It’s time for Harvest Monday, where gardeners from all over celebrate all things harvest related. It’s another year for Harvest Monday, and the harvests around here have been rather modest lately to say the least. To play catch up, I’m going to share some of the harvests I got from last November and December, before the really cold weather got here. In November I pulled the last of the mature Centercut squashes, and cut some dark crinkly lacinato kale to use in soup.
Centercut squash and lacinato kale
I also had a ‘surprise’ harvest of sweet peppers and eggplant. I call it a surprise, since usually we have a killing frost before then. I can’t remember the last time I harvested these warm season crops so late, but it was a welcome harvest indeed. It wasn’t a great year for our sweet peppers so it was nice to finally have some.
sweet peppers and eggplant
Collards are very much cold hardy, and I made a big cutting of them in late November that kept us supplied for several meals. It’s a mix of different heirloom varieties I’m growing.
assorted collard greens
One of my favorite treatments for the young and tender collard leaves is to cut them up into thin strips and sauté then in olive oil until they are tender. It only takes a few minutes, and my wife and I both love them prepared this way. In the southern U.S. these are called ‘fried’ collards, and usually fried up with bacon and onions. We prefer our treatment, which is plenty tasty without the added grease.
‘fried’ collards
Soup is often on the menu here when the weather turns cold, and that also calls for bread to go with it. I baked a batch of my Seeded Whole Grain Bread recently, and we ate on it fresh then froze the leftovers for later use.
Seeded Whole Grain Bread
In non-harvest news, we have been getting a lot of woodpeckers at the bird feeders this winter. The big Pileated Woodpecker has been a frequent visitor to our suet feeders. One was sharing one day with a little chickadee, which shows the size of the big woodpecker – the largest in North America.
Pileated Woodpecker and Chickadee
And in other news, I am transitioning away from using Facebook and Instagram. You can follow the happenings at Happy Acres on Bluesky here: happyacresblog.bsky.social. I will keep my Meta accounts for the time being, but use Bluesky going forward. The community there is growing fast, and the platform is evolving quickly.
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!
Incredibke harvest for the time of year, We just have parsnips and leeks
It’s mostly greens now Sue, but we’re happy to have them.
A nice way to prepare the thicker greens–in shreds. I’ll try that with some of the kale when it’s ready. Whoa, that woodpecker is very large. Thank you for the comparison photo. Looks like it’s time for me to check out Bluesky. Many I follow on various platforms have made the move and I am in sympathy with their reasons. Thanks for the prompt.
Kale works well with the same treatment as the collards. I am getting into Bluesky more and more, and I think the gardening community is worth exploring for sure.
I am harvesting Lacinato kale, oranges, and lemons here in coastal Southern California.
It’s good to hear from you Lou!