Harvest Monday March 25, 2024

It’s time once again for Harvest Monday, where we celebrate all things harvest related. Thankfully, my wife is doing better after her bout with Covid and is gradually returning to normal activities. Last week we got our first ‘real’ harvest in a while – the first cutting of asparagus! Lynda and I always look forward to asparagus season here, which usually runs from around this time of year to early June. It’s running a bit ahead of last year, when our aging asparagus patch gave us 13 pounds of spears. I roasted these first ones, and my wife and I shared. More spears are coming up and I should be cutting them in a day or two.

first asparagus harvest of 2024

I made a cutting of lettuce from the greenhouse to use for our salads: Rouxai (a dark red oakleaf lettuce), and the lighter colored Red Sails leaf lettuce. It’s my first time growing Rouxai and this one looks like a keeper that lived up to its catalog description.

Red Sails and Rouxai lettuce

I also made a cutting of the mixed greens I have growing in containers. This batch included mizuna, baby pac choi and mix of Asian baby leaf greens (Renee’s Garden Seeds). They went into a stir fry dish and added a little color and flavor.  I just snip off the outer leaves and let the plant grow on, and they have already grown enough to be ready for more cutting as we need them.

baby greens

In other news, yesterday morning I baked a batch of Ligurian Focaccia bread, using a 50-50 mix of an Italian type ’00’ pizza flour and King Arthur all-purpose flour. Topped with flaky sea salt and fresh chopped rosemary, it made the kitchen smell great and made me hungry! I make half the recipe for my 8″x13″ pan, which works out well.

Ligurian Focaccia bread

And last but certainly not least, mama bluebird has been busy laying eggs in the nest box. There are three so far, and I believe that will be all of them since they have been there a few days. If all goes well, in a couple of weeks there will be baby bluebirds.

bluebird eggs

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!