Welcome to Harvest Monday, where we celebrate all things harvest related. The asparagus season continues, and we are harvesting it daily now, other than Friday when it rained most of the day. We grilled it several times last week, one day for lunch where we served it up with a tuna salad sandwich on homemade whole wheat/rye bread. My wife was jonesing for tuna salad, and I had already baked up the loaf of bread, so it seemed like a great menu combo. I jokingly told her my bread deserved nothing but the best, so she found some tasty Italian tonno for the salad.
grilled asparagus with tuna salad sandwich
Also in the salad department, I had quite a few leftover lettuce seedlings when I finished planting the cold frame beds, so I let them grow on in the plug trays. Once I was certain I didn’t need any more plants, I cut the leaves for a harvest of baby lettuce. It is truly a mix of varieties and colors, and the lettuce was tender and mild tasting. I have other lettuce that could be cut, but I hate to let this go to waste. Why pay big bucks for organic baby lettuce at the grocery when you can have the homegrown version!
baby lettuce
I finally cut one of the overwintered Wonder of Stuttgart lettuce plants. The outer leaves have a little wear and tear, but the main head is big and relatively clean. It weighed in at a respectable 12 ounces, which is bigger than most of the lettuce I manage to grow. I decided those big buttery leaves would make good lettuce cups or wraps, so I put that on the menu for a couple of meals this coming week. It made a good wrapper for taco filling, and I can see some stuffed with a Tuscan style tuna and white bean salad.
Wonder of Stuttgart lettuce
Since the asparagus is coming on strong, I decided to try lacto-fermenting some of it to make pickled asparagus. I cut the spears into 5″ lengths, then packed them into a quart jar along with a few cloves of garlic, a couple of dried Aji Angelo peppers, and a bay leaf. I made a 3.5% brine solution and poured that in the jar to cover the asparagus. I’ll leave it sit out for about a week before refrigerating, though it might be ready earlier that that. I love pickled asparagus, but this is my first time fermenting it, so I am anxious to see how it turns out. I used the cut off ends of the asparagus in a stir-fry yesterday.
jar of lacto-fermented asparagus
And I’m still cutting overwintered kale in the greenhouse. This is True Siberian, which is bolting and won’t last a whole lot longer. I have surely enjoyed all the greenhouse kale though, and kale is a great performer in our winter greenhouse.
harvest of True Siberian kale
I’ll close with a wildlife update. Something happened to the female bluebird of our nesting pair, and the male had to take over all of the parenting duties. We watched him feeding them, and he worked diligently to keep the babies going. They fledged the nest last week, and we had a ringside seat on our covered porch as they made their first appearance out in the world. I got a pic of one of them as it was huddled at the base of a currant bush. The male has been singing and looking for another female, so hopefully he will find one soon. We have two nest boxes ready and waiting if they choose to use them.
just fledged baby bluebird
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!
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