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Monday, January 26, 2015

Harvest Monday - January 26, 2015

The harvests were light last week because I was unusually busy and just didn't have time to spend in the garden or do much cooking. Most of what kept me busy was the 2015 EcoFarm conference at Asilomar, but I won't go into that now, I'm still trying to digest all the information that I was inundated with.

Romanesco plant number two has started to produce, but this plant is behaving more like a sprouting broccoli, but in reverse. There are a number of side shoots forming from the bottom up while a small main head develops. Romanesco tends to be less hybridized than its broccoli and cauliflower cousins, so unnamed varieties tend to have more variation in how the heads develop. These shoots are just as delicious as the big beautiful pointy spiraled heads.

Romanesco shoots

 I continue to harvest celery stalks for salads and other preparations.

Dorato D'Asti celery
One head of Tronchuda Beira is still producing sweet tender leaves while the other one is showing signs of wanting to bolt. These leaves were cut up and wilted into a warm salad of Purgatory beans (a small white bean), shredded duck confit, carrots, and celery.

Tronchuda Beira cabbage
I harvested the first small head of Sweetie Baby romaine lettuce from the fall sowing. This head was the perfect size to make two servings.

Sweetie Baby romaine lettuce

And this is my first ever harvest of Michelle batavian lettuce (I had to try it just for the name!). This was a good sized head that I've used to make two salads and there's still enough left for at least a single serving salad. It's a crisp head type and the leaves are sturdy and crisp, even the outer ones are sturdy without being tough or strong tasting. My husband isn't generally fond of soft leaf lettuces, especially red ones, but I didn't hear any complaints when I served this one. I want to try it again for warmer weather harvests to see if it stays crisp and sweet.

Michelle batavian lettuce

That's about it for the harvests last week, the only harvest not photographed were some China Rose radishes. I used the radish leaves again, they were delicious sauteed with some garlic and black sesame seeds, finished with a drizzle of sesame oil and a splash of fish sauce.

Here's the details:

Romanesco shoots - 1 lb., 7 oz.
Tronchuda Beira cabbage - 1 lb., 1.4 oz.
Dorato D'Asti celery - 13.7 oz.
Michelle batavian lettuce - 14.3 oz.
Sweetie Baby romaine lettuce - 9.8 oz.
China Rose radishes (including greens) - 2 lb., 9.1 oz.

The total harvests for the past week were - 7 lb., 7.3 oz.
Which brings the total harvests for 2015 up to - 27 lb., 6.3 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.

7 comments:

  1. Lovely harvests. Love the "Michelle" lettuce! Out of all the varieties I grew this year, the Batavian (Sierra MI) was my favourite. I harvested it on a cut and come again basis and it just kept producing, bolting long after all the other varieties.

    I included Sweetie Baby in my seed order (inspired by your posts) and am looking forward to giving it a try this year.

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  2. Michelle, you are the queen of broccoli! Those spears of Romanesco look like something I would enjoy a lot.

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  3. I'm a big fan of the Batavian type lettuces, and they usually hold up well here in our heat. Sierra is my old standby, but I'm trying a new one this year from Adaptive Seeds called Salade de Russie that is speckled much like Forellenschluss. Gotta love one named Michelle though!

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  4. That's so great that the shoots have that same pointy shape head - they must look lovely on the dinner plate. And speaking of dinner ... mmm, that bean / duck salad sounds fantastic!

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  5. Nice harvest, Michelle! Coincidentally, I saw a packet of sweetie baby romaine at the garden center the other day and thought of you. Of course it bought it to try out. I'm hoping it's as crispy as it looks!

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  6. Lovely harvest! I like to see your romanesco shoots. Looks so fresh and crispy! Thank for sharing these freshness from your garden.

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  7. Nice harvest. Tronchuda Beira and Sweetie Baby are on the seed wish list for next year.

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