Monday, February 1, 2010

Harvest Monday - February 1, 2010

It's the first Harvest Monday for February. Oh my, where did January go? Not that I'm complaining, it's that much winter that is behind us and that much closer to spring. And, yes I know, my winter is more like early spring for some of you.

Anyway, here's what came from the garden last week. First, an ounce of garlic shoots that came up from a small head of garlic that was unintentionally left in the ground last year.


The garlic was used to season the Olive Leaf Rapini shown below. This came in at 1 pound 1.75 ounces straight from the garden, and 12.25 ounces after trimming.


And after that I neglected to weigh stuff so I'm guessing weights based on previous harvests. I pulled one giant scallion that had to weigh at least a half pound and one bunch of cutting celery that was likely about 3 ounces.

Totals for the week:

Green Garlic - 1 oz.
Rapini - 12.25 oz.
Cutting Celery - 3 oz.
Red Scallion - 8 oz.
Total: 24.25 oz. or 1.52 pounds
Total this year: 9.27 pounds

Join in the Harvest Monday fun at Daphne's Dandelions, show us what you've been harvesting or just take a look at what other garden bloggers are harvesting.

18 comments:

  1. Nice harvest, my family likes red scallion more than green, I'm trying to grow more of it this year.

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  2. mac, do you think the red ones taste different? I'm not so sure, but they are very pretty. This year I'm going to try Japanese red bunching onions instead of scallions.

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  3. I have a picture of garlic that looks very much like that with each clove splitting off into separate plants.

    Olive leafed rapini. Looks nice. Tastes nice?

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  4. I love the garlic that you accidentally left in the ground. Green garlic is tasty. Though the experimenter in my wants to know if you transplanted it would it grow?

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  5. Ottawa Gardener, One time I let a clump of garlic grow to maturity and ended up with a huge mass of garlic cloves. Interesting but impractical, it didn't keep well.

    The rapini is very tasty, perhaps a bit less bitter than the usual rapini. I can send you some seeds if you like.

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  6. Daphne, I'm not sure how well they would transplant, I have a vague memory of reading that garlic doesn't like having its roots disturbed. I might have tried transplanting some as an experiment but these clumps are coming up in a bed that was terribly infested with garlic rust last year so I'm pulling them all up to use green and trimmings are going into the garbage instead of the compost.

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  7. The rapini looks interesting. Never tried it before, how hardy is it?

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  8. Aha! Looks great! Just curious, what do you use the Olive Rapini for? Is it used in salad? It is new to me.

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  9. Dan, I'm not really sure how hardy the rapini is, but the plants that I'm harvesting now were unfazed by 28F overnight temperatures back in December. It's a quick cropping veggie, I sowed my seeds on November 2 and started harvesting in the first week of January. It's a short harvest so if you want a steady supply of it you need to succession sow. I've got a different variety of rapini started already. I do have extra seeds of the olive leaf variety if you would like to try some.

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  10. Chandramouli, nice to hear from you again! The rapini is cooked. My favorite way to prepare it is to first blanch it and drain it then chop it a bit. Then I saute it briefly in olive oil with some garlic and perhaps some chile flakes. Sometimes I like to add some pine nuts also. And a splash of balsamic or sherry vinegar is a nice addition. It is a slightly bitter green and blanching it first reduces the bitterness which makes it more palatable for my husband. It's also good in vegetable soup.

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  11. Ok I give up, this is really going to be a dumb question but I have to finally ask it. How do all of you weigh that wonderful produce?

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  12. I love the look of those garlic shoots. I can't remember the last time I had rapini. It's not bitter is it?

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  13. Mr. H., I use a kitchen scale which I bought at a cookware shop ages ago. It weighs in either U.S. or metric and will handle items up to about 11 pounds.

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  14. Thomas, Rapini is somewhat bitter. You can reduce the bitterness by blanching it before you saute it. Or mix it with other greens such as chard or spinach.

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  15. I don't think the rapini would fly in our house, but it sure is beautiful.

    I love green garlic. MMMMMMMmmmmmm, garlic.

    Beautiful harvest!

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  16. Christina, Oh yes, green garlic, it's not loved enough!

    It was difficult to get rapini by my husband, he's not terribly fond of bitter anything. He really loved the mix of rapini and chard that I did a couple of weeks ago though, I'll have to do that one again.

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  17. I love the volunteer garlic and onions in early spring.. they add a fresh snap to cooking and salads that storage versions just don't provide. I must have cleaned out my garlic bed too well last year, because I actually have not had any volunteers this spring. Usually I miss several and get a nice spring bounty as a result.

    I did miss quite a few potatoes though and they were a pleasant surprise when I was turning over the green manure crop growing in that bed. Fresh garden spuds in January. :D

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  18. I hadn't realised that garlic shoots looked like that. At this time of year we always have lots of what I thought were wild leeks coming up, and they look just like this.

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