On the left is my first picking of Tronchuda Beira, it's a non-heading cabbage (often identified as kale) from Portugal that is traditionally used to make Caldo Verde. I love Caldo Verde, a simple soup made with onions, potatoes, lots of very thin slivers of Tronchuda cabbage, some Portuguese chouriço and seasonings. There are recipes to be found all over the web but most of them call for kale or collard greens because Tronchuda cabbage is rarely to be found. It used to be almost impossible to get seeds for this vegetable but I've noticed that it is getting to be easier to find. My seeds came from Renee's Garden seeds and I found the packet on the rack at the local hardware store. This bunch, however, didn't go into the first batch of Caldo Verde for the season, it was used in my annual post-Thanksgiving turkey soup. The Dorato di Asti celery on the right also went into the soup.
That's the only photograph for the week, if you've been by here anytime in the past few weeks you likely know what the rest of my harvests look like. A lot of them were what I gleaned from some of the tomato plants when I pulled them out. Some of the pepper plants are producing their final (probably) harvests but I haven't pulled them out yet.
The weather for the past week has been mostly rainy, but it has also been unusually warm. It seemed like a classic Pineapple Express (an atmospheric river of moisture flowing from Hawaii to the west coast) but I didn't hear anyone use that term. It was just plain weird to be out on a rainy evening in November/December and not need a warm coat.
Here's the harvests for the past week:
Apollo broccoli - 1.6 oz.
Dorato di Asti celery - 4.4 oz.
Tronchuda Beira cabbage - 13.8 oz.
Parade "scallions" - 1 lb., 14 oz.
Big Jim numex peppers - 1 lb., 4.8 oz.
Sigaretta Dolce peppers - 7.5 oz.
Amish Paste tomatoes - 5 lb., 1.1 oz.
Fiaschetto tomatoes - 3 lb., 1 oz.
Jaune Flamme tomatoes - 4 oz.
Nyagous tomatoes - 5.8 oz.
Rosabec tomatoes - 1 lb., 1.7 oz.
The harvests for the past week came to - 14 lb., 11.7 oz.
Which brings the harvests for the year up to - 733 lb., 7.8 oz.
Harvest Monday is hosted by Daphne on her blog Daphne's Dandelions, head on over there to see what other garden bloggers have been harvesting lately.
That is really interesting regarding the Tronchuda cabbage. I have to admit i usually use Cavolo Nero when I make Caldo Verde. How much flavour difference is there do you think?
ReplyDeleteI don't think that there is a big difference in the flavor, perhaps kale is a bit more assertive, To me the big difference is the texture, I find kale has more of it, perhaps because it takes longer to cook down. I haven't liked Tronchuda as a side vegetable because of that, it really is best in soup, at least to my taste.
DeleteWow! You are still getting such an amazing variety in your weekly harvests. We have not been so warm, but oh so wet. I had 5 inches in the rain gauge for the past week and it is filling up fast again this week.
ReplyDeleteI have grown beira tronchuda several times now and found it to be a hardy and very tasty brassica.
I got about 5 inches of rain in the past week also and there's a chance of some more rain this week, but not like what we just got. Thank goodness, I need to get out to the garden and finish cleaning up.
DeleteI've never heard of Caldo Verde before. It sounds good though.
ReplyDelete