It’s time for Harvest Monday, where we celebrate all things harvest related. I began cutting some of the spring planted greens last week, and they gave us a bit of welcome variety in our meals. First up was the Italian heirloom Spigariello Riccia and its close relative Spigariello Liscia. Both have bluish green leaves, with Riccia’s being twisted and finely dissected while Liscia’s are smooth and rounded. They are also called leaf broccoli, and treated much like broccoli raab. They lack the bitterness of the raab however, and I believe the leaves are a bit more sturdy. I gave them a quick blanch in boiling water, then sauteed briefly in olive oil with some chopped garlic added to flavor.
Spigariello Riccia
Spigariello Liscia
I also made the first cutting of Senposai. This green is a hybrid cross between cabbage and komatsuna, and has big sturdy leaves that look a bit like collards to me. The taste is more like cabbage, with young leaves good for eating raw and the older leaves best cooked. I haven’t tried it yet but I am guessing the leaves would also be good fermented into a senposai kraut. If I have extras later on I may give that a go.
Senposai
leaves of senposai
I cut more mizuna last week, a mix of Mix America, Red Kingdom, Mizspoona Salad Select and Central Red. I had this growing in a container, and I have more growing in ground in one of the cold frame beds that is also ready for cutting.
mizuna
I used some of the younger mizuna raw in a salad and the rest joined up with asparagus to go in a frittata. The frittata also featured some tomatoes I dehydrated last year, and my homegrown sweet paprika. Served with some homemade crusty sourdough bread, it made for a light lunch one day.
frittata
And speaking of asparagus, we’ve harvested 17 pounds of it so far now. I imagine we will continue cutting it for another couple of weeks before we let it grow on into ferns for the rest of the year. I used some of the thinner spears to ferment last week. I made a 3.5% brine, added a few smashed cloves of garlic for seasoning, then packed the spears in a quart jar and covered with the brine. It’s a quick ferment, and I’ll let it go for four or five days before I refrigerate and start eating it. My wife has not acquired a taste for it yet so I will have to eat it all myself!
fermented asparagus
I cut another head of the butterhead lettuce Mirlo. Since the weather has heated up the greenhouse is getting too hot to make decent lettuce, so I will be cutting what’s left in there ASAP. I cut more lettuce last week but this was the only one I got to pose for the camera.
Mirlo lettuce
And for the smallest harvest, I cut the main heads of Happy Rich and Apollo broccoli. Both of these are broccolini types, and only make a small central head that is best cut early to encourage the numerous side shoots that will follow.
Happy Rich and Apollo broccoli
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!
Hi Dave, you harvests are picking up nicely. I had to pull out my early broccolini to make space for my next successions, so we are awash with the stuff. It’s one of my favourites for summer, I’ve decided not to bother with purple sprouting broccoli until later in the year.
You’re still managing to harvest quite a lot. Some of the leaves are new to me, I wonder whether they are available in the UK
Impressed with your harvest, esp. 17 pounds of asparagus! I don’t have much in the way of harvesting at home, other than hardy herbs, last of the chard and oh some early strawberries
Nice early harvests. The Spigariello Liscia looks interesting. And 17 pounds of asparagus! I can only be envious. The Mirlo butterhead is very nice. I should try it.
Spigariello broccoli is wonderful. I’ve actually got a plant started that I’ve not managed to get into the garden yet.
So envious of all those greens! Things are progressing rather slowly here as it’s been very cool with only a few days of heat scattered here and there.
Your greens looks incredible. If you’re getting all the rain that’s been going around, your plantings must be loving it. I let all my winter greens go to seed and there are little seedlings everywhere. Who knows if they’ll actually do anything, but it’s fun to see them popping up rather than weeds.