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!
Santee purple sprouting broccoli
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.
Santee side shoots
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.
leaf lettuce
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.
Starbor and Prizm
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.
2015 harvest of senposai
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.
purple daikon kimchi
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 grew those daikon radish in my first year, they are amazingly prolific, but much too spicy for me sadly!
Dave, I have for years….maybe decades…tried to get my own broccoli started and I’ve just never had any luck at all. Always hopeful, I plant it every year and get frustrated. Your purple sprouting is what I’ve been after for years. It looks lovely! Ah well….thankfully the nurseries around here have plants to buy. Love seeing your harvests!
Congratulations on a PSB harvest! Hopefully the harvest will pick up and spring approaches. Worth waiting for. Nothing like the early lettuce to awaken excitement for the spring garden.
We had a long awaited success with Purple Sprouting Broccoli this year after several years of PSB famine. Feels good doesn’t it?
Yes Sue, it does feel good!
Hooray for patience indeed. I am so envious of your PSB, Its been a few years since I’ve grown my own – not this year 🙁
I have however started a fortnightly vegbox and we had some PSB last week. Still prefer the taste of homegrown! Your Starbor and Prizm kale looks like the curly kale growing in my garden. Its def. hardy. which is the reason I am able to join in Harvest Monday this week.
The harvests are starting to pick up, I see! That PSB looks so fresh – the question I have, though, is….did you find that it tasted any different from regular broccoli?
Mind you, it was a small tasting for sure, but I thought the PSB had a sweeter taste than regular broccoli. Of course it is hard for me to be objective about something that has proven so difficult to grow. Maybe the sweetness was in my mind!
Wow! I’m so impressed with all the stuff you are harvesting right now! I’m in Central Indiana and am just starting to put things in the ground! I’ve looked through some history of your Harvest Mondays and some of the other people who have participated. It’s so fun seeing everything that everyone has grown!
the most impressive thing this week is the blue bird egg. I knew I liked you.
Thanks Ray! I’ve been hosting bluebirds for over 30 years now and it still makes me happy every time I hear or see one. I wasn’t expecting to find an egg, but it was right on schedule with when they laid the first one last year.