I also harvested the first zucchinis and their blossoms and had just enough to make one of my favorite zucchini recipes, Scarpaccia. Zucchini is thinly sliced and salted to remove some of the moisture and then mixed with the torn blossoms and some onions in a pancake-like batter and baked into a thin crisp edged tart with a creamy center - absolutely delicious. Perhaps I'll get some photos of the next zucchini harvest.
The second Mammoth Red Rock Cabbage came into its own this week. This beauty weighed 7 pounds, 10 ounces as you see below.
I started collecting poppy seeds the week before last. The fresh seeds straight from the pods are reddish-brown and develop the characteristic silvery-purple color as they dry out. I've collected 18 ounces of fresh seeds so far and they dried down to 14 ounces.
The strawberry harvest includes the first of the Yellow Wonder wild strawberries, a tiny harvest with huge flavor. The rest of the strawberry harvest is down because of more rat trouble in the strawberry patch. This time the boogers are only going for the fruit. More traps . . . (score 3).
The totals shown below are for the last 2 weeks since I didn't do a Harvest Monday post last week:
Piracicaba Broccoli - 17.5 oz.
Mammoth Red Rock Cabbage - 7 lb. 10 oz.
Capers - 9 oz.
Chamomile - 2 oz.
Padron Peppers - 3.25 oz.
Poppy Seeds - 1 lb. 2 oz.
Mara des Bois Strawberries - 2.75 oz.
Seascape Strawberries - 9.5 oz.
Yellow Wonder Strawberries - .5 oz.
Gigantesque tomato - 14.5 oz.
Da Fiori Zucchini - 8 oz.
Zucchini blossoms - 4.75 oz.
Total for the 2 weeks - 13 lb., 3.75 oz.
Total for the year - 259 lb., 4.75 oz.
11 eggs for 2 weeks (lazy girls)
You can check out more harvests at Daphne's Dandelions, the home of Harvest Monday.
That is a harvest to be proud of.
ReplyDeleteWow!! that is quite a poppy seed harvest! That zucchini dish sounds amazing. Can you post the recipe?
ReplyDeletei second meems request for the zucchini recipe!
ReplyDeletePoppy seeds.. oh those look wonderful! I am jealous!
beautiful cabbage
ReplyDeleteYour tomato and peppers look like a beautiful flower - gorgeous and tasty too! It's such an exciting time - all my favourite vegetables are ready now.
ReplyDeleteWhat an incredible amount of poppy seed. How many plants produce all that?
ReplyDeletekeewee, thanks :)
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meemsync and Fred, I just posted the recipe, it's just before the Harvest Monday post.
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Allison, thank you!
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chaiselongue, Thank you too. It is the best time of year in the vegetable garden, or nearly so.
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Marcia, I'm not sure how many plants that is, but they are growing in an area about 3 by 5 feet. They are far more productive than I expected, such a nice surprise.
That first photo is beautiful enough to be framed!
ReplyDeleteThe zucchini tart recipe sounds interesting. I will have to try that, while we have lots of zucchini.
What do you do with a 7+ pound red cabbage? That is a monster!
That red cabbage is gorgeous! Yet another thing I want to grow next year(may this fall even). My list is a mile long, lol.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful pictures, the poppy seeds are amazing, congrats on the harvest.
ReplyDeleteThe scarpaccia sounds yummy, I'll have to try it while I still have the squash plants. The tart is similar to what I do with my garlic chives and green onions, instead of baking in the oven I fry the batter in a pan as in pancake.
Villager, Thanks! Fortuntely even a cut cabbage keeps a long time in the fridge, half of the first mammoth red is still left. My favorite way to eat it is wilted or lightly braised with something like duck confit or pork. We had some the other night with leftover pulled pork and pasta. It's also makes a good coleslaw.
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Tosha, I know what you mean, my list and my seed collection is scary.
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mac, thank you :) Mmm, chive or green onion pancake sounds tasty.
Beautiful pictures! That's alot of poppy seeds. And only in a few weeks, you must have alot of poppies. Great harvest.
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I love the photo of the poppy seeds. My son would really love if I grew those. Lemon poppy seed cake is his favorite.
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad you posted the Scarpaccia recipe as we are always looking for ways to use up our zucchini and your tart sounds delicious.
ReplyDeleteThose yellow strawberries sound very interesting.
That is a lot of poppy seeds. What do you do with them? We have a rather popular poppy seed strudel here that I just love.
ReplyDeleteI have read that yellow wild strawberries taste better than red ones.
That jar of poppy seeds is really beautiful (and I bet tasty!). The ripe tomato looks just perfect and quite artfully displayed with the peppers radiating from it!
ReplyDeleteYou always amaze me with the bounty from your garden.
Everything looks great, love your first photo.
ReplyDeleteOoooh that tart recipe sounds great. I wish you had taken a picture of it!
ReplyDeleteGreat looking tomato. And again, the red cabbage looks perfect. Since you grow a lot of chilies and peppers, you'll have to give me some ideas on what to do with my pepperoncini peppers.
I just learned about collecting poppy seeds from another blog, but I never dreamed that one could collect so much! Wow. The rest of your harvest is very impressive, too.
ReplyDeleteThat's a lot of poppy seeds! A 3 x 5 patch of poppies must have been so beautiful too! Any variety of oriental poppy will do, or is there a choice culinary variety?
ReplyDeleteI am sorry to hear that the rodents are still ruining your strawberries. I gave up on strawberries for that reason. Actually, I did give up, I took a break until I can build a rodent proof strawberry bed. In any case, you managed to harvest quite a few, you are winning the battle.
Dirt Lover, the poppies did most of their blooming over a few weeks and now the seed pods are all maturing in about an equal length of time. It has take a fair amount of time in all, I sowed the seeds at the beginning of January.
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Daphne, I could send you some seeds if you like.
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Mr. H., Glad to share the recipe, I've been collecting zucchini recipes for quite some time and will start posting more of them as I make them this season.
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vrtlarica, That's more poppy seeds than I've ever had at one time and now I'm searching for new ways to use them. I generally have used them in baked things - bread, cake, cookies, etc. It would be nice to find some savory recipes that call for a lot of poppy seeds.
I didn't know that about the yellow versus the red wild strawberries. I might have to try growing some red ones to compare. :)
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kitsapFG, I haven't actually used any of my homegrown poppy seeds yet, I've been using up the store bought ones first.
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Dan, thanks!
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Thomas, I just took a picture of a couple of leftover slices that are still presentable looking, I'll add one to the post.
Pepperoncinis should be great pickled. Last year I made refrigerator pickles with a similar type of pepper, it was really easy and delicious. I don't remember if I posted the recipe or not . . .
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thyme2garden, This is the first year I've grown poppies for seeds and I'm amazed by how prolific they are.
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Angela, There are varieties that have been bred for seed production. So far as I know they are all Papaver somniferum (opium poppies). They seem to come in a variety of colors and some seem to be bred for seeds while others for ornamental qualities. I'm not sure if the frilly ornamental ones are as good for seed production. I would be happy to pass some seeds on to you.
I was doing ok with the strawberries until recently. Now that the rats have discovered them they seem to have put the word out through the rat telegraph and I haven't picked a ripe berry in a week. I've got rat traps set all over the place and have been catching 2 or 3 every night but there seems to be an endless supply of them. *Sigh* You'll have to share your method of rodent proofing.
Those poppy seeds are awesome! I'm still waiting for my first ripe tomato...trying very hard to be patient.
ReplyDeleteThat's fantastic. I long to grow edible poppies, but haven't yet.
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