Welcome to Harvest Monday, where we celebrate all things harvest related.There are a few new players in the harvest basket this week, plus some familiar faces. I cut a big batch of overwintered parsley from the greenhouse, with a few sprigs of mint added. They both went into a tabouli salad I made last week that had lots of parsley and a little bit of bulgur. Most of the parsley is a variety called Splendid, a flat leaf type from Wild Garden Seed with a great flavor. I saved out a little of the parsley to make a yogurt based Green Goddess style dressing that went on a bowl dish I cooked up one night for dinner.
parsley and mint for tabouli
I also cut the rest of a batch of mizuna microgreens. The microgreens have been so useful, especially at a time when the other harvests are quite small. Some of these went on a sprout sandwich I made for lunch one day.
mizuna microgreens
I continue to cut lettuce from the greenhouse plantings. This batch is Salanova Red Butter, which has a great buttery texture to the leaves and decent reddish color for a greenhouse-grown lettuce.
Salanova Red Butter lettuce
I cut a bit more kale rapini and side shoots from the purple Sprouting broccoli. We are loving both of these seasonal treats. There’s not a whole lot of them at one time, but just enough to use in some sort of dish or as a side veggie.
kale rapini and purple sprouting broccoli
This time I put them together and roasted them briefly to go in the above mentioned bowl creation. First I browned cubes of tofu in olive oil until crispy, then removed from the skillet and drained. I added cauliflower ‘rice’ to the leftover oil and cooked for a few minutes, long enough to soften it a bit but not enough to make it soggy. Meanwhile, I roasted carrots in the oven and added the rapini and PSB to the pan at the last. I topped it with yogurt sauce blended up with avocado, chives and parsley, thinned with lemon juice, olive oil and vinegar. We often bake our tofu before adding to a dish, but the pan-frying is another treatment I really like as well.
Crispy Tofu Bowl
And I cut more curly kale from a cold frame bed. I am ready to clean the bed out and plant something else, so I pulled two plants for this harvest. There’s about seven or eight plants left in there, so we will be eating on it for a while longer.
Starbor kale
In the future harvests department, my wife found the first asparagus coming up in the beds. She has been working hard to get the area weeded and mulched and has it looking great, just in time for the harvests to start. Last year we cut 24 pounds of spears in an 8 week period. It is a good thing we love our asparagus!
first asparagus of 2019
Finally, in non harvest news, mama bluebird has been busy, and she wound up with 6 eggs in the nest. I have seen her in there on the eggs, so I will not sneak any more looks until they have hatched. If all of them hatch, it will be a nest box full of baby bluebirds for sure.
bluebird eggs
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 get lovely blue chicken eggs like that from one of my ‘customers’ who barters eggs for veg
We too are picking purple sprouting broccoli but generally we are heading for the hungry gap. I DO hope that your bluebirds are successful
You have a nice variety of things coming from the garden for so early in the season. That first asparagus of the season is exciting. I bought the first local asparagus at the farmer’s market recently, it was such a treat. Oh, those bluebird eggs are so beautiful.
Green goddess–I hadn’t thought of that for some time but could be a nice use of my parsley. Thanks for the reminder. The tofu bowl looks yummy. I too discovered cauliflower rice this year. Such a nice use for my tender stems. Baking tofu is a good idea to try. And thanks for sharing the joy of the first asparagus and the bluebird eggs–true signs of spring.
We love asparagus too, but I don’t think I’ve ever gotten 24 pounds (672g) worth of asparagus ever! How old are your crowns? What’s the secret? I love the luminosity of those bluebird eggs. Fingers crossed.
The asparagus plants are 10 years old. I set out around 50 or 60 crowns initially. They are all hybrid varieties, Jersey Giant, Jersey Knight and Jersey Supreme. in 2015 we got 35 pounds of spears, our best year ever.
Hurray for the first asparagus! This past weekend, I finally got around to removing the straw from the asparagus beds but the job was only partly done as half of the straw was still frozen on the bed. It will be a while yet until we taste that first spear.
I always pick up good ideas from you Dave!!! I have lots of parsley too and had forgotten about tabbouleh as an option, and the tofu bowl has just been drooled over by my 9 yr old granddaughter, who has said that would be a perfect meal for her (and me too!!!) S a big Thank You !
You are welcome Kathy! I like to put some of these recipe ideas in my blog so I can remember them later on.