It’s time once again for Harvest Monday, where we celebrate all things harvest related. Last week was mostly all about the weather, as we careened from record-setting warmth to near record rainfall in the matter of days. A storm system moved through Friday, bringing damaging winds and torrential rain. Thankfully we had no damage, but we did pick up almost 4 inches of rain in about 12 hours time. Others nearby were not so lucky, and several tornadoes did a lot of damage to structures.
dumping rain gauge
Everything inside the greenhouse was snug and cozy though, and I cut several heads of lettuce for use last week. Hyper Red Rumple Waved is a Frank Morton introduction from Wild Garden Seed that has colored up nicely for me. It’s one of the darker red lettuces I grow, though not as red as Sea of Red which I am just now starting from seed for later plantings. The Salanova Green Butter is a long time favorite, and makes soft buttery leaves for our salads.
Hyper Red Rumple Waved lettuce
Salanova Green Butter lettuce
Strawberry Oakheart is another Frank Morton creation and we used some of it on a salad we had for lunch one day. This one had cheese and nuts for protein, and was topped with some croutons I made from leftover sourdough bread. I freeze any ‘wonky’ homemade bread slices I have for use as croutons. I crisp them up in the oven as-is, and the flavorful bread makes a tasty topping for salads and soups.
salad creation
It’s my first time growing a green leaf lettuce called Grazion and so far I am impressed. The leaves are thick but tender, and it has made nice sized heads. It will be hard to choose between it and other green leaf varieties like Bergams Green and Starfighter. I have all three growing at the moment for comparison. So far all three are doing well.
Grazion lettuce
In other news, our two Merrill magnolia trees are blooming, and they are the earliest of our trees to flower. They perfume the air with their sweet scent for a couple of weeks and then they are gone. They are blooming about three weeks earlier than last year, and along with the blooming daffodils it tells me we might have an early spring this year. That said, I have seen snow here in March and even April so sometimes the early indicators are mistaken!
Merrill magnolia tree
magnolia blooms
closeup of bloom
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!
I think that you maust be getting our rain. The magnolias are spectacular
Oh those magnolias! In Massachusetts we had one and when blooming the fragrance spread for 50-75 feet. Heavenly.
I use a lot of Frank Morton veggies too Dave, it’s interesting to see your lettuce leaf quality, which is still better than mine, due to your higher light levels, it won’t be long though, maybe 2 weeks until our lettuce looks as healthy! Right now most of my salad leaves are still spinach, lambs lettuce, tatsoi and claytonia, I’m not really complaining : All the best – Steve
I like the look of the salad creation from the garden. The promise of spring from those magnolia blossoms – very nice! I wish there was a way to capture/preserve that fragrance!