Monday, May 4, 2015

Harvest Monday - May 4, 2015

There were a few final harvests for the season this week and one new one.

The last of the Pixie and Express Red cabbages needed to be harvested. Those are all sitting in the refrigerator because I'm still working my way through previous cabbage harvests. You may have seen my recent post about my first successful foray into fermenting up a batch of sauerkraut. And I finally tried one of Daphne's favorite cabbage dishes - Okonomiyake, which is really tasty and sure to be a regular. I also made up a big batch of slaw. That's the first of the Reine des Glaces lettuces.

Reine des Glaces lettuce, Pixie and Express Red cabbages

And here's the last of the Reine des Glaces lettuces.

Reine des Glaces lettuce

There was another big harvest of favas, the basketful shown below was about 60% of the total harvested on Sunday. This time around I weighed the whole beans, then the shucked beans, and then the peeled beans. The weights came in at 16.6, 5.5, and 3.4 pounds respectively. Dave was with me through the processing once again. Most of these are now sitting in half-pound packets in the freezer. Some of previous harvest went into a frittata with some cabbage, green onions, and dried tomatoes for Dave's lunches. Last night I made smashed favas (I'll have to write up the recipe) to go with some White Sea Bass that was wrapped in fresh grape leaves with fennel greens and grilled. And there's another batch of Fava Dip in the fridge.

Extra Precoce Violetto fava beans

The sweet onions are bulbing up, these are the extras that I planted close together to harvest as spring onions.

Superstar onions


More broccoli! The Spigariello is grown as much if not more for the leaves as the florets. It's primarily used like kale and is also great in soups.

Spigariello Liscia and Purple Peacock broccolis
The only harvest last week that didn't get photographed was another bunch of Saisai Radish leaves.

Here's the harvests for last week:

Purple Peacock broccoli - 7.3 oz.
Spigariello Liscia broccoli - 5.6 oz.
Express Red cabbages - 10 lb., 4 oz. (biggies!)
Pixie cabbage - 4 lb., 3.9 oz. (not so tiny either)
Extra Precoce Violetto fava beans - 16 lb., 10.2 oz.
Reine des Glaces lettuces - 1 lb., 9.4 oz.
Spring onions - 1 lb., 11.3 oz.
Saisai radish leaves - 5.3 oz.

Total for the week - 35 lb., 9 oz.
2015 YTD - 259 lb., 13.8 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.

10 comments:

  1. Beautiful harvests - once again, I have fava envy. Just today I saw the first hint of a fava plant coming up in the bed. I hope this means things will start to speed up; I'm getting very impatient!

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  2. Woah, the one broccoli is beautiful. Love that cabbage stays so long after harvest. It takes us forever to eat a head, much less several.

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  3. I love the look of the lettuce, its so much superior than the varieties you find at the supermarket. I am hoping to choose a few more interesting ones to grown this year.

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  4. Your cabbages are absolutely gorgeous! I've yet to grow them successfully...any tips?

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    1. I can't claim to be an expert, but cabbages are fairly heavy feeders so I use slow release natural fertilizers - crab meal, sulfate of potash, and well aged compost which is usually mostly worm poop. Give them room to grow, space them at least 18 inches apart and more is probably better. And don't let them dry out, but don't overwater either. I also use mycorrhizal and beneficial bacterial inoculants.

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  5. Those cabbages are GORGEOUS! I am probably growing mine too close together. They are just barely beginning to head up,and I am south of you along the coast.

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  6. Margaret has fava envy, I have cabbage and onion envy! I just gave mine a weeding and mulching today, and they have quite a way to go to make anything edible, though the scallions shouldn't be too far off. I'll have to try the okonomiyaki when I do have cabbage. Looking at the recipe, there's nothing not to like about that!

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  7. I'm with Margaret fava envy, my fava is beginning to show flower buds, I planted them too late and the temperature is cranking up, not sure I'll get a harvest, but I can use the green tips for something.

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  8. I can't pick just one to be envious over ... it all looks great!

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  9. Lovely as always. I planted some onions close together for spring onions. I say spring, but for me it might be summer before they are harvested. Unless they get growing faster.

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