It’s time once again for Harvest Monday, where we celebrate all things harvest related. The greenhouse lettuce is holding up quite well, and I am still cutting it on an as-needed basis. In the past I also planted some in cold frame beds, but these days the greenhouse plantings yield more than enough to eat. Hyper Red Rumple Waved has given us lots of red leaves lately for our salads, and Strawberry Oakleaf has smaller but very colorful leaves we are enjoying.
Hyper Red Rumple Waved lettuce
Strawberry Oakheart lettuce
It’s not all red lettuce though. It’s my first time growing Grazion leaf lettuce and it has done very well. This head weighed over a pound, which kept us supplied for several meals!
Grazion leaf lettuce
I did harvest something besides lettuce last week. The collard greens I planted last fall in the greenhouse all got froze out in late December, which was a big disappointment since I was looking forward to eating them during the winter months. Recently I was pleasantly surprised to see they had begun sprouting leaves from the roots. I was able to cut enough to sauté in a little olive oil for a side dish for dinner one night.
collard leaves
I cut these into thin shreds before cooking. I covered the skillet, and they cooked in minutes over low heat. In the Southern U.S. these might be cooked in bacon fat and called ‘fried collards’, but I’m a fan of the olive oil treatment. A little garlic and hot pepper flakes would add flavor, but I cooked these with only a little salt for seasoning. They were quite tasty, and I think a good use for a small amount of tender leaves like these.
cooking the collards
cooked collards
My bread baking for the week was in the form of tortillas. I made ones with half corn/half flour, and used blue corn masa for some and yellow for the rest. Like many other things, the flavor of homemade tortillas is better than ones we buy, and there are no added preservatives or ‘funny’ ingredients. Leftovers keep for several days in the refrigerator, and even longer in the freezer. I believe my recipe and technique would be a good topic for a future blog post, and I will work on that soon.
blue corn tortillas
yellow corn tortillas
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 please check out what everyone is harvesting!
It’s always fascinating to see the variety if colour and leaf shapes of the lettuces you grow, Slugs make growing salad leaves a bit of a waste of time for us,
Aphids are usually a bigger problem for us Sue, and they are starting to be a problem.
I agree that small amounts of greens sauteed in olive oil are a treat, especially if you’re not expecting them. The tortillas look yummy. In college, I remember visiting a Latino family living in a small attic room. The wife prepared fresh flour tortillas for me using her tortilla press and a hot plate. A sensorial memory.
Once I had fresh tortillas, it became hard to go back to shelf-stable ones from the grocery.
Well it took until April, but we finally have lettuces with leaf quality to compete with yours Dave! It’s amazing how quickly that transition happens, last week they were average and this week, they just seemed to have soaked up the sun and are crisp and beautiful!
Our weather will be warming up here soon, and the greens will suffer for sure. We should have another month of good quality though.
Not long now until you will have your beloved squash though! I’m growing a lot more this year! https://airtable.com/shrySoDkEiV1Y61pO