Welcome to Harvest Monday, where we celebrate all things harvest related. The harvests here have been small in number, but much appreciated. I pulled a tubtrug of turnip greens last week to cook as a side for our Thanksgiving dinner. This batch is a mix of Topper and Nozawana, both of which are grown for their greens only since they don’t make edible roots. Topper seems to be the most hardy of the turnip greens I am growing this year, and I will factor that into my plantings for next year. Nozawana shows some leaf damage from our recent ice and snow, but Topper is truly unfazed. I could cover them to protect from the weather, but in my experience the aphids usually take over under cover so I leave them bare. I’d rather have a few wonky looking leaves and not have to deal with cleaning aphids off them.
turnip greens
I made a cutting of Lacinato and Dazzling Blue kale to go in a soup I cooked up Saturday night. Dazzling Blue is a lovely lacinato type kale that is a bit more hardy than the usual lacinato types. Like Topper, the Dazzling Blue leaves came through the recent weather in great shape, while some of the Lacinato leaves had signs of frostbite and burning on them.
Dazzling Blue and Lacinato kale
I also got a small cutting from the Artwork and Apollo broccolini plants. It was just enough to get a taste, and I roasted them in a cast iron skillet. The fall planted broccoli has not done well this year, and Artwork and Apollo are the only ones that gave us anything at all.
Artwork and Apollo brocolli
In other news, I roasted one of the Turkeyneck squash last week. After roasting I turned about half of it into puree. My wife used the puree to made a pumpkin pie for a community dinner we went to where we ate turkey and lots of tasty side dishes. Then for our Thanksgiving dinner she baked another pie and we ate it all ourselves. This squash weighed right at eight pounds, and I saved some of the neck portion for roasting and some of it to go in the soup with the kale. The soup had a base of chicken broth, plus white beans, cubed squash and chopped lacinato kale along with aromatic vegetables. The squash was sweet and mild tasting and worked well in both the sweet and savory dishes. The roasted squash was also quite tasty. I cut the neck into 1 inch thick slabs and roasted in a cast iron skillet until tender and browned.
baked Turkeyneck squash
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!
I imagine your greens are all very tasty after being sweetened up by your nippy weather. You made great use of that big squash. Two pies, roasted squash, and soup, it all sounds so good. It’s been a little strange to not have any squash from the garden this year. I’m not making a lot of the dishes that I usually do when the squash is easily to hand.
The big size of the Turkey is the only drawback I see. But the long neck lets you cut off what is needed and save the rest for later.
The Dazzling Blue kale is gorgeous. I love any vegetable that has some magenta. Hardiness to the cold is not a factor for me, but any other virtues? Your seed source? Thanks.
I got the seed for Dazzling Blue from Wild Garden Seed. In my garden it’s a tad taller and more productive than most lacinato types. In the kitchen it’s about the same.
Thanks!
Happy Thanksgiving, Dave! I am sure all your squash dishes went down a treat, they sound luscious, and your kale look terrific
No harvesting this week, we haven’t even been to the allotmen6. Too drizzly and miserable and we had plenty veg stored ar home. I use lots of squash in curries last week it was Thai butternut and pineapple curry. The first time I’ve made Thai curry although we have eaten it when out,
I love the turnip greens! I should give one of those varieties a go next year – although I do love the bulbs, the greens are used more frequently in the kitchen and are a favourite freezer staple in the winter…I always seem to run out much too soon.
I plant both kinds, the greens only and the ones that make bulbs. The greens did better than the bulbs this year though.