My husband took a tour of the garden the other day and his eyes lit up when he spied his favorite kale.
"Are those ready to eat?", he said.
Uh, yeah...
Can we have that dish you always used to make? (meaning, back when we ate tons of bread)
Uh, well, there's some bread in the freezer, so, yeah.
Yes!
So here it is, just over a pound of Lacinato kale, amazingly free of aphids.
And here's a link to my recipe for two versions of Kale on Garlic Toast (Kale Bruschetta).
And, by the way, there were zucchini, cucumbers, and broccoli in the harvest basket this week as well.
And a few Sugarsnax carrots snuck into the basket too.
And what I'm not showing you is the 5 other harvests of zucchini. Yes, there was only one day last week that I did not harvest zucchini.
What did I do with all that zucchini? One day I whipped up some zucchini and broccoli in tomato sauce. Sorry, I don't have a recipe for that, it's just sauteed zucchini and onions with some blanched chopped broccoli to which I add some of my ready made tomato sauce from the freezer - top with some grated pecorino romano and it's lunch. I made a batch of Scarpaccia (a thin zucchini tart/pancake), to take as an appetizer to dinner with friends. And I roasted some with the green runner beans that I've been accumulating and then tossed the mix with some fresh basil pesto. Last night we had Zucchini in Agrodolce. And I experimented with another version of Zucchini Gazpacho, this time with coconut and lime, which came out good but Version# 2 is still the best. Other than that I've been putting them in dated bags and piling them in the refrigerator. But... our friend with whom we had dinner the other night said she would take some because her husband didn't plant any this year and she's missing them. She may be sorry she said that!
Sorry Daphne, but I've given up on the zucchini chips, it's a fussy time consuming process with just fair results, really not worth the effort.
As is typical around here after a heatwave, the fog pounces and cools things off.
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| Temperatures July 1 thru 7 |
Here's the harvests for the past week:
St. George runner green beans - 2.5 oz.
Di Ciccio broccoli - 4.4 oz.
Purple Peacock broccoli - 2.3 oz.
Green Fingers Persian cucumber - 6.2 oz.
Tortarello Abruzzese cucumber - 1 lb., 9.4 oz.
Red Janice garlic - 2.9 oz.
Lacinato kale - 1 lb., 1.4 oz.
Ortolano di Faenza zucchini - 1 lb., 13.4 oz.
Romanesco zucchini - 6 lb., 11.1 oz.
Yes, that's 8.5 pounds (3.9 kilos) of zucchini in one week from just 2 zucchini plants, mostly one zucchini plant - insane. And there were no overgrown inflated zucchini boats in that lot either.
The total harvests for the past week came to - 13 lb., 1.5 oz.
Which brings the total harvests for the year up to - 196 lb., 15.3 oz. (89 kg.)
Just a couple days of zucchini harvests shy of 200 pounds. Oops, to clarify, that's not 200 pounds of zucchini, that will be 200 pounds of veggies for the year.
Harvest Monday is hosted by Daphne on her blog Daphne's Dandelions, head on over there to see what other garden bloggers from around the world have been harvesting lately. Hopefully not too much zucchini.
Beautiful harvest Michelle! What kind of zucchini are you growing?
ReplyDeleteThanks! Two varieties of zucchini, Romanesco and Ortolano di Faenza.
DeleteThe kale looks nice. From my perspective, it is amazingly free of flea beetle damage. And you are doing well managing the zucchini. The trick is to pick it small and not let it get bat size, but 200 pounds is crazy.
ReplyDeleteOops, I guess that's confusing, it's not 200 pounds of zucchini, god forbid, I'll have harvested 200 pounds of vegetables for the year after a couple more harvests of zucchini.
DeleteAnd flea beetles are rarely a problem in my garden, but spider mites, that's a different story.
Wow,
ReplyDeleteHow do you keep your kale from being attacked by insects. Mine always have a hole or few! Yours looks so healthy.
Actually, I tend to have problems with aphids in my kale. One of my three kale plants has been totally infested and the leaves are contorted and inedible. For some reason the aphids love that one plant and have left the other two mostly unscathed.
DeleteI saw some tiny flowers on my coosa squash! Can't wait to try out your zucchini gazpacho recipe. 200 lbs is more than crazy, especially from 2 plants? What do you feed THEM?
ReplyDeleteSorry, that was a bit unclear, the 200 pounds will be the total veggie harvest for the year, I'll hit that after I harvest zucchini a couple of times this week. But the total zucchini harvest so far this year is already 27 pounds - still crazy.
DeleteThat is perfect looking kale! Your other harvests are terrific too! And thanks for the cooking ideas, I am always looking for new ways to use the harvest!
ReplyDeleteLooks great Michelle! I have been doing all sorts of zucchini recipes. And of course when I say I have a ton of zucchini someone always has a recipe to share! My favorite this week was the veggie breakfast casserole! My kids loved the zucchini pancakes I found on the vitamix website.
ReplyDeleteI like to add zukes to tomato sauce too. And we are giving lots of ours away about now, mostly to innocent folks who don't garden!
ReplyDeleteWow, 200 pounds already that's great! We love Laciano Kale as well and have several great recipes to go with it!!
ReplyDeleteMy favorite of all kales also, perfect for raw salads! We've taken to planting it later in the season when things cool down, otherwise it just becomes a trap crop for all manner of pests...
ReplyDeleteOh dear.... I only planted two zucchini plants this year thinking I was using incredible restraint, but here you are getting this eye popping amount of zucchini from ... only two plants! Good grief! I will comfort myself with the thought that your variety is probably just way more prolific than the Partenon variety I am growing again this year. If not... I will definitely be visiting your site for inspiration on using it all up.
ReplyDeleteOh wow- very impressive!
ReplyDeleteKK
God bless your harvest. It is a dream for health nut wife and mother. Cheers!
ReplyDeleteI'm amazed at the amount of broccoli shoots you harvested, our temp shoots up too fast in spring, I'm lucky to get some fast growing greens. I have not grown zucchini in two years, this summer I'm trying out zucchini da fiore, mostly flowers I hope, maybe 3 plants are too many..
ReplyDelete