Monday, May 18, 2015

Harvest Monday - May 18, 2015

I'm down to just a few things to harvest from the garden as the spring veggies finish and the transition to summer is barely started.

I harvested the last of the favas as I cleared out the patch to make way for summer plantings. The final tally for favas in the pod came in at 78 pounds. I tucked another 3.5 pounds of peeled beans in 1/2 pound portions into the freezer, so there's nearly 10 pounds of peeled beans to enjoy through the year.

Extra Precoce Violetto favas

Last night we enjoyed one more round of bruschetta with chopped favas, just warmed with some sauteed spring onions, mint, olive oil, and Parmesan.

The next big item to come from the garden is the Little Jade napa cabbages. Here's the best looking one of the bunch so far. The leaves are a bit lacy from the attention of earwigs (big yuck), but the unsightly damage won't deter me from enjoying the harvest.

Little Jade napa cabbage
I keep intending to put together a batch of kimchi but haven't gotten to it yet. In the meantime we've been enjoying wilted cabbage sautes. I devised one easy dish that has been great for breakfast, thinly sliced napa cabbage and spring onions, placed in a porcelain bowl, pour in 1/2 cup of hot broth, cover and microwave on high one minute. Put a slice of toasted rustic bread on top of the hot cabbage, top with grated cheese, pour another half cup of broth over the bread and cheese, cover and let sit a couple of moments until the bread soaks up some of the broth, dust the top with some smoked paprika. Quick and very tasty!


Uh oh, the first Romanesco zucchini of the season... A bit odd shaped but still good.


The  Spigariello Foglia Liscia broccoli is in full production now. This is the smooth leaf version and to the left of the basket you can see a glimpse of the curly version, Spigariello Foglia Riccia, which is not yet producing shoots.

Spigariello Foglia Liscia broccoli
Spigariello can be harvested for it leaves, like kale, or allowed to produce shoots. I like to harvest the shoots. My plants are putting out really long shoots that I cut fairly low on the plant. The bottoms of the long shoots are too tough to eat, but I collect all the leaves to use them like kale. The entire top portion of the shoots, about 8 inches, are good to eat. One night I made a simple soup with a big bunch of spring onions sauteed until tender and then added chopped Spigariello and the green portions of the onions, broth and seasonings. I served that with a thick slice of toasted bread with cheese, like a big cheesy crouton. (That big slice of bread with cheese in broth is a great way to use up bread that's a few days old.)

Purple Peacock and Spigariello Foglia Liscia broccolis
Last night we enjoyed the Spigariello in a braise with pancetta, pine nuts, and spring onions, drizzled with some cherry balsamico.

The only harvests not photographed last week were some baby Tuscan kale and more spring onions.

Here's the details of the harvests:

Purple Peacock broccoli - 3.2 oz.
Spigariello Liscia broccoli - 2 lb., 6.1 oz.
Little Jade napa cabbage - 10 lb., 11.3 oz.
Extra Precoce Violetto fava beans - 16 lb., 9 oz.
Baby Tuscan kale - 2 lb., 4 oz.
Spring onions - 3 lb., .2 oz.

Total for the week - 35 lb., 10.8 oz.
2015 YTD - 303 lb., 12.4 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.

10 comments:

  1. Spigariello Foglia Liscia? What an interesting-looking vegetable. They should really shorten the name though. And cabbage for breakfast? What a concept!

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  2. The Spigariello broccoli is so pretty, I'll have to wait until fall to plant it. Your Napa Cabbage size up really nice, I'm growing a new spring variety, it's beginning to loosely heading up, don't know it will make it through the coming heat wave or not.

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  3. Earwigs are so creepy! I wonder if they are more common to the west coast? Growing up in Vancouver, I used to see them all the time (with more than a few nightmares) but I rarely see them here in Ontario.

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  4. 10 pounds of prepared beans is quite the stash! And that broccoli is quite the showpiece. I will be sowing my Romanesco zucchini this week...I'm really looking forward to growing that one!

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  5. I briefly thought the same as Will about the cabbage for breakfast. But then I've had stewed okra for breakfast on quite a few occasions. You had me with the 'toasted rustic bread' and from there it just sounded better and better!

    I tried Spigariello here a couple of times but couldn't get the timing right. Your Med. climate no doubt makes it happy. It sure looks great in the photo! I'm pushing my luck trying the Cima di Rapa in spring, but I'm thinking I could fall plant it and some of these lesser-grown cool-season greens in the greenhouse. I guess a little more research on my part is in order.

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  6. The curly broccoli is strange looking. I had never heard of it before.

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  7. Wonderful harvests. I'm just hoping this year that the Chinese cabbage won't get earwigs. I so hate that. Getting them out freaks me out. The Napas were always the worst so I quit growing them this year. The Michihilis seem a bit less prone. And that broccoli look like a work of art, not food. So interesting.

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  8. Nice harvest. I'm tempted to try things like the Spigariello but our weather is so crazy - can go from cold to blazing hot and back again in a couple of days, so everything bolts. Have you tried Sluggo Plus? It includes Spinosad so is supposed to help control earwigs as well as slugs. I get both pests in my Napa cabbages.

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    1. Sluggo Plus was the first thing I tried when I noticed earwigs in that part of the garden, but they totally ignored it in favor or hanging out in the cabbages.

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  9. That broccoli is really weird, but just the sort of thing I would like to grow. I am another person who is deeply suspicious of the concept of cabbage for breakfast. The dish you describe sounds to me like something I would prefer to eat at lunch-time.

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