Harvest Monday December 11, 2017

Welcome to Harvest Monday, where we celebrate all things harvest related. With a frigid weather forecast last week I decided to harvest as much as I could from the less hardy brassicas. I made a big cutting from the Tronchuda Beira plants, some of which went in a pot of soup last night. The other day I got some great information about this and other Portuguese greens from reader Marisa. I now have some new ideas to try with the remaining leaves that didn’t go in soup. I don’t know if the plants will survive the recent cold snap or not, with temperatures dipping down to 14°F one night, but I plan on growing it again next year. I also want to try the Couve Galega that Marisa mentioned. I believe it is similar to (if not the same as) this one from Seeds From Italy which I actually grew here in 2016.

I pulled the kohlrabi from the main garden beds, a mix of Kolibri and Kossak. The Kossak wasn’t full sized by any means, but certainly big enough to eat. There was a bit over five pounds in all, enough to start a jar of fermented pickles and enjoy a bit of oven roasted kohlrabi slices.

I also cut two more heads of cabbage, one each of Point One and Vantage Point. Like the Kossak they were not full sized but big enough to eat. It’s been a good year overall for cabbage, and I’ve harvested almost 40 pounds this year. I have several plants of savoy types out in the garden that will hopefully size up eventually, giving us a bit more for fresh eating.

And I found a bit more broccoli to cut, some smallish Green Magic heads. It was not the prettiest broccoli I’ve grown for sure, but edible. The spring planted broccoli seemed to do better than the fall plants this year, which is unusual for our area. I was late getting all the brassicas planted this fall and the yields suffered as a result. That is one bonus of keeping a garden log, because I can make a note to plant earlier next year.

The last bit of brassicas to come in from the main garden was a purplish-pink napa cabbage called Scarlette. It wasn’t full sized either, but there’s enough there to go in a stir fry. The tips of the leaves were already burned from frosts, so I felt sure it wouldn’t survive the cold. I’m guessing the bright color goes away after cooking.

I also pulled more radishes from the kitchen garden area. From left to right it’s Alpine, April Cross and Bora King in the below photo. I plan to turn some into kraut and kimchi plus use them in stir fries. They also make a crunchy fermented ‘pickle’, similar to kohlrabi pickles. There’s 4 pounds of them in this batch. I used some of the Sweet Baby daikons from last week and roasted them in the oven. I was amazed they mostly kept their color, and the flavor was mild. I may try roasting the Bora King that way too, and I’ll have to get a pic of how they look after cooking. This week’s harvests brought our yearly total to 1215 pounds, not a record for us but a good deal more than last year’s 804 pounds. We’ve certainly had plenty of homegrown goodness to eat and preserve this year and to share.

Something I did get a pic of was a frittata I cooked up for lunch yesterday. My wife and I joke that we never make the same frittata twice, since it’s a great way to use up whatever veggies we have on hand. This one had frozen tromboncino slices on the bottom and a mix of shallots and mizuna in with the eggs. I added dehydrated sliced paste tomatoes (without rehydrating) on top of the egg mix and topped with sliced cheese before popping in the oven to finish cooking. I added homemade smoked paprika after cooking for a bit of added flavor.

We’ve had some pretty sunsets lately so I’ll close with one image I captured of the setting sun lighting up the wispy clouds. It made for a pretty view out our back door.

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!