It’s time once again for Harvest Monday, where we celebrate all things harvest related. This week I have a couple of firsts and a last. The last is the asparagus, which we have decided to stop harvesting and let grow out into ferns. It was not a great year for it, though we had plenty to eat if not enough to share with others. This last cutting brought the total for 2020 to 13 pounds, well down from last year’s 20 pounds and 2018’s 24 pounds. It’s possible the beds are getting old, and it’s also possible the cold spring weather impacted the yields. Time will tell of course!
last asparagus of 2020
One of the things I did with the asparagus last week was to use it in a Lemon Parmesan Chicken recipe. I cooked the chicken in one cast iron skillet while the asparagus cooked in another then combined them and drizzled on a lemon and parsley sauce. It looks like a lot of chicken but it was only 8 ounces shared among the two of us. Pounding the pieces thin allowed for more surface area, and for more of the crispy panko and parmesan cheese breading.
Lemon Parmesan Chicken on asparagus
One first was the broccolini. It’s just a taste, but the other plants are heading up too and there will be more in a few days. This one is Happy Rich, which is a broccoli and gailon cross. The side shoots are the real attraction with these types, along with the long edible stems.
Happy Rich broccoli
Another first is kohlrabi, and I pulled 3 of them last week. The first two were the white skinned Beas, and the light green Konan. We had these raw, served up with a little yogurt and garlic dip.
Beas and Konan kohlrabi
The next one was the purple-skinned Kolibri. I used it and the I’itoi onions with it for a quick and cool creamy coleslaw.
Kolibri kohlrabi and I’itoi onions
The greenhouse lettuce is still maturing and while the quality suffers a bit with the warm weather, it’s still quite edible and tasty. This Muir crispleaf/Batavian type has held up well in the heat, which I will remember for future plantings. The green Tango and the red Brendwood are two of my standbys for a frilly leaf lettuce.
Muir lettuce
Tango and Brentwood lettuce
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 growing kohlrabi this year – any tips on using it
Brilliant finely sliced into discs in salad, enjoyed it in stir fry cut into batons, plus any sort of slaw with it is good. I’ve been glad I tried growing it a couple of years ago and I wouldn’t be without it now. Hope you enjoy it as much
In addition to eating it raw. we love it cut into slices and roasted.
It was so sad to hear of the loss of your beloved kitty. I hope you get cheer from the beautiful harvests. Your asparagus total may be below average, but the quality is evident. That chicken/asparagus dish looks delicious. But we will have to buy asparagus to make it, given my recent results. And the kohlrabi looks terrific.
It is always a momentous day when the end of asparagus season is declared. I remember. The lemon Parmesan chicken looks wonderful. Pounding is a smart idea for quick cooking. Add panko and what could go wrong? You’re very good about holding or placing objects nearby to show us the true size of vegetables. I’m a purist and get so taken by the beauty of them I can’t bear to bring my dirt-stained, work-worn hands into the picture.
Sorry to hear about Puddin Dave, she looks a lot like my first ever childhood cat (Scamp). We’ve lost count of the cats we have lost now, but we still have two, a brother and sister that we rescued. When we lost Grace a few years ago I was quite adrift for a few weeks, but it’s amazing how time heals.
We are growing a brocalini type called Atlantis this year, my experience has been variable. Last year we had truly incredible results with 3-4″ calabrese side shoots, which I put down to a lot of work on the bed fertility, we were harvesting a bucket full of shoots off 6 plants for several months, each week we couldn’t believe it and even 4 months on we were still getting small florrets.
Some delicious harvests – I haven’t had much luck with kohlrabi sown in the spring lately. It goes from cold to hot much too quickly. This year, I’m going for a fall crop instead & Konan is one of the varieties I’m trying. And it’s amazing how “big” a meal looks when you pound the meat flat 🙂