Monday, June 28, 2010

Harvest Monday - June 28 2010

Harvest Monday is here again. It's the end of June and I still don't have any "summer" veggies to harvest. The big item last week was a couple of Devoy beets. One of them had the most beautiful stems I've seen on a beet, a mix of magenta and orange. That beet had orangey-red flesh, the other one deep pink-red flesh. I roasted them, along with a golden beet that I had harvested previously, sliced them and made an arranged salad. It was very pretty with the three different colors. I used a recipe from a Greek cookbook Vefa's Kitchen.  The salad had a topping made from thick rich Greek yogurt that was seasoned with red wine vinegar, olive oil, and garlic fresh from the garden, the whole topped with chopped walnuts. It was delicious.


I have been waiting for these beets to size up and what I didn't realize was that they were sending down rather long tap roots. They got to be a bit over sized but were still flavorful and sweet. They did have a little bit of pithiness but it wasn't noticeable when they were roasted and thinly sliced. I saved the greens and I'm going to make my favorite beet green galette with them. The 2 beets together came in at 7 lb 9 oz including roots, stems, and leaves. Without the tops the roots weighed 2 lb 5 oz and I got 2 lb of trimmed greens.


The rest of the harvests were pretty much more of the same, here they are:

Devoy beets, untrimmed - 7 lb, 9 oz
Piracicaba broccoli - 7.75 oz
Capers - 4 oz
Chamomile - 1.25 oz
Dried fava beans - 2 lb, 2 oz
Garlic - 2.75 oz
Seascape strawberries - 1 lb, 9 oz

Total for the week - 12 lb, 7.75 oz
Total for the year - 245 lb, 14.25 oz
12 eggs last week

Harvest Monday is hosted by Daphne on her blog Daphne's Dandelions, head on over there to ogle lots more harvests.

23 comments:

  1. Capers, Chamomile and fava beans sounds like a great harvest to me!

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  2. You had a wonderful harvest! I really have to plant some beets. Your beets look so so good!

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  3. Allison, I can't really complain too much about my harvests, but I would love some summer veggies . . .

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    Robin, Beets are one of those common veggies that are so much better straight from the garden, especially the greens which get so raggedy by the time they get to the market.

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  4. Love the colors, a very good harvest as usual.

    Where's the beet salad? I wanna C the picture.

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  5. Not much in terms of summer veggies here either, but I'm just a bit south of you, so we are getting the same cold fronts going by. Oh well, our summer will extend at the other end.

    Now that I see your beets, I'm going to look at mine, maybe they are also sending taproots instead of fattening up...

    Do you know what causes the pithiness in some beets?

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  6. Color of beet stems is unbelievable. I never thought of beet as pretty, but these sure are!

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  7. The beets look wonderful - beautiful colours. Your summer vegetables will be ready soon.... what about those tomatoes you mentioned the other day? Everything is late here this year, apart from aubergines (egg plant), which was a bit of a surprise as they usually like a lot of heat.

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  8. I've always wondered at beet and n ever tried them. Maybe this year will be it.

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  9. Those are lovely beets. I've never heard of that variety before. Just noticed the Rodenator :) Hope he's living up to his name.

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  10. Mac, I'm sorry but the beet salad is all gone and I didn't take a picture. :(

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    Angela, We are blessed with fabulous fall weather aren't we.

    I think that pithiness or woodiness in beets is from letting them get too big and mature. I'm surprised that those huge beets actually showed no signs of bolting yet.

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    keewee, roasting is the best way to cook beets in my opinion.

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    vrtlarica, those beets are unusually pretty, I've never seen one like it.

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    Emily and meemsync, they are aren't they, not that I can take any credit for it.

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    chaiselongue, the tomato, there's only one ripening so far, still has a few days, it's getting more color every day. That is unusual that your eggplant are so early, my plants are just starting to set the first fruits, the largest is about as big as a marble.

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    Ribbit, give them a go! My favorite is the golden because they are more mild than the red ones.

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    Ottawa Gardener, I got the beet seeds from Adaptive Seeds, it's an heirloom originally from the UK.

    The rodenator definitely lives up to his name, the rat and vole population is not what it might be around here. He even gets the occasional gopher or mole.

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  11. That's such an interesting variety of beet. It looks like their leaves are sprouting from multiple points at the top. I can't wait to roast mine up!

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  12. When I was growing up, no one I knew ever cooked beets, so I've only eaten it a handful of times in my life. But now that I'm reading gardening blogs, I see them everywhere! I'm wondering if I should venture out and start growing some myself to broaden my vegetable horizon? Your pictures are definitely encouraging with the beautiful color of your beets!

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  13. The salad sounds good. Roasted beets are the best on salads.

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  14. Your beets look so pretty! Unfortunately mine are only just little seedlings right now but I hope to be eating lots of beets and leaves in a few months! I like to make spanakopita with the leaves.

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  15. Those are some huge beets. I'm not really a beet fan, but I'd eat your strawberries any day.

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  16. The colorful beet tops look like "Bright Lights" swiss chard (close relative to the beet). I bet they are particularly nice beet greens as a result.

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  17. Thomas, The multi-colored beet did have leaves sprouting from all around the top, the other beet had the more typical growth pattern from center.

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    thyme2garden, I grew up with beets from a can, graduated to beets from the farmers market, and only recently started to grow them myself. Fresh beets are so good!

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    Dan, Yes indeed, beets and salad were made to go together.

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    Funkbunny, spanakopita sounds like a great way to use the greens. Yum.

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    Daphne, Well, If I were forced to choose, strawberries would win any day!

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    kitsapFG, funny, "bright lights" came to mind when I saw those stems also. I haven't cooked the leaves yet . . .

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  18. Oh beautiful beets! I love the multicolored jewel tones. So pretty.

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  19. Christina, Isn't that amazing for a beet! Unfortunately that is not the typical coloration for this variety.

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  20. gorgeous harvest! I grew beets this year so I would learn to like them, and it worked! so much sweeter when you grow them yourself. :)

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