Welcome to Harvest Monday, where we celebrate all things harvest related. It’s pretty much the same kind of harvests here for me, not that I am complaining. I cut lettuce from the greenhouse salad boxes to go on a salad and tacos we ate last week. This is Salanova Green Butter, Pele and the dark red Cavendish. It got down to 10°F in the greenhouse one morning last week, but you’d never know it to look at this lettuce!
lettuce trio
I also made a cutting of kale from the greenhouse, this time from True Siberian. This is a great kale for overwintering, and it has survived every winter here for me since I began planting it back in 2014. It makes plenty of large tender leaves throughout the winter months, then makes tasty kale ‘rapini’ when it starts flowering in early spring.
True Siberian kale
Speaking of flowering, I am close to getting my first ever harvest of purple sprouting broccoli. I have two plants of Santee growing in a greenhouse bed, and they are almost ready to cut. I told my wife it will be more like an appetizer than a feast, since the total amount will be quite small. But I have struggled for years trying to get it to overwinter in our area without any luck at all, so this is some kind of achievement for me. Having said that, the space the plants are occupying could have been planted in kale or other winter greens which would have given us several times more edible food than the PSB will. I’m thinking this needs to be cut in a day or two, and anyone with experience in growing PSB can chime in with advice! The plants have quite a few side shoots developing already.
Santee broccoli
On a non-harvest note, I baked a batch of Dark Rye Potato Buns last week. I use my USA Pan Mini Round Cake Pan to bake them in, which makes for nice round buns every time.
Dark Rye Buns
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!
Your experiences with PSB seen to echo mine, No harvest to share this week I’m afraid but we have sown our first seeds.
Yes, my first heads of PSB are usually small but the side shoots are what I relish. That said, when I grow PSB only about half of the plants produce sprouts. It is a very large plant in my garden so I haven’t planted it recently. San Diego Seed Company offers PSB seeds which are grown locally. I’m hoping I could get sprouts with their seed. Maybe next fall.
I have always struggled with Purple Sprouting Broccoli too, but in my garden the problem is aphids, they seem to just adore PSB and I got tired of fighting them. Down to 10º in your green house! You’ve got some very hardy veggies in there.
Only the strong and hardy survive in the winter greenhouse! I do believe the cold has kept the aphids away – for now. I imagine when it heats up in there they will take off.
Hi Dave, I might be stating the obvious but PSB leaves are really lovely and can be harvested from autumn to spring : All the best – Steve
Thanks Steve – it wasn’t obvious to me at all! I tend to forget about leaves on some of the brassicas that’s aren’t grown primarily for the leaves.
Good that you have some PSB to cut now… I’d cut that head as soon as possible as lots of side shoots will then develop, pretty quickly. I can echo Steve’s comment that the leaves are delicious too! I know it takes almost a whole year of growing to get a crop, but here I have enough space to allow this time. I guess if you don’t it’s not a crop for you.
And the lettuces look yummy!
Thanks for the tip Kathy! I just now came back from cutting the head. I knew it wouldn’t be a big yielding crop, but if it’s tastes great then it really doesn’t matter. Who knows, I may even plant more in the greenhouse next year! I had four plants outside and none of them survived, so that’s surely off the table for next year.
Hurray on your PSB! I have never eaten it and chances are if you have issues growing it in your area there it will be virtually impossible to grow here without a heated greenhouse. I’ll be really interested to hear your opinion on how it tastes as, from the accolades it seems to get in the UK, I’m thinking it is quite different from regular broccoli.
Can I ask where you got the seed for the true Siberian kale?
I got it from Adaptive Seeds https://www.adaptiveseeds.com/product/vegetables/kale/kale-true-siberian-organic/