Monday, April 4, 2016

Harvest Monday - April 4, 2016

It's definitely spring in my garden now, although the harvests are mostly the last of the winter veggies.

Gustus Brussels Sprouts

I salvaged the last of the Brussels sprouts. Most of the remaining sprouts were loose and full of aphids and those went into the compost. The two plants that I hadn't topped had more firm sprouts that resisted the aphid invasion. Some were fairly large but the remaining sprouts were quite small but still very good. One plant had a good top that I kept, seen on the left, the other was full of aphids. The smallest of the sprouts went into a braise with some parsnips from the fridge (keeping amazing well, still quite sweet), and some spring onions that I thinned from the bulbing onions, and as you can see I used a generous amount of pancetta.

Brussels Sprouts, Parsnips, Spring Onions
The last of the winter sown radishes had to make way for some spring plantings. Here's the best of the bunch.

Petit Dejeuner, Malaga, and Pink Punch Radishes
A couple of the Malaga radishes got to be quite large and split wide open. I used them, trimmed of the dirty bits and then grated, in pita pockets stuffed with hummus, grated carrots, and some fresh cress.

Exploded Malaga Radishes

Verdil Spinach
The spinach is decidedly bolting but otherwise still good. Some of this round went into a dish that I adapted from a really old favorite recipe that Dave keeps recalling even after nearly 30 years - Green Rice, which gets it's name from copious amounts of spinach, parsley, and green onions. Instead of rice I substituted quinoa, and cilantro stood in for the parsley. I think the new version was better than the original. I'll be posting the recipe shortly on my recipe blog.  Click HERE for the recipe.

Golden Corn Salad

I cut a couple of heads of Golden Corn Salad that had grown from seeds that I scattered around the fava plants. These heads are nicer than the ones that I sowed in my winter salad patch. The plants aren't as crowded so they are making much nicer heads that aren't so quick to bolt. These heads are a bit too large to toss whole in a salad so cut the bases off the plants and tossed the loose leaves with some shredded Red Iceberg lettuce. The lettuce added loft to the salad which would otherwise collapse since the corn salad is so soft. The combo of the crisp lettuce and soft corn salad was better than I expected, really quite good and worth doing again!

Rossa Savonese spring onions
I've had a steady harvest of spring onions as I thin out the bulbing onions. These Rossa Savonese, a Spanish sweet onion, are particularly pretty and I can't wait to see the more mature onions (please don't bolt, pretty please). I grilled a few of them last night and they turned out to be deliciously sweet even in their immature state.

Persian Broadleaf Cress
I'm having a fling with various kinds of cress. I enjoyed the frilly leaves of Rishad cress through the winter and now it's time for Persian Broadleaf. These are the thinnings from my little patch. Most of them went into the hummus sandwiches I mentioned earlier.

Here's the details of the harvests for the past week:

Gustus Brussels sprouts - 2 lb., 11 oz.
Golden Corn Salad - 1.8 oz.
Persian Broadleaf cress - 1.8 oz.
Spring onions - 1 lb., 1.6 oz.
Malaga radishes - 8 oz.
Petit Dejeuner radishes - 1.7 oz.
Pink Punch radishes - .6 oz.
Verdil spinach - 2 lb., 15 oz.

Total harvests of the week - 7 lb., 11.5 oz. (3.5 kg.)
2016 YTD - 85 lb., 14.4 oz. (39 kg.)

Harvest Monday is hosted by Dave on his blog Our Happy Acres, head on over there to see what other garden bloggers have been harvesting lately.

9 comments:

  1. Loving your purple hued spring onions, and I will have to look out for Persian Cress, so much superior than the stuff we get here. I'd be happy with that in a hummus sandwich too.

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  2. It looks like a good haul of sprouts despite the aphid invasion! I'll be looking forward to that green rice/quinoa recipe. I'm always looking for new things to do with quinoa, and spinach too for that matter.

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  3. Wow! What a wonderful harvest! Your Brussels Sprouts are particularly fantastic :-)

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  4. Brussels Sprouts and Pancetta - a "marriage made in heaven" as they say! I have just been reading a thing that predicts the aphids will be worse this year, and earlier. One of the effects of Climate Change, apparently. :( Your Green Rice dish sounds intriguing (except the Cilantro, to which I'm allergic). I look forward to seeing your recipe.

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  5. Those Malaga radish are crazy big! Loving the pics as always.

    On another note, I'm really hoping to have some success with sweet peppers this year so I can try some of your many great recipes / preserves. Fingers crossed for a hot summer here!

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  6. Really nice harvest. Those spring onions are a knockout. And the exploded radishes are a new one for me. I'm surprised they were edible. Obviously a good radish.

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  7. Wonderful harvests, especially that huge Brussels top - for a second I thought it was a beautifully formed mini napa! What are you planning on doing with it? I really want to try cress again - last year I finally got some seeds going & transplanted only to have them disappear from the bed (I'm actually thinking that I weeded them out by mistake!)

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  8. These heads are more pleasant than the ones that I sowed in my winter serving of mixed greens patch. The plants aren't as swarmed so they are making much more pleasant heads that aren't so speedy to jolt. These heads are a bit too huge to prepare entire in a serving of mixed greens so cut the bases off the plants and hurled the free leaves with some destroyed Red Iceberg lettuce.

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