Welcome to Harvest Monday, where we celebrate all things harvest related. When I volunteered to be the new host of Harvest Monday, one concern I had was how I would handle the winter months when harvests here can be few and far between, even with the things I grow in my greenhouse. Daphne had considered a co-host arrangement herself, perhaps with someone from the Southern Hemisphere, but that never panned out. Thinking ahead, I decided to ask Michelle (From Seed To Table) if she would be interested in helping me out from time to time, and she graciously agreed. She is going to take over hosting next month (January, 2016), and is working on a Mr Linky setup for her blog so everyone can go there to linkup next Monday.
I did have a few harvests myself last week. I made another cutting of the Wild Garden Kale Mix. This has proven to be one of the more flavorful kale varieties I am growing this year, along with White Russian which is a selection out of the Mix. We enjoyed it cooked up for a side dish.
Wild Garden Kale Mix
Another harvest came from the turnips I planted back in August. I planted these Purple Top turnips for the greens, sowing them fairly thickly. There were some roots on them too, but I have come to prefer the so called salad turnips better. My wife cooked them up in Mashed Turnips and Potatoes with Turnip Greens for dinner last night. She added protein in the form of roast chicken and we had a meal. I made this dish during my last tour of cooking and we liked it so much she decided to make it again. I was happy to eat it again too!
turnip greens
I’ve also started cutting lettuce and spinach from the cold frames and greenhouse. I usually have lettuce this time of year, but spinach in December is a real treat. The Giant Winter spinach from a cold frame bed is joined by Wild Garden Lettuce Mix from the greenhouse in the below photo. We used them to make a salad for a Christmas Day dinner we hosted for friends.
Christmas Day salad greens
We also cooked up a batch of sweet potato ‘fries’ for the dinner. We used some of all three sweet potatoes I grew this year: the white-fleshed Bonita, Purple, and Beauregard. It’s a simple treatment, we just toss them with a little olive oil and salt and bake in a 450°F oven until they’re tender and browned a bit. I think it made for a colorful and tasty display. It was a great year for sweet potatoes and we have been eating them frequently.
sweet potato fries ready for oven
I have also been enjoyed the 2015 pepper harvest in a number of ways. I keep a shaker jar of Smoked Paprika on the table for use at meal time, where I sprinkle it on anything I think needs a bit of color or smoky flavor. I love it on popcorn, and it takes one of my favorite snack foods up to a whole new level!
smoked paprika on popcorn
Harvest Monday is a day to show off your harvests, how you are saving your harvest, or how you are using your harvest. If you have a harvest you want to share, add your name and blog link to Mr Linky below. And be sure and check out what everyone is harvesting!
Next month Harvest Monday will be hosted by Michelle at From Seed To Table. Thanks again to Michelle for helping me out!
I’m already looking at mixed kale seed packets for next season – great way to get more variety. The fries look fantastic, a shame I don’t have a long enough season to grow sweet potatoes.
I’ve got Mr. Linky all set to go and I’ll be putting up my first post as host at midnight on Sunday so everyone doesn’t have to wait until Pacific Standard Time to link up. Your harvests from the cold frames and green house are remarkable, you would never guess it was winter from the looks of them. Having all three sweet potato varieties served together, was there any one that stood out? I agree with you about the salad type turnips, they are surprisingly sweet and delicious.
I’ve been scheduling my HM posts for 5AM CST, and I could post them even earlier for that matter. Thanks again for volunteering!
It’s funny, but the more ‘traditional’ orange sweet potato (Beauregard) is probably my least favorite, though I’ve grown it for years. I have enjoyed the Purple one in a number of dishes, including salads and curry dishes, and the white fleshed Bonita has been surprisingly tasty either baked by itself or made into fries. It has a drier, more firm flesh, and that has led me to research growing other white-fleshed varieties next year, including Korean Purple or Red Japanese.
Yummy looking sweet potatoes, mmm. And really nice popcorn. No HM post from me this week but hopefully back again next time. Just watching the brilliant Wallace and Gromit’s ‘A matter of loaf and death’, not a sourdough in sight though 😉
I can’t even imagine how harsh conditions are in winter for northern hemisphere gardeners. There is always gardening to do and something to plant and pick in my )too) hot Australian garden. Those sweet potatoes look absolutely delicious.
We are lucky it has been a mild winter here so far. Last year we had snow in November!
I’m late linking-up this time – just got back from a visit to my family in France. Delayed 7 hours on a 90-minute journey, because of fog; got back home at 01:15 !
That salad looks so delicious & what a great use for the smoked paprika! Yet another incentive to grow more chilies & try my hand at smoking (that sounds a bit off, doesn’t it ;). I was going to pick a bit of mizuna and the couple of kohlrabi that actually sized up, but time just got away from me and now they are buried under snow and ice from a storm yesterday. I guess we’ll see if I’ve missed my harvest opportunity once we get a bit of a thaw.