Harvest Monday February 17, 2020

It’s time for Harvest Monday, where we celebrate all things harvest related. I only had one small harvest last week, even though there’s lots of greens ready in the greenhouse. I cut a small head of napa cabbage that was still growing in the main garden. It never formed a big head, but the leaves were green and edible and I thought it would make a nice addition to a chicken and mushroom soup I made for dinner one night. I did use food from stores though, including sweet potatoes and green beans.

Soloist cabbage

Plus I made an enchilada dish last week from collard green leaves I fermented a few months ago. I fermented these leaves whole in a big crock, then folded them up and put in a half gallon jar in the refrigerator for storage. I used them as wrappers instead of corn tortillas, filling them with refried pinto beans then covering with sauce and baking. I made four each of the enchiladas using collard leaves and corn tortillas so I could compare. I make the enchilada sauce from frozen tomato sauce and homemade chile powder with a medium heat level. The fermented collards make a tasty wrap and I want to experiment with more savory fillings in the future. You could also use fresh collard leaves, but I don’t have any of those at the moment. Topped with melted chihuahua cheese the enchiladas are one of my favorite things to eat.

wrapping beans in collard leaf

collard enchiladas

enchiladas ready for baking

bean enchiladas

Seed Starting Update:

I kicked off seed starting season last week by sowing seeds for parsley, petunia and arugula. I will sow more petunia seeds once my seed order arrives. The petunias go on a heating mat, and all are under my light setup in our basement. Next up will be more greens like arugula and lettuce plus cilantro, followed by the spring brassicas. The Adagio arugula I sowed is already up. Those seeds were from 2016, but I still got good germination. I hope to save seed from that one since they don’t seem to be available here any more and I like the taste of it. While I’m not a big fan of using plastic in general, I do use plastic pots and I find they last for many years plus they are easy to clean and sterilize. I tried making paper pots but that did not work out well for me.

pots of petunia seeds

I also bought a few stalks of lemongrass at a local Asian market and stuck them in water to root. They’re making roots already after a little over a week. I’ll pot them up in soil and plant outside when the weather warms and danger of frost has passed. I sometimes dig the clump up in fall and bring indoors, but I neglected to do that last year. I am missing having the fresh leaves for tea and cooking.

lemongrass rooting

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!