Last week was still light on harvests but there was a bit more variety. The Royal Burgundy bush beans produced the first couple of handfuls of beans.
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| Romanesco zucchini and Royal Burgundy beans |
I prefer to grow pole beans but don't have space in the garden for them until some time in May. Space opens up for bush beans much earlier, as early as late March if I I want to take a chance on an early planting. This year I waited until mid April and got lucky because they had a chance to get established before the May Gray extra foggy extra cool weather set in. So now, just as my pole beans are just starting to climb their trellises I'm harvesting the first snap beans.
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| Royal Burgundy beans |
Not the best photo below with the white onion and purple basil. They may not make good photo mates but they do play well together in the saute pan.
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| Superstar onion, Romanesco zucchini, Corsican basil |
The bolting cipollini onions also played well with the Romanesco zucchini and blossoms in
Scarpaccia (Zucchini Tart).
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| Cipollini onions and Romanesco zucchini |
Here's the rest of the Cipollini onions after trimming. I sliced the bulbs and roasted them to freeze and use later in soups. The tender parts of the stems went into a batch of onion cream, based on my green garlic cream. The
recipe is on my recipe blog. I've got one jar of the garlic cream in the fridge that I've been using in various dishes. I used a dollop of it in a dish of fresh zucchini and onion, frozen roasted sweet peppers, and
Gigante beans, all baked together with a topping of feta and bread crumbs. I used another dollop of it with some minced rosemary, fish sauce, and white white as a marinade for lamb chops.
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| Cipollini onions |
I've been pulling the
bolting onions and using them as I need them.
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| Superstar onion |
The lettuces are growing so quickly that I can hardly keep up with them. The Winter Density lettuces are demanding my attention now. This one was just starting to bolt but in spite of that it was incredibly sweet. This is another variety that was recommended to me by a local gardener, along with the Italienischer, and his advice was spot on, both lettuces are winners. The huge Italienishcher lettuces that I showed last week are keeping quite well in the fridge. I've been cutting leaves from the heads almost every day and enjoying them in salads.
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| Winter Density lettuce |
I only managed to coax one head of butterhead to germinate for this succession of lettuces and here it is. We've got some lettuce cups in our dining future this week.
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| Rhapsody butterhead lettuce |
The only harvests not photographed were a few radishes.
Here's the details of the harvests for the past week:
Royal Burgundy bush beans - 6.5 oz.
Rhapsody butterhead lettuce - 13.4 oz.
Winter Density lettuce - 13.7 oz.
Cipollini onions - 5 lb., 3.3 oz. (I weighed only the parts I used)
Superstar onion - 10.3 oz.
Helios radishes - 1.2 oz.
Pink Punch radishes - 1.3 oz.
Romanesco zucchini - 3 lb., 14.6 oz.
Total for the week - 12 lb., .3 oz. (5.5 kg.)
2015 YTD - 361 lb., 13.4 oz. (164 kg.)
Dave was asking me this weekend how my harvests this year stack up to the harvests at this time last year and I had no idea, but I can see now that I'm about 56 pounds ahead of last year. I'm not sure what the differences are, I'll have to take a look at that later.
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 really love the colour of the Royal Burgundy beans. I grew them a couple of years ago but they didn't do that well in my garden - after the first flush, the beans tended to get much smaller for some reason. I'll likely be harvesting some of my bolting onions as well and am going to give your garlic cream recipe a try - it sounds so delicious and versatile!
ReplyDeleteDitto what Margaret said - the garlic creme recipe does sound delicious! The season for green garlic or young onions has passed here though. Our lettuce cups are usually flat since I make them with leaf lettuce or crisphead. For some reason I don't usually grow butterhead lettuces, probably because the other types are easier here and less prone to rot in our rainy seasons.
ReplyDeleteThat is a beautiful butter head lettuce. I have never grown any of the head lettuces, preferring leaf lettuce for the home garden. It's much easier. Good work on getting beans this early.
ReplyDeleteLovely harvests. I can't wait for my zucchini to start blooming. They are under cover right now though as the squash vine borers are out. I killed one today that was on a parsley plant near the row cover. They need to stay under, but are quickly outgrowing the cover. I might have to improvise. My onions are only just starting to bulb up. But they take on size quickly so it won't be long.
ReplyDeleteI had zero zucchini last year for a variety of reasons so I'm keeping my fingers crossed for some soon ... I really want to try your scarpaccia recipe! I've got royal burgundy for the first time this year, they sure look good!
ReplyDeleteYour zucchini and purple beans are so lovely!
ReplyDeleteWow, over 360 lbs of produce in 6 months, I have to try your green garlic cream someday, it sounds delicious.
ReplyDeleteI see the cippolini onions in the stores, haven't grown them so it is interesting to see how thick the stems are. I also have some Winter Density lettuces starting to head, so they will be in this week's harvest along with Marshall. Hope they are good. Nice head of butterhead lettuce. Here that's a greenhouse item, I wouldn't even try to grow it.
ReplyDeleteI always love your photographs--you must wait until the afternoon light is just perfect. I like that Winter Density lettuce--you would never know it was bolting.
ReplyDeleteYour Romensco zucchini is going strong. Oh how I wish I could've gotten any zucchini to germinate. Looks like your bush beans are well on their way to that first big flush. You've been getting some strange weather this year, it really seems to be affecting your onions.
ReplyDeleteHow are your Syrian peppers doing? Mine are really low to the ground just like the better germinating Antigua, they're both just starting to blossom.