Harvest Monday June 3, 2019

It’s time for Harvest Monday, where we celebrate all things harvest related. I managed to get a lot done in the garden last week, and the summer veggies are almost all planted. It’s a good thing too, because Saturday I broke a glass coffee cup in the kitchen and cut my right hand bad enough it needed two stitches. Thankfully it wasn’t any worse than that, but it will be a few days before I want to use a digging fork or a shovel again. Meanwhile the spring veggies continue to keep us well fed, with a few new faces in the harvests. I made another cutting of the spigariello, which I sauteed briefly in olive oil along with chopped garlic and a few hot pepper flakes. I enjoyed it prepared that way, and my next experiment will be to treat it like kale chips and roast the leaves on a baking sheet.

I pulled the first of the kohlrabi last week, this variety was Terek. I enjoyed one of them raw for lunch one day, served with a simple yogurt dip. These three were a nice size, and averaged around 8 ounces each. The kohlrabi all has slug damage, but it’s only on the skins and once peeled they are crunchy and sweet inside. The rainy weather has made the slugs more difficult than usual to deal with.

I also cut the first baby pac choi. Mei Qinq is my go-to variety for a small green stem pac choi that is bolt resistant and cold hardy. I cut two of them last week for a side dish I made for dinner. I have several more growing in a container and sizing up.

I cut these two in half lengthwise, sauteed for 5 minutes in a skillet, then served them up with a warm miso-ginger sauce. The sauce also had mirin, garlic, rice vinegar, sesame oil, sriracha sauce and lime juice. I loosely followed this recipe, adding a bit of soy sauce to the dressing and tweaking the other ingredients to taste. It was so tasty I wish I had fixed another pac choi! My wife was out of town and didn’t get to try it, so it will be back on the menu soon so she can get a taste.

And I got the first garlic scapes of the season on Saturday, before my visit to the ER. These came from the early maturing Turban types like Red Janice, Uzbek and Xian. We typically use these in stir fries, pesto and Daphne’s Garlic Scape Salad Dressing. They are a real seasonal treat for sure.

I cut the main heads from two Aspabroc broccoli plants last week, and a side shoot from Apollo. I’m trialing several baby broccoli types this spring, and it looks like they are coming on in succession. In addition to my old standbys Apollo and Artwork, I planted Aspabroc, Happy Rich, Atlantis and Burgundy. Artwork will be the next to be cut, with Burgundy and Atlantis just showing signs of budding. Burgundy is listed as a sprouting broccoli that can be grown both spring and fall, so it would be an interesting addition to the lineup if it does well here.

And I cut more butter lettuce from the greenhouse, including the last of the Mirlo which has done so well for me this spring. The season for lettuce is about over here, as the weather is heating up.

We had a couple of interesting visitors in the garden last week, one moving a bit slower than the other. A box turtle showed up outside the garden gate, and thankfully I saw it before stepping on it or tripping over it. It was in no hurry to leave, so it was easy to go get my camera and get it to pose. I had to stand still fora few minutes before it reluctantly stuck its head out just a bit.

And a few days later, I looked out in the back yard around 10AM and there was a skunk nosing around the grass, looking for food. It was raining at the time, but the skunk didn’t seem to mind. I don’t know if it was looking for worms, or bugs, or what, but it ignored me while I snapped a pic of it. It was moving pretty quickly, and wasn’t in the mood to stand still like the turtle.

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!