Harvest Monday - February 1, 2016

One month of 2016 gone already! It was a good month of harvests considering I didn't do a very good job of getting things started last fall for winter harvests. The month ended with 33.2 pounds (15.1 kg.) of veggies from the garden. Last year the January total was 41.6 pounds (18.9 kg.) with more variety, but in the previous 5 years the January totals were in the single digits.

The star for the week was the Sicilian Violet cauliflower. I think that this variety is meant to be fall sown for winter harvests, which makes sense considering it is from Sicily. I should have harvested it about a week earlier, by the time I got around to cutting the head it had become a bit overgrown.

January 17

I noticed it starting to color up a couple of weeks ago and kept watching the color progress. My effort last year at growing it for a spring harvest didn't result in anything looking like a normal head of cauliflower, so I didn't really know what the optimum color/head size would be. The best time probably would have been a few days before I took the photo below, you can see the head is loosening up a bit already.

January 24

Look at the difference between the two photos just 5 days apart. I was really surprised at how quickly the head expanded.

January 29, the moment before harvest

It wasn't such a big mistake, the cauliflower is still good and is big enough to be used in at least 3 dishes. The first dish I made was simply roasted in the oven with brown butter.

The second round was braised in a tomato sauce that was enriched with tomato and sweet pepper conservas and livened up with some chopped salt packed capers. The rest of the head is in the fridge awaiting some inspiration.

Di Ciccio Broccoli

The broccoli harvests are winding down. If the plants produce anything more it will be just very small shoots. It's about time to sow the spring plants.

Batavia Broccoli

Dutch Broadleaf Cress

Dutch Broadleaf Cress

Some Dutch Broadleaf cress that I sowed back in December was ready to harvest. Some of it spiced up a salad that also included Winter Density lettuce and fresh Super Sugar Snap peas and other goodies not from the garden.

Winter Density lettuce

I'm really surprised at how well the September sown Golden Sweet snow peas have been doing. The sugar snaps haven't fared so well, I lost a couple plants early on and then a few more succumbed to something in the cold wet December weather, and what's left isn't looking all that healthy. But the snow peas have been growing like there's been no winter other than that some of the pea pods got frost nipped during the very coldest nights. I did cover the pea plants with frost cloth, otherwise the plants would have likely been too frost damaged to produce flowers and peas, but they have been holding up very well to the cold wet conditions we've had lately.  Next fall I'll go with just snow peas for overwintering, the Golden Sweet again.

Super Sugar Snap and Golden Sweet Snow peas

I harvested all of the Speedy arugula and Rishad cress that I sowed late last November. They never really got very big and were already on the verge of bolting so I cut them all down and sowed some Apollo arugula and Persian Broadleaf cress in the same spot.

Rishad cress and Speedy arugula mix

The leaves may be baby sized but they are still full flavored and a nice addition to a green salad.

Gustus Brussels Sprouts

The Brussels sprouts haven't gotten to be large either, but they have become a respectable size and I got about another pound of them on Sunday. I still had parsnips in the fridge so those two got roasted together again. This time I added a couple of "flowers" of star anise which was just enough to lightly flavor the mix and then added in some dried tart cherries about halfway through the roasting time and then finished the dish with some cherry balsamic vinegar.

Roasted Brussels Sprouts & Parsnips with
Red Onion and Dried Cherries

Three Heart Lettuce

One lettuce that is producing some heads that are just barely large enough to harvest whole is Three Heart Butterhead. I neglected to photograph the whole little head, it was too dark outside when I picked it to get a decent shot and I really prefer to take photos with natural light, but I had to take a photo when I started to pull the leaves from the head. Each leaf has three lobes, the closer to the heart the more separate the lobes are and it's easy to see where the variety got its name. This was my first harvest of this variety and it turned out to be very good, the flavor is mild and the texture is soft but has good body. I'm really looking forward to harvesting more. This is an heirloom variety that is offered through the Seed Savers Exchange catalog, no membership is required to order.

Here's the details of the harvests for the past week:

Speedy arugula - 2.9 oz.
Batavia broccoli - 1 lb., 6.3 oz.
Di Ciccio broccoli - 1 lb., 5.7 oz.
Gustus Brussels sprouts - 1 lb., 1.7 oz.
Sicilian Violette cauliflower - 4 lb., 2 oz.
Dutch Broadleaf cress - 3.8 oz.
Rishad cress - 3.8 oz.
Three Heart lettuce - 2.5 oz.
Winter Density lettuce - 3.2 oz.
Super Sugar Snap peas - 3.3 oz.
Golden Sweet snow peas - 10.7 oz.

Total harvests for the week - 9 lb., 13.9 oz. (4.5 kg.)
2016 YTD - 33 lb., 3 oz. (15.1 kg.)

Harvest Monday is hosted by Dave on his blog Our Happy Acres, head on over there to be inspired by what other garden bloggers have been harvesting and cooking up lately.