Welcome to Harvest Monday, where we celebrate all things harvest related. My favorite harvest of the week had to be the first spears of asparagus we cut this season. I briefly sauteed the first two, which my wife and I shared. I can say I truly enjoyed each bite, which only left me wanting more! The next batch in the below photo wound up in a frittata. The beds are just now waking up, and hopefully the harvests will perk up soon. The recent cold snap surely set them back a bit, but the forecast is for temperatures in the 70°Fs all week which should get the beds going again. We cut all the spears, big and little, so that there’s nothing in the beds for the asparagus beetles to eat when they emerge from the ground. I haven’t seen any yet, but they always show up eventually.
second 2017 harvest of asparagus
The frittata also featured some of our dehdrated tomatoes, and a couple of young I’itoi onions. The mushrooms and orange bell pepper were not homegrown however! I sprinkled a little homemade smoked paprika on top before I popped it in the oven to finish cooking.
frittata
Volume wise, the biggest harvest of the week might have been the parsley I got from the greenhouse. I pulled two of the three overwintered plants in there so I could replant with new ones. The Giant from Italy plant was bolting already, though the Georgian Flatleaf wasn’t. The parsley wound up in a number of dishes, including a main dish lentil salad I made with French green lentils. And a large part of it went into a batch of chimichurri sauce I made.
harvest of overwintered parsley
I cut more of the overwintered kale in the greenhouse last week. I believe this was the Western Front variety, though the plant tags in there seem to have gone missing. It is starting to bolt to flower, and I harvested a couple of the small rapini along with the larger leaves. Hopefully it will keep producing a bit longer until the spring planted kale is ready for cutting.
overwintered kale
I also cut a bit of the overwintered greenhouse lettuce. There’s a little more of it left, and the spring planted lettuce is almost ready to start cutting too. It’s mostly Radichetta in the below photo, which is one of my long time favorites. It’s an oak leaf type with a mild flavor and a crunchy rib that’s much like a romaine.
Radichetta lettuce
My bread creation of the week was another batch of lavash crackers. I used a mix of semolina flour and fresh ground white whole wheat, and sprinkled on sesame and poppy seeds before baking. The egg wash gives it a shiny look and helps the seeds to stick. I’ll have to share this recipe when I get through tweaking it. We break them into pieces right before eating, and I served them up with the French green lentil salad.
lavash cracker
It’s not my harvest for sure, but the bluebirds eggs have hatched and we now have baby bluebirds! I’ve been keeping bird nesting boxes for over 30 years now, but I still get excited when I see the baby birds. I remember when my wife and I were looking at Happy Acres before we bought and I thought “this looks like a good site for bluebirds.” I was right, and we’ve had them here almost from the beginning. The parents have been keeping busy feeding this batch, and there appears to be five of them in the nest which means all the eggs hatched. I spoke to them and got the one to gape open for the paparazzi. And yes, I talk to the birds!
baby bluebirds
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!
No harvest from us this week I’m afraid but we have been busy planting.
How lucky to have such a great view of the nestlings – we have a nesting box with a web cam connected but the birds manage to ignore it in favour of a different location.
Can those little bluebirds be both beautiful and ugly at the same time? I think so… Lucky you to get to enjoy them.
I love how some harvests start snowballing – one asparagus last week, five this week, next week?
Cool bluebirds, hopefully we’ll get to see fluffy feathers on them soon. I noticed a bluetit collecting hair from the back garden veg bed the other day (I’d unsuccessfully tried using the hair as a slug deterrent last year and some was still on the soil), so as Jan had just cut my hair, I stuffed a load of it in one of the fatball holders – hope they make use of it!
What a treat to see the baby bluebirds. Can you imagine the astonishment of our grandparents at what the technology allows. Nice to have your harvest season begin so early. Small bits of things are especially appreciated around here.
Out with the old and in with the new, you’re so good with succession planting. And it looks like your asparagus season is now underway, wonderful.
My mizuna and kohlrabi are getting way to big for their Styrofoam cups already. Hopefully we can get the soil amended this week and planting underway by the weekend.
Hurray for asparagus! I’ve been watching the bed but nothing yet – I’ll have to look back and see when they came up last year, but I do recall it seemed to take such a long time (but that was probably me being overly anxious!). I did check to see what asparagus beetles looked like so that I can keep an eye out for them.
And what an amazing photo of those cuties…so sweet!
The asparagus beetles aren’t a real big pest here but they do eat on the spears occasionally. My strategy is to handpick them, and if that doesn’t keep them in control I spray with neem oil.
Homemade Lavash crackers – how wonderful! I’ve made various crackers a few times but not for a while (I think you’ve just inspired me for the coming weekend).
I checked last year’s harvest info, and I’m exactly four weeks away from my first asparagus spears if all goes well. Looking forward to it!