Monday, January 25, 2010

Harvest Monday - January 25, 2010

Harvest Monday is here again. I managed to get out to the garden between showers to harvest a few things this week. There isn't a super abundance of anything, well, there's really no abundance at all right now, but I'm not really complaining because I'm happy there's something at all. I picked enough variety of tender greens to make a nice salad. The bowl contains mixed baby lettuces, Golden Corn Salad, Vit Mache, tender young fava leaves, and sprigs of chervil.



I got just enough Olive Leaf Rapini and Golden Chard to make a nice saute for two.



And a bunch of cutting celery that went into soup with tomatoes that I canned last September.




Here's the totals for the week:

Golden Chard - 6.25 oz.
Olive Leaf Rapini - 7.5 oz.
Cutting Celery - 4.25 oz.
Golden Corn Salad - .5 oz.
Chervil - .25 oz.
Fava leaves - .5 oz.
Vit Mache - 1.5 oz.
Cutting lettuces - 1.75 oz.

Total for the week - 22.5 oz., or 1.73 pounds
YTD total 7.75 pounds
I also picked some garlic shoots that were sprouting from some garlic that was accidentally left in the ground last year. I didn't think to weigh it, next time I will, there's a few other orphans sprouting out there as well. Get on over to Daphne's Dandelions if you would like to see what other garden bloggers have harvested lately, it's inspiring!

18 comments:

  1. This is a lovely harvest you have. Not too much, but there are so many different greens you have!
    They all look very fresh, especially chard. My chard is not growing at all; I guess it’s too cold for it to grow new leaves.

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  2. That chard is making me drool. I can't wait for chard again. Last year my first harvest was the middle of May.

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  3. It may not be overflowing but it looks lovely and tasty. It feels like the blogosphere is covered in rain. It's even raining here (for those of you who don't know... Ottawa is not known for rain in the winter). Is that a caper flower on the right hand side?

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  4. Yum - it's so good to have salad leaves even in the middle of winter, isn't it?

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  5. I didn't know you could eat young broad bean (fava)leaves, so I might try them!

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  6. Vrtlarica, I'm so happy there's a variety of things out in the garden right now. No one green is producing enough to make a salad all by itself but put together the mix doing ok. The cold weather really slowed the chard, it took 2 1/2 months to get large enough to harvest!

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    Daphne, Chard does seem to take its time... I'm just hoping that my little plants don't bolt too soon, I've never tried it from a fall sowing.

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    Ottawa Gardener, Around here we're blaming El Nino for all the rain. That phenomena is supposed to impact weather around the globe so perhaps it's responsible for your rain as well. :) That is a caper blossom on my side bar, an unusual pink one.

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    Chaiselongue, I do love salads in the winter. I tend to eat heartier fare at this time of the year and something green and crisp and fresh is a nice counterpoint.

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  7. Jan, the fava leaves are good both fresh and cooked.

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  8. The mixed greens look lovely. I am still a way's from having such an array of greens but the time will come soon enough I hope. How is the cutting celery? Does the stems hold up in soup?

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  9. Dan, I usually let the cutting celery cook until it's soft when I make soup. The nice thing about it is that you can use the leaves also, actually another name for it is Leaf Celery. I was just doing some reading about leaf celery and found that some people like the leaves in salads so I'm going to have to try that the next time I pick some salad greens. I also just learned that celery seeds for culinary purposes are generally harvested from cutting celery rather than stem or root celery.

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  10. wow, what a lovely harvest you have going there! It is after seeing pictures like these that I wish I had somewhat more of a green thumb :)

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  11. PJ, The more you grow the greener your thumb gets! And I have lots of years of experience as proof. :)

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  12. It looks delicious. Did you get out in a break in the rain?

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  13. Those greens look delicious! Quite an impressive harvest for this time of year Michelle.

    Stupid question- are all celery leaves edible? Why do I feel like as a child, someone told me that celery tops are poisonous. Urban legend maybe?

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  14. Stefaneener, I did get out, in fact it was dry enough yesterday to spend a few hours out there doing some cleaning up and planting. It was so theraputice to get some garden time in!

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  15. Hi Thomas, Thanks! Not a stupid question. I understand that all celery leaves are edible but not all of them are tasty, many are supposedly strong and bitter tasting. I've been doing a bit of reading about cutting celery and now I need to do some experimenting in the kitchen...

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  16. I love that opening shot--it looks like a very Mediterranean wreath.

    Even in the dead of winter, even when all you show is the greens, it makes me hungry to read your blog.

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  17. I actually prefer those early spring mixed green salads - the varied shapes, textures, and colors make for a really great salad.

    The celery looks good. I lost my celery plants to the super cold freezes we had in mid December. Luckily I have a bunch of it that I sliced and froze - so we are still eating lots of it this winter - just not fresh any longer.

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  18. Your bowl of greens looks so fresh and inviting. Were you a food stylist in a previous life? You sure are now.

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