It’s time once again for Harvest Monday, where we celebrate all things harvest related. The greenhouse lettuce is growing vigorously now, and it is keeping us well supplied for salads and other uses. The red and green leaves of oakleaf, butterhead and leaf lettuces are tender and sweet tasting now before the hot weather arrives to turn them bitter, so we enjoy salad season while it lasts.
greenhouse lettuce
I have microgreens growing under lights indoors and they add a bit of extra flavor to salads, soups and bowl creations. This mix includes cabbage, kale, mizuna and kohlrabi seeds harvested about two weeks after sowing.
microgreens
The greenhouse kale is beginning to bolt to flower, but there are still lots of leaves to eat. The Dazzling Blue is a lacinato kale with sturdy dark green leaves that hold up well in soups and stews. Some of these wound up in a pot of Pasta Fagioli we cooked up last week.
Dazzling Blue kale
And even as the kale begins to flower, the rapini make a tasty treat. I like to cook them briefly, either roasted or lightly steamed. They can also be chopped and added to stir fries.
kale rapini
The collards in the outside garden are beginning to bolt too but like the kale there are still plenty of leaves for us to eat. This batch came from the hybrid Top Bunch and the heirloom Jernigan’s Yellow Cabbage collards.
Top Bunch and Jernigan’s Yellow Cabbage collard greens
I used some of the collards to try the dish I saw on the PBS Somewhere South series. I rolled the collard leaves up then sliced thinly. I fried a couple of slices of bacon, then used a bit of the drippings to sauté the collards. It took less than 5 minutes for them to be tender, and both my wife and I loved the treatment. Next time I plan to cook them in olive oil and add a bit of garlic, which is the same treatment I use for shredded Brussels Sprouts or cabbage. Fortunately I have plenty of collards to experiment with at present!
sautéed collards
I found one lone Summer Purple broccoli plant that had somehow managed to make it through the winter out in the main vegetable garden. It was a runty plant, but still managed to make a decent amount of purple shoots. The greenhouse PSB is pretty well done for the season.
Summer Purple broccoli
My bread baking this week was a sourdough loaf made with 100% semola rimacinata (finely ground durum wheat) flour. Durum wheat is traditionally used to make pasta, and this bread has a wonderfully chewy texture and crispy crust as I expected. It also has a golden color due to the durum wheat. This recipe is a keeper, and I look forward to more baking with the durum wheat flour.
durum wheat sourdough bread
durum wheat sourdough bread
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!
Ah i’m the first this week, what do you say about that?! Snap with the PSB! I am always envious of your homegrown greens Dave. Those collard greens look magnificent, now that is a green leaf i have never grown, not for not wanting. i have just never seen seeds for it in the UK.
Gorgeous bread! One of these days I’ll get my act together when it comes to spring greens – I always envy those with super early lettuce harvests. I’m trying purple broccoli for the first time this year, an impulse purchase from Baker Creek – really looking forward to it 🙂
Snap for PSB for us too
Our PSB is just reaching peak production Dave, by the time it finishes the calabrese will be ready and as that starts to wane the cauliflowers arrive and on it goes!
What fun to find a runt PSB and they are deep purple which I like. I do the chiffonade method for kale that you used for the collard greens.