Welcome to Harvest Monday, where we celebrate all things harvest related. It was a light harvest week for me as we mostly ate on fresh veggies I had harvested already. I used one of the small cabbages for a side dish, thinly slicing the cabbage then sautéing in olive oil until just crisp tender. I kept it simple and seasoned with salt and pepper plus a bit of minced garlic.
sautéing cabbage
We’ve also been eating a lot from veggies in stores. I cooked another of the Thelma Sanders acorn squashes. This is an heirloom squash with a cream colored skin, and it was my first year growing it.
inside of Thelma Sanders squash
My favorite treatment so far is to cut it into slices and roast it in the oven. I used a cast iron skillet this time which browned the flesh up nicely. Like a delicata squash the skin is edible on this one, and I think it has a mild nutty flavor that the roasting helps bring out.
roasted Thelma Sanders squash
And I stir-fried some of the Scarlette cabbage I harvested last week, along with a bit of kohlrabi and some King Oyster mushrooms. The cabbage lost its purplish-pink color but had a great flavor. It would make a colorful addition to salads or spring rolls, and I plan to grow it again next year.
leaves of Scarlette cabbage
My only harvest of the weeks came in the form of sunflower shoots. This is one of my favorite sprouting seeds to use on salads, and that’s where this batch wound up. I grow them indoors under lights and they are usually ready in about a week from start to finish. I’ll start another round today.
sunflower shoots
We have a new kitchen appliance that I have been cooking with lately. When I first heard about the popular Instant Pots I thought “but we already have a slow cooker, a rice cooker and a stovetop pressure cooker.” I use the pressure cooker quite a bit, the rice cooker occasionally and the slow cooker very rarely. But we are doing a kitchen makeover project early next year that will leave us without a stove or oven for at least a month, and that had us scrambling to think how we would cook during that time period. The Instant Pot should help, since we can set it up outside the kitchen and cook quite a few things that way. I’ve already made bean soup and chalupas using the pressure cooker setting, and I have veggie soup and chili con carne on the menu for this week. The Instant Pot can’t bake bread though, so I’ve been experimenting with the microwave’s convection feature to do that. The contractor is coming today to remove a couple of cabinets, so let the fun and games begin!
Instant Pot
A couple of weeks ago I shared a pic of one of the larger woodpeckers that visit our suet feeders, a Red-bellied Woodpecker. Today I’ll share an image of the smallest woodpecker to visit here, indeed the smallest woodpecker in North America. It’s the Downy Woodpecker, and this one is a male with the identifying red patch on the back of his head. We see quite a few of these small woodpeckers that are about the size of a House Sparrow or Purple Finch.
male Downy woodpecker
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!
I love the look of the Scarlette cabbage, it would be quite pretty in a salad. The cast iron skillet it my favorite way to roast squash now but I haven’t tried it sliced like that, I’ll have to try that the next time I cut open a squash.
I’ve heard a lot about the Instant Pots but resisted so I’ll be interested to hear what you think of it.
Good luck with your kitchen project. I went through that earlier this year and fortunately I was able to use my BBQ and a camp stove outside and my toaster oven and microwave inside so we still managed to eat mostly home cooked meals. I had a wonderful contractor and I hope yours is as great too, it makes the process so much more enjoyable.
I don’t recall if you posted about growing sprouts before but sunflower sprouts are a favorite around here and I need to learn how to grow my own.
Love the woodpecker shot.
We have worked with the contractor before on several projects, and they have been great. I did a post about growing the sunflower and other shoots here:
https://www.ourhappyacres.com/2016/11/experiments-with-growing-shoots-and-micro-greens/
I think that cabbage is under-appreciated. For me it always cooks up deliciously, tender, crisp and sweet. Plus it keeps well in the fridge. That red one is so colorful just right for a holiday a bouquet. Yes, I, too, am interested in how well the Instapot works for you.
I couldn’t agree more on the cabbage. I like it prepared any way except cooked to death! I’ll do a review on the Instant Pot once I use it a bit more.
Nothing harvested by us last week as we are using up ready harvested vegetables. We were quite a while without an oven and used our micro/convention oven for most things and also the slow cooker. Another little bird that isn’t one of our inhabitants.
I currently live and cook without an oven, so I know the feels. It’s been a serious challenge to figure out ways to keep from having to fry everything x_x
I’m always a sucker for squash pics… *drool*…. and was actually considering growing Thelma Sanders this year. Funnily enough, I ran into someone on a forum who’s been growing and crossing Thelma Sanders with a naked seeded variety for a few years. Dual benefit of great flesh and naked seeds. Cool idea. Not sure how stabilized it is — he says he hasn’t been able to grow it the last few seasons due to weather and land issues. Tempted to offer to help xD
Out of curiosity, how does Thelma Sanders compares to Pepitas in terms of taste?
I think Thelma Sanders is much better tasting than Pepitas, which didn’t impress me – other than the seeds.
You are making good use of your stores – I always feel quite fortunate when going into the cold cellar, freezer or basement and grabbing something that I grew. I’ve never heard of an Instant Pot – had to look that one up. The one appliance I do not have is a pressure cooker and, so far, I haven’t felt the need to get one (still have those memories of my mom’s olive green cooker on the stove – what a behemoth!). Best of luck with the kitchen reno – and I mean that….anyone doing a kitchen reno needs all the luck they can get! 😉
Thanks Margaret – we will be glad when to project is done for sure. It has been a good excuse to get rid of non-essential items and do a bit of reorganizing too. Do you know, the Instant Pot was invented in Canada!
I’ve seen a few articles online about cooking bread in a covered Dutch oven on the grill. Never tried it myself but it may work in your circumstances of the moment. Good luck!
Grilled naan bread is fantastic. It would be a good substitute for loaf bread until the oven is back in working order.
I love your photos, especially this week, they really show off the veggies beautifully.
I use a slow cooker sometimes (and should really use it more). The instant pot sounds like it will be handy. Good luck with the kitchen work.
The woodpecker is lovely, it’s shape reminds me of a treecreeper.
(I’ve been tied up with chistmassy things and didn’t write a post this week, though I did have a few harvests which I’ll include next time.)