Welcome to Harvest Monday, where we celebrate all things harvest related. It’s officially asparagus season here, and that is welcome news! The paparazzi were out early one morning to witness the first harvest of the season. It wasn’t a lot, but it was sure tasty!
first asparagus harvest of 2019
asparagus
More spears are slowly coming up, and once the weather warms up a tad more they should really get going. Lynda got the asparagus beds weeded and mulched before the first spears came up, and she has it looking great. She used cardboard around the edges, shredded paper down the rows, sheets of newspaper for the walkways between the beds, and then covered it all with straw. I can only wish I had the main garden looking like that!
asparagus beds after mulching
I’m still cutting the winter lettuce in the greenhouse. There’s not much left, and hopefully the ones I planted a few weeks ago will be ready to join the party soon.
Mirlo and Pele lettuce
The kale rapini has been the surprise star here lately. We’ve been roasting it for about 10 minutes in a 400°F oven. I also like to give it a quick saute with a bit of olive oil. The one in the below photo is from Western Front kale, and the flower shoots come with a few leaves attached. They crisp up like kale chips when roasted, so it’s almost like two veggies in one – kale chips and rapini!
kale rapini
I pulled the rest of the curly kale I had growing in a cold frame bed to make room for a new planting of greens. There’s two pounds of leaves in the tubtrug, and it was enough to share with a couple of friends as well as have plenty for ourselves.
curly kale
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!
We are all massive fans of the kale rapini too! Our’s is coming to an end now, so it’s a race against time to get the spring planted kales into production!
We’ve never grown asparagus although we have a single plant that we grow for the fern. It was planted years ago from a berry. Your asparagus bed looks very cosy,
That little asparagus stalk looks like it’s quivering in anticipation of what’s to come… Lynda did an incredible job getting the asparagus bed whipped into shape.
Not much coming out of my garden at the moment which is mostly because I’m just not getting into the garden as much as I should.
Oooooh what a great photo… never has an asparagus spear looked so wanted! I have only just planted mine, so I am some way behind you, some years behind you I mean really. Worth the wait though
That is a large asparagus bed! When I was growing it I only had a 3′ x 5′ patch. We did get quite a lot of asparagus though. Later the apricot tree roots invaded and the branches shaded so we had to give it up. Enjoy the harvest that is coming. What a great job Lynda did–and probably enhances the vigor of the crop.
Hurray for asparagus! My beds were not in the best shape, weed-wise, last year. I didn’t get around to mulching and it was such a pain to get under all those ferns to weed. This season, I’m armed with a plan to hopefully get a handle on the weedy situation in those beds 🙂