Welcome to Harvest Monday, where we celebrate all things harvest related. It’s getting to be salad season here, with lots of lettuce coming in from the garden. I cut some baby lettuce I had growing in a window box planter, a green cut & come again variety called Bionda a Foglia Liscia. The tender leaves wound up in some fish tacos I made for lunch one day. I tend to prefer a more sturdy lettuce for most salads, but I think the baby leaves work well for wraps.
Bionda a Foglia Liscia lettuce
Another cutting of lettuce went into a main dish salad. In the below photo there are two small heads of Outstanding lettuce. The one on the left was grown in the cold frame, while the one on the right was in the greenhouse. Many of the red lettuces don’t color up as well in the greenhouse, though in this case the difference is really striking.
Outstanding lettuce
I have several window box planters with pac choi and mizuna growing in them. I also have more pac choi and mizuna growing in a cold frame bed and the greenhouse. I have to move them in the greenhouse at night to keep the critters from eating them, though I could cover them with netting instead. They aren’t quite full sized yet, but I cut a couple of the Mei Qing pac choi and some of the Mizspoona leaves for a stir fry.
pac choi and mizuna in planters
harvest of pac choi and mizuna
I also made a cutting of kale from the greenhouse, but when I cooked it up it was starting to get strong tasting and the leaves were a bit tough. It’s had a good run and given us lots of kale the last few months, but it’s time to pull it up and replant with something else. I do have some spring planted kale growing, and it should be ready to cut before long.
greenhouse kale
And last but not least I cut some arugula I have growing in salad boxes in the greenhouse. It’s a mix of Apollo and Speedy, plus a new one (for me) from the Seed Savers Exchange called Enrico Rao. The arugula went on a pizza I cooked up Saturday night to finish my two week stint of cooking.
arugula for pizza
Also on the pizza was grilled asparagus, homemade tomato sauce plus cheese and olives. It had a sourdough crust I made with wholegrain White Sonora Wheat. It’s my take on a recipe in Peter Reinhart’s Artisan Breads Every Day, actually a melding of two recipes, one for a sourdough crust and one with 100% whole wheat. Once I finish tweaking my version I will have to share it here. I rolled the crust out as thin as I could on a piece of parchment paper then slid the crust, paper and all, onto a hot pizza stone in the oven. I’ve come to think ‘less is best’ when it comes to a pizza crust, and this is my way to keep the crust thin and not have any issues getting it in the oven. The asparagus is buried under piles of arugula, and the pizza is topped with thin sliced provolone cheese.
pizza
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!
Amazing, when I saw your container of Outstanding lettuce I thought they were 2 different varieties, any idea why red lettuces don’t color up as well in the greenhouse? Should pose this question to the horticulturist at Locust Grove.
I think it is lack of light. The light levels in the greenhouse are lower, plus the UV radiation is reduced. I believe it is a common problem with greenhouse growers.
Makes sense, thanks.
Your lettuces are still looking really good. Do deer come that close to your house to eat your vegetables? It tickles me to see vegetables growing in window flower boxes.
The deer have eaten the flowers off hydrangeas growing right next to the house! And they eat the greens right out of the planters if I forget to put them in the greenhouse.
I like the sturdier lettuces for salads also, but the babies will more than do while I’m waiting for the main crop lettuce to head up. I’m interested to hear how the Enrico Rao arugula is.
I think the Enrico Rao has a stronger flavor than Speedy and Apollo, and when raw it was bitter to my taste buds. It might taste better in cooler weather, but then so will the others. So I’m not likely to plant it again.
Good to know. Speedy and Apollo are both so good that I don’t feel the need to try Enrico Rao.
Beautiful pizza, Dave. I’ve been slowly moving into the thin crust camp over the years, although I do like a thick crust if done right.
What, no asparagus pics?! The lettuces are really pretty. I love the look of green lettuce with just a hint of red in it. The pizza looks really yummy and healthy too!
Hah – I thought I could skip the asparagus pics and no one would notice!
Your pizza looks amazing! Hubs and I recently started eating more healthy, working out, and cutting down on the bread unless whole wheat. Do you have a recipe for whole wheat pizza dough?
Here’s the basic recipe I used for whole wheat pizza dough, which I cut in half. It makes two 12″ thin crust pizzas that way:
http://www.food.com/recipe/100-whole-wheat-pizza-dough-and-pizza-tips-436030
Ooh wow, your pizzas always look delicious. Interesting about the lettuce / greenhouse colouring issue too.
I’m more than a little envious of your lettuce. We have such a problem with slugs and snails that I can’t manage to grown them.
I planted some cuttings of collard greens last weekend, and they had completely de-materialized in a week. Gone without a trace!
I have been harvesting mizuma also and enjoying it and pea sprouts in my salads. My lettuce did not germinate at first but now it is up and growing but will be awhile. We moved so I just have a small courtyard but am planting all I can. Once a gardener always a gardener I guess! You have a nice variety of salad greens and I love the looks of the red lettuce. Nancy
Yum, yum on the pizza and your salad greens look amazing – I’m so jealous! It will probably be another week or two before we get any fresh lettuce, which means at least one more trip to the salad section of the grocery store. This past week I did harvest a few more stalks of asparagus but it’s just been too busy to write about them (I know you know what I’m talking about!).
That pizza looks great! Did you put the arugula on your pizza before putting it in the oven? I usually add it afterwards, as a salad with some olive oil & vinegar, with some prosciutto!
No harvests from since I was living the good life in Lisbon the past week! I’ll be back on Monday!
Yes I put it on before it went in the oven. I’ve done it both ways, and your treatment with the oil & vinegar plus prosciutto sounds yummy!