Harvest Monday April 4, 2016

Welcome to Harvest Monday, where we celebrate all things harvest related. It’s hard to believe it is April already, and that’s no fooling! The asparagus harvests are still a bit slow here, but they should pick up when the weather starts warming up a bit. So far we have harvested almost three pounds this year, while last years total was 35 pounds. I sometimes get asked what varieties we have planted, and we have one 30 foot row each of Jersey Giant, Jersey Knight and Jersey Supreme. The first two were planted in 2007, and Jersey Supreme in 2009. I can’t find a whole lot of difference in the three we have, but I would say Jersey Supreme might be slightly less productive for us.

Asparagus is definitely the star of our April harvests. I made Asparagus Mimosa for a light lunch meal on Saturday. And it joined up with some fresh Mizspoona and green garlic plus a 2015 Purple sweet potato from storage for a stir fry last week. I added tofu, shiitake mushrooms and a sweet red pepper from the grocery to the homegrown veggies. I made it with a pretty simple sesame/soy sauce and served it up sans rice. I tried to get as many colors as I could in the meal, and the Purple sweet potato holds up quite well for this treatment. I cooked it in the microwave first, let it cool, then cubed and added to the stir fry at the last, right before I tossed in the Mizspoona. I love stir frying using our homegrown veggies because it is quick, easy and the combinations are endless.

I’m using the fresh green garlic fairly often now. Back in mid-December last year I planted about 50 cloves of garlic that had begun sprouting. I started harvesting it a couple of weeks ago, and it should give us fresh green garlic until the main crop is ready to start digging. I used this one in the stir fry in the above photo.

The overwintered Giant Winter spinach in the greenhouse is bolting, so I pulled it all up. It’s typically the first to start bolting here, so it wasn’t a surprise. We’ve enjoyed it in salads and other dishes for the last month or so. I love this variety because even though the leaves get quite large, they stay tender enough for salads, at least when grown in a protected environment.

I used it to make a Crustless Spinach and Feta Pie which served as a main dish for us for two meals. Though there is whole wheat flour in the filling, it is a lighter treatment than making it with a crust like I usually do. Instead of blanching the spinach like I would before freezing it, I lightly sauteed it for a minute or so then let it cool and squeezed out as much water as I could. Popeye would be proud, because the taste of spinach came through loud and clear in this dish!

I also made cuttings of lettuce and spinach for salads and arugula for a pizza. Spring is salad season here, with lots of greens to choose from.

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!