Welcome to Harvest Monday, where we celebrate all things harvest related. I made the first cutting of fall kale last week. I got enough of the Wild Garden Mix kale for us to enjoy as a side dish. The kale was sweet and tender, and it cooked in no time. This cross of Siberian and Red Russian kales is one of my favorites. It also served as the gene pool for the Wild Garden Seeds introductions White Russian and Red Ursa kale, both of which I am also growing.
Wild Garden Mix kale
I also pulled the first of the fall kohlrabi. The ones I planted in the cold frame bed did poorly, no doubt hindered by our extremely hot fall weather. These are Kolibri and Kordial, two I have grown in the past with better results. They are edible though, if on the small side. Instead of using my hand for scale, Ally Cat stepped in the photo to help. The 10 kohlrabis weighed 2.5 pounds, while Ally has grown to just over 7 pounds now.
Kohlrabi and Ally
The Kossak kohlrabi I planted in the main garden did much better. I pulled four of those, which weighed about a pound each. I turned a couple of them into fermented kohlrabi pickles and kohlrabi kimchi, and saved the other two for roasting later on.
Kossak kohlrabi
I also pulled a few more radishes for kimchi. It’s the white fleshed Alpine, purple fleshed KN Bravo, and the green fleshed Green Luobo. It’s my first time growing KN Bravo, and I have to say I think the purple Sweet Baby radishes have a better flavor. For some reason I forgot to order Sweet Baby, and I have added it to my seed ordering list for 2019. KN Bravo did have a nice color though, and should make tasty kimchi. Alpine is a dependable performer for me here, though it doesn’t get quite as big as the Korean daikons I find in the markets. This one weighed 10 ounces.
Alpine, KN Bravo and Green Luobo radishes
It’s also my first time growing the Green Luobo. It’s a Green Meat type, and I cut these into cubes to make a jar of radish kimchi. The taste was pretty spicy raw, but the fermenting should mellow them up considerably. I’m anxious to see if the green color holds after fermenting.
Green Luobo radishes
My other big harvest was the remaining two heads of napa cabbage. One is Soloist and the other is Minuet, and they each weighed right at two pounds. I used one to start another jar of kimchi, and we will use the other one in cooking.
Soloist and Minuet cabbage
I got a small harvest of hot peppers from plants that were growing in containers on the deck outside the kitchen door. They were sheltered somewhat, and even though the plants were killed by frost the peppers themselves were still usable. It’s a mix of Cayennetta and Czech Black here, both medium hot peppers. I will use them for cooking and to add a little kick to kombucha.
Cayennetta and Czech Black peppers
In the future harvests department, I received my first 2019 seed catalog last week. I guess that means it is time to start planning next years garden! I’ll confess, with the rise of online ordering I don’t get as excited about the paper catalogs as I used to. Actually, I try and opt out of as many as I can with the exception of a few like Johnny’s Selected Seeds which has a wealth of growing information I like to have handy. But some of them persist and put me back on their mailing lists anyway. Registering with the Data & Marketing Association’s Do Not Mail List has helped cut down on the amount of unwanted catalogs I receive, and no doubt saved a few trees in the process as well.
first 2019 seed catalog
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 of any size or shape you want to share, add your name and blog link to Mr Linky below. And please be sure and check out what everyone is harvesting, or wishing they were harvesting!
We didn’t do any harvesting last week. We are just gathering as we need now and had vegetables stored that we used. It’s time for us to consider next year’s seed list too.
My husband would love those peppers!
Cute cat!
Have a wonderful day!
I have not yet received a seed catalog in the mail for 2019 but I’ve been thinking about next year’s garden for months already. I’ve decided that it’s time to scale back. I’ve already started to pare down the grow list. It’s kind of liberating!
Ally Cat is so beautiful, she looks so sweet.
Love the cat bombing the photograph. The black peppers are pretty amazing
The peppers start off black, then turn red when they ripen.
Pretty amazing harvest for Indiana in mid-November! Takes a lot of forethought and hard work. Love the kitty shot.
Dave or any other readers, anyone have problems with moles? They are newly arrived in my raised beds and wrecking havoc. I have 1/2 inch hardware cloth at the bottom of each bed carefully sealing the bed but something changed. Looking for a solution.
Thankfully the moles are not really a problem here in the garden. They tunnel in the yard, but nowhere else. We get voles occasionally which tend to eat on root crops.
Regarding your comment on my blog post, I’ve found this netting very useful. Birds don’t get caught in it and it’s easier to fold and reuse. I use it to cover broccoli and other crops when vulnerable to cabbage moths also. Available on Amazon in various sizes: 10Ft x15Ft Mosquito Bug Insect Bird Net Barrier Hunting Blind Garden Netting For Protect Your Plant Fruits Flower
Dave, your kohlrabi looks so good! Mine hasn’t really come up to size and now we are in a deep freeze so I am anxious to see how they fared. I have most of them covered with some agribon, as we are getting 15 degrees tonight and tomorrow night with not much warm up either day. We had 3 inches of snow here today and wind. Winter has come in mighty early for mid Missouri! I have moles in my garden, too, but I don’t think they do any real damage. As you said, it is voles that eat their way through the garden. I have found no cure for the vole blues. . . except that it does seem that eventually they move on.
Yikes, that does sound like winter! So far we’ve just had cold temps and a few snow flurries. My kohlrabi survived 20F uncovered but I think I am pulling more of it this week just to be safe.
Wow, your Kossak kohlrabi are massive and it looks like your radishes are swelling nicely as well. How do your kales hold up through the winter? February usually kills our above ground, and then the roots leaf out once it gets a bit warmer.
We’re getting a string of hard freezes forecasted, so I went through the garden today and picked as much as possible that was of harvestable size.
Some of my kales are more hardy than others. The dwarf types seem to last longer than the tall ones. The ones in the greenhouse always make it through the winter.
I only grew kohlrabi in the late spring/early summer this year and it was a disappointment as well. I miss Kossak – it was one of my favourites but I didn’t get around to sowing that variety this year. The napa looks awesome! I’m still on the fence as to whether or not it will end up on the grow list next year.
Green fleshed radishes are a new one to me! They look very interesting. Wanted to say a Big Thank You to you Dave, as I only tried Kohlrabi because yours look so good, and they are amazing!! Not convinced by fermented pickle yet but are finding lots of ways to eat them though