Harvest Monday March 18, 2019

Welcome to Harvest Monday, where we celebrate all things harvest related. Last week I finally made a cutting from the purple sprouting broccoli plants I have growing in the greenhouse.  Last winter I bought some from a local grower, who told me he was growing the Santee variety in his high tunnel. I figured if it worked for him, it would work for me, and set out a couple of plants in a greenhouse bed last fall. It’s a small harvest, but I roasted it and it was a tasty harvest indeed. I’ve tried to grow this veggie several times without any luck, so hooray for persistence!

The main head isn’t very big, much like that of broccolini or brokali, but there were a few side shoots I cut too. The plants have even more side shoots forming, so we should get another taste in the days to come.

I cut more leaf lettuce from the greenhouse last week too. This batch is frilly green Ezrilla and the red Cavendish. I’m amazed at how well the winter lettuce has held up this year.

I also cut more curly kale from the cold frame bed. This is a mix of Starbor and Prizm, two very hardy kale varieties that do quite well for me in the winter months. I’ve got seedlings of both about ready to set out for a spring crop once I can work the waterlogged soil.

Speaking of kale, I added an heirloom called Lark’s Tongue Kale to my growlist for this year. This kale was popular in German gardens in the 1800s, and is supposed to be quite winter hardy. Southern Exposure Seed Exchange (where I got my seed)  says that it can grow to five feet tall in areas with mild winters. I’m also looking forward to growing more heirloom collard greens this year, and I added Alabama Blue to my plans as well. SESE has a good selection of old time collard varieties, and that’s where I got my seed. In my garden the collard greens are fairly cold hardy, though not as hardy as kale. They are making a comeback here after I didn’t grow them for several years. Another green that’s coming back is Senposai, a hybrid cross between komatsuna and cabbage that I grew several years ago. Put all this in the future harvests department! We love our greens here and I’m always looking to add more to my harvests.

Sadly, I ate the last of the kimchi I made last fall using purple daikon radishes. It is so flavorful and crunchy, not to mention colorful. Imagine the tartness of sauerkraut coupled with the crunch of radish, along with a mild heat. I planted KN Bravo radish last fall, and it didn’t do as well as the Sweet Baby or Bora King purple daikons I have planted in the past so I only had enough to make a couple of pints. Those two varieties will be back this year, and hopefully I will be able to make more of this fermented veggie that I enjoy so much. I do still have several jars of the kimchi I made with other daikon radishes, including the colorful Green Luobo which made a pretty and tasty kimchi too. This jar of kimchi featured my homegrown Korean peppers, and their mildness let me use a lot of them without taking the heat level up too much. I plan on growing even more of those peppers this year since I have already run out of the ones I dried.

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!