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| Romanesco zucchini |
I've managed to keep radish successions going.
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| Helios and Pink Beauty radishes |
Most of the onions that I segregated for spring harvests have been pulled and now I'm pulling the main crop onions that are producing flower stalks. Candy and Superstar are once again trying to flower early, just like last year. I had hoped that it was the stress of a warm winter that made them bolt, and perhaps that was the case because we had unusually warm winters both last year and this year, but if that's the new normal than I need to find some new onions to grow.
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| Candy onion |
At least there's something of a bulb to slice and most of the the stalks are still tender enough to use as well. I used this onion in a zucchini dish that I'm adding to my lineup of zucchini recipes. The recipe came from Saveur magazine, although I adapted it for what I had because the onions in the Zucchini, Onion and Ricotta Pie turned out to be shallots and garlic with nary an onion. So I used onions instead of garlic and shallots and rather than using a 10-inch pie pan (which I don't have) I baked it in a gratin dish. It was delicious and got the Dave seal of approval.
Dave has also given his approval to Italienischer lettuce, a variety that I'm trying for the first time. It's a large oakleaf type that was recommended to me by a local gardener. It's growing like crazy and I started to harvest leaf by leaf early last week but that didn't slow it down so I started harvesting whole heads.
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| Italienischer lettuce |
We enjoyed a simple tossed salad dressed with red wine vinegar, pomegranate molasses, and hazelnut oil with a scattering of chopped radishes and toasted hazelnuts.
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| Italienischer lettuce |
Other harvests not photographed included the amazingly small cauliflowers. The entire harvest was equal to less than 2 of the the heads I harvested last year. I used about half the harvest to make smashed cauliflower - chopped blanched cauliflower cooked in butter with some onion until soft, then smashed with some creme fraiche - a potato haters substitute for chunky mashed potatoes. There were also more sprouting broccoli shoots and one of the last spring onions. That last spring onion went into a dish made mostly from storage items - a warm salad of Petaluma Gold Rush beans, some preserved Odessa Market sweet peppers (from October 2014 and still very good), and good Spanish oil packed tuna. I tossed the sliced onion with red wine vinegar (homemade) and a bit of fish sauce, then the salad was dressed with more wine vinegar and olive oil, and seasoned with fresh sage and ground smoked Tarahumara pepper. Another hit with Dave.
Here's the details of the harvests:
Purple Peacock broccoli - 6.3 oz.
Spigariello Liscia broccoli - 7.7 oz.
Amazing Taste cauliflower - 3 lb., 3.5 oz.
Italienischer lettuce - 11.2 oz.
Candy onions - 2 lb., 1.4 oz.
Spring onion - 9.9 oz.
Helios radishes - 4 oz.
Pink Beauty radishes - 3.8 oz.
Romanesco zucchini - 7.3 oz.
Total for the week - 8 lb., 7.1 oz.
2015 YTD - 331 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.
Strange about the onions bolting. They are biennials, you would think a cold winter or cold snaps would be more likely to cause them to bolt.
ReplyDeleteI think you are on the right track about cold snaps making the onions bolt, we've not really had cold snaps, but we have had a lot of fluctuations in temperatures and I'm guessing that Candy and Superstar are not very tolerant of that. Next year I'll stick with Red Candy Apple and experiment with some other sweet onions.
DeleteI grew Italienischer a few years back and it seems identical to the Radichetta I love so much. It grows upright, and has crunchy but tender oakleaf leaves. Yours are beauties. I'll have to give that zucchini pie recipe a try once our squash start rolling in. We do a lot of similar things here, with or without crust, with whatever the garden is giving us at the moment. And another tubtrug fan! Have you seen the Cesto ones? I'm using a small one to harvest things that need a rinse before they come in the house.
ReplyDeleteI have a Cesto type that was given to me as a market basket but I don't use it because the handles cut into my hands when I load it up. I never thought of using it in the garden, but that's a great idea.
DeleteI'll have to try that zucchini pie. It sounds so good. And that lettuce is really pretty. I've got to branch out in my lettuces. Except for mixes I tend to use the same ones year to year.
ReplyDeleteYour vegetable photos are spectacular, so artfully arranged. I really like the zucchini shot, and the lettuce propped up against wood and gravel, and the lettuce in the basket.
ReplyDeleteThanks Lou!
DeleteI have grown a lettuce variety called "Cocarde" which looks very similar to your Italienischer one, except that it has a red tinge in the tips and edges of the leaves. You know that I agree with Lou (above) on the presentation aspects of our hobby! They always say that you eat with your eyes before you eat with your mouth, so it's important to make our fruit and veg look appealing - which you do.
ReplyDeleteThanks also Mark.
DeleteTubtrug fan too - didn't know that was what they were called (so different brand, I guess). What a coincidence that you referenced your preserved peppers link in today's post as I had just gone through your site earlier this morning trying to find it. I did manage to find it earlier, and now have it bookmarked in the hopes that I have an abundance for which to use that method!!
ReplyDeleteThat zucchini pie sounds delicious! My Romanesco is now hardening off and I will hopefully transplant it into the straw bales this week. I'm crossing my fingers that I get to try all the recipes from your top 10 zucchini recipes post (+!) last year.
ReplyDelete