varieties such as winter purslane and hart’s-tongue plantain.

Fall is in full swing…

But summer on our plates isn’t quite over yet: Thanks to the protection provided by our plastic tunnel, we can leave plants like Habanada and Shishito in the ground until November and hope that all the fruits ripen well.

At the start of fall, we also take the time to sit down with the chefs at the Feierabend restaurants to review the year and the crops we’ve harvested, and to discuss the planting plan for the coming year. Armed with these important insights, we are using the quieter winter months to prepare our planting plans and order all the seeds and seedlings we need.

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Right now, we can deliver the following produce fresh from our garden to our two after-work restaurants:

• Swiss chard in five colors
• Four different varieties of zucchini—and wonderfully fresh zucchini flowers
• A wide variety of lettuces, such as Forellenschluss, Salanova, and crisp romaine lettuce
• A variety of herbs, ranging from chives and garlic chives to rosemary, sage, thyme, and colak herb
• Basil in 3 wonderfully fresh varieties—Genovese, lemon, and Greek bush basil
• Beets are currently available in two varieties—“Robuschka,” a classic red and round variety, and “Golden,” a bright orange and round variety
• Josta berries, raspberries, and the first small batches of apricots
• Pointed Early Herb
• Pickled cucumbers and Mexican mini cucumbers “Melothria”
• And here are the first tomatoes already

In addition to the ongoing maintenance tasks such as weeding and tending to the crops, we’ve also made sure we’ll have a varied selection this fall by planting two colors of sprouting cauliflower, carrots and beets—three varieties each—and the uniquely tender “Bloomendale Gelee” cabbage.

Seit ein paar Wochen helfen unsere 10 Laufenten uns den Schneckendruck unter Kontrolle zu halten und düngen nebenbei auch noch unseren Boden.

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The honey harvest takes place whenever the bees seal the cell caps of the honeycomb—this is expected to happen in about a month (spring harvest) and at the end of July for the summer harvest.

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The varieties are selected with great care, always with the primary focus on flavor, not yield. Our single-variety plants are grown by Jungpflanzenhof Mogg from their own seeds—this year there are about 10 different varieties.

Since the “Ice Saints” in Austria are becoming milder every year, we’re able to plant our tomatoes a little earlier each year. We make sure to provide a particularly healthy, nitrogen-rich soil for the heavy-feeding tomato plants. Thanks to our stale bread compost, sheep’s wool pellets, and rock dust, we can give the plants the perfect energy boost for rapid growth.

Just one week after planting, we begin to prune and train the plants weekly. By limiting the tomato plants to just two shoots, the plant can better focus on flowering and fruit production and rewards us with the maximum number of fruits.

Now all we have to do is wait… until the end of July, when we’ll be able to enjoy the first sun-warmed tomatoes and deliver them to our two after-work restaurants.

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