Harvest Monday March 14, 2016

Welcome to Harvest Monday, where we celebrate all things harvest related. We’re still enjoying the spring greens here, mostly harvested from the greenhouse beds. I cut a head of Tango lettuce last week for my wife to make a taco salad. I threw in a few sprigs of cilantro to go with it. Tango is a frilly oak leaf lettuce that sort of resembles a curly endive, though the taste is certainly mild. I sometimes harvest individual leaves of it but this time I cut the whole head which was just the right size for two servings.

I also made a cutting of a few leaves of Mizspoona to add a little green to a frittata we had for lunch one day. Mizspoona Salad Select is good for salads when young, but it’s also good anywhere you might use mizuna once it gets full sized.

It may be a green, but the leaves of Western Front kale have some reddish purple going on. I only have one plant of this growing in the greenhouse, but it gave me enough leaves to saute for a side dish last week. It’s a Red Russian type that is supposed to grow during the winter months, and it has done just that in the protected greenhouse environment. I think next time I will set out more than one!

Also last week I made another cutting of salad greens from the greenhouse. It’s a mix of spinach and Mizspoona plus lettuces like Radichetta, Jester, Outstanding and Tango. It made for a nice main dish salad one night. All the greenhouse greens are especially tender since they aren’t toughened up by the wind or weather. The spinach is Giant Winter, and despite the large size the leaves are still tender enough for salads.

I’ve still got two of the Thai Rai Kaw Tok winter squash in storage, and I decided to bake one and puree it for later use. These squash are usually good keepers, but we don’t have a lot of puree left in the freezer and I wanted to replenish our supply before I lost the squash. It wasn’t quite as flavorful as the ones from 2014, but it will be fine for custard, soups, pasta sauce and other similar uses. This one weighed over seven pounds before cutting up and cooking. The deep orange flesh makes a lovely colored puree. I’ll cook the other one up soon.

And in late breaking news, yesterday I found the first asparagus spear poking up out of the ground! That’s a full three weeks ahead of last year, and much like 2012 when we got our first harvest on 3/16. Looks like my wife got the old foliage cut back just in time about a week ago.  Asparagus is a good harbinger of spring, though I have seen a few spears get frozen early in the season. Regardless, the first spears are an eagerly awaited annual event here, and I look forward to that first harvest.

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!