A hunger gap in June? It almost seems like it. My harvests are quite light right now. If it weren't for zucchini and lettuce we would be a bit hungry for fresh produce from the garden.
I cut the last 2 Italienischer lettuces because they were getting to be huge. I wonder how large this variety gets before bolting, neither of these heads were showing signs of it. Each of the heads was close to 2 pounds after trimming off the only slightly yellowing or tough outer leaves.
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| Two heads of Italienischer lettuce |
I've been experimenting with using a warm bacon dressing on this lettuce and liking the results. The soft parts of the lettuce wilt a bit but the crunchy ribs retain their crunch.
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| Romanesco zucchini |
I am glad that I reneged on my promise to not grow Romanesco zucchini again, it's definitely helping to fill the harvest gap between spring and summer crops. We've started our annual parade of favorite zucchini dishes - last week it was
Zucchini in Agrodolce.
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| Chesnock Red garlic |
I pulled all the Chesnock Red garlic early. It was so infested with rust that it seemed unlikely to produce any good heads and I wanted to use the space to grow some Delicata squash up a trellis - so out it came. I used the whole crop to make another batch of
Crema di Green Garlic (now on my recipe blog).
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| Zebrune shallot |
I keep watching my seed started Zebrune shallots and wondering when or if they will develop bulbs. I pulled one of the green plants to use in my first go at a warm bacon dressing. It didn't look too promising to begin with, but when I cleaned it up I found two nice stalks, one of which did an admirable job of flavoring the dressing. The other stalk found its way into a red cabbage slaw (amazing how well the cabbage keeps in the fridge).
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| Zebrune shallot and Romanesco zucchini |
The only other harvests were a bolting onion, some rather large but still edible radishes, and a handful of arugula.
Here's the harvests for the past week:
Speedy arugula - 1.2 oz.
Chesnock Red garlic - 8.5 oz.
Mixed green garlics (from the previous week) - 8 oz.
Italienischer lettuces - 3 lb., 14.1 oz.
Superstar onion - 15.1 oz.
Helios radishes - 6.4 oz.
Zebrune shallot - 6.8 oz.
Romanesco zucchini - 2 lb., 1.3 oz.
Total for the week - 8 lb., 13.4 oz.
2015 YTD - 349 lb., 13.1 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.
I get a weird hungry gap sometimes at the beginning of July. Since I don't do peppers and tomatoes, once the spring vegetables are pulled not a lot is left to harvest yet. Eventually my cukes and zukes start to fill in, but it is slow.
ReplyDeleteWow, what big lettuce! How long do you think it will keep? Is the Romanesco extra early, or did you start it early?
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure how long the lettuce will keep, I'm hoping for at least a week to ten days. I washed it and wrapped it in paper towels and enclosed each in a bag, that works for other lettuces that I've grown, so long as it is not cut. Almost 2 months from seed to first harvest for the zucchini, is that early, I'm not sure.
DeleteI forgot to say that I cut a number of leaves from each head and used them right away, then wrapped the rduced sized heads for storage.
Delete"Salade aux Lardons" (lettuce with bacon) is well-known in France. We make it with a bit of vinegar to de-glaze the pan in which the bacon is cooked, pouring it over the lettuce while still hot. Even better if some finely-diced shallots are added!
ReplyDeleteI frequent a couple of oriental markets. Last year I noticed a lot of just- beginning- to -sprout shallots. I've been meaning to try shallots for a long time. At any rate I planted them and they grow beautifully. After one and a half seasons, I decided to see what they looked like. They all had seed heads and were obviously finished for the year. NO bulbs. One big shallot. I'm drying them now, have no idea what else to do. My Korean garlic has done beautifully again this year for the third year. Great garlic, great sweet- not- hot taste. Best ever. Caspian Pinks that I planted out the same day you did are just beginning to flower. Latest I ever planted tomatoes. Gigande Beans are prolifically growing and setting beans... the one surviving Greek Pepper is doing OK.
ReplyDeleteJJ
That lettuce is crazy huge! I love warm bacon dressing (eat it sometimes on lettuce, but mostly on potatoes). Thanks for sharing the garlic recipe, I'll be using that soon myself.
ReplyDeleteI second that crazy huge comment! Definitely looks like Radichetta, perhaps they are close cousins. I'm still waiting for zucchini but Romanesco has female buds so it won't be long!
ReplyDeleteI don't know, that shallot looks like it is bulbing up OK. They don't get huge. Putting it in a hot bacon dressing was a great idea. My father used to grow Black Seeded Simpson strictly for wilted lettuce salad, I like it on endive as well.
ReplyDeleteThere always seems to be a gap between spring and summer harvests. That is a lot of lettuce from just two heads.
ReplyDeleteWould it be repetitive if I commented on the humongous lettuce? Wow - that's practically half of one of my beds!
ReplyDeleteI love the title of your blog! I'll stop by again and enjoy the season's harvest.
ReplyDeleteThe lettuce looks so great!
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