Welcome to Harvest Monday, where we celebrate all things harvest related. It’s another light harvest week for me. I pulled a couple of scallions and cut a few sprigs of parsley, but they were not worth dragging out the camera! The only thing big enough to weigh was another batch of sunflower sprouts. We have been enjoying these all winter in a number of ways, including on sprout sandwiches. It’s my turn to cook this week and I do plan on using some of the greenhouse kale for at least one meal, plus I have lettuce in there that’s ready to harvest as well.
sunflower sprouts
But in late breaking news, yesterday I found the first spear of asparagus peeking up out of the ground! After waiting all winter for the first taste of homegrown asparagus, it looks like we won’t have much longer to wait. It usually starts off slow, but with several warm days forecast for next week more spears should be popping up soon. Last year we harvested 30 pounds of it, so it is definitely an important contributor to our early spring harvests. We generally cut our mature plants for a couple of months.
first asparagus spear of 2017
And speaking of sandwiches, they call for bread, and around here that means homemade bread. So I made a loaf of sourdough sandwich bread last week, using the Artisan Sourdough No-Knead Bread recipe from Breadtopia. It couldn’t have been much easier. The dough gets an overnight bulk ferment, then a quick shaping before it’s tossed in a loaf pan for the final proofing. My wife and I were pleased with how it turned out, and I will be experimenting with this and other recipes in the future. This week I want to dust off my Spelt Sourdough Sandwich Bread recipe and make a loaf of that. And I also plan on making a sourdough pizza crust in the near future.
sourdough sandwich loaf
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!
Did you share the asparagus shoot?
Yes!
Ha ha, that’s like us sharing the first strawberry.
I thought about growing sunflower sprouts but somehow never got around to it, should looking into doing so,
My attempt at growing asparagus failed again, only 2 spindly shoots appeared last year not hopeful for any shoot this year.
The sunflower sprouts are easy-peasy, and quick. Sorry to hear about your asparagus though.
The first asparagus shoot, that is exciting! I was excited to see it at the farmer’s market last week. That’s a great looking loaf of bread.
I don’t expect to see any asparagus for at least a week. That’s a nice fat shoot.
That asparagus is very exciting! I’ll be having the very first taste of mine this year and I can hardly wait. I just pulled the straw back from the beds today so that they can start to warm up a bit. Hopefully we won’t be waiting too much longer for those 1st spears to appear.
I’ve been growing asparagus for well over 30 years now, and I still get excited for the first spears of the season.
Brilliant, it’s so good when those long-anticipated harvests come around again. Your bread is also amazing, did you make the sourdough starter yourself?
Yes, I made the starter several years ago, and I’ve so far managed to keep it alive! 🙂
The first asparagus spear is something to celebrate. Thirty pounds–amazing!