The favas had to be picked before they grew to be too big and starchy. This is one of the few vegetables that I intentionally grow more than I need for fresh consumption. Blanched and peeled favas freeze incredibly well and keep for a long time when they are vacuum packed so I like to grow lots of them to last through the year.
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| Extra Precoce Violetto favas |
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| Robin Hood favas |
That big basketful of EPV favas was reduced to 7 individual half-pound bags of peeled beans here shown ready for the freezer. I pack them into the bags and freeze them before vacuum sealing the bags. Freezing before sealing keeps the machine from sucking the moisture out of the bags which would create a big mess.
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| Bianco di Maggio cippollini onion |
The cippollini onions don't seem to be inclined to produce the little flat onions that I was expecting so I didn't feel bad about pulling one of them that was splitting into 2 stalks when I wanted some fresh green onions for another batch of Green Quinoa Pilaf (this time made with chard instead of spinach).
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| Joker lettuce |
I am afraid that the Joker crisphead is inclined to bolt rather than produce some full heads so I harvested another one. And the same goes for the Red Butter Romaine.
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| Red Butter Romaine |
Everything grows so quickly at this time of year, I really need to try to grow fewer heads of lettuce at a time but at more frequent intervals.
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| Dried corn, lime treated corn, and cooked posole (hominy) |
I made another batch of posole from some of the Mandan Parching Lavender corn that I grew last year. I'm getting more comfortable with the process and actually finding it to be rather easy now. I wrote a post about the process last September that I think made it seem like a rather daunting task, and it was difficult to sift through the various methods that I found and settle on the process that worked for me. Really, it's not much more difficult than cooking dried beans, requiring just a few more steps and more patience. First an initial gentle cooking with some lime (calcium hydroxide), an overnight soak in the lime solution, a thorough rinse, and then a long gentle simmer. The posole was served with a beef stew that I slow cooked in a red sauce made from dried New Mexico type chiles that I grew a couple of years ago and that green quinoa pilaf.
Here's the details of the harvests for the past week:
Extra Precoce Violetto fava beans - 17 lb., 11.5 oz.
Robin Hood fava beans - 2 lb., .9 oz.
Joker crisphead lettuce - 1 lb., 8.1 oz.
Red Butter Romaine lettuce - 15.4 oz.
Bianco di Maggio cippollini onion - 11.1 oz.
Total harvests for the week - 22 lb., 15 oz.
2016 YTD - 178 lb., 12 oz.
Harvest Monday is hosted by Dave on his blog Our Happy Acres, head on over there to see what other garden bloggers have been harvesting lately.
WOW! All healthy veggies.
ReplyDeleteLettuce seems unpredictable at times. I usually plant too much and a lot bolts, but the weather these days is also unpredictable. Cold and wet, then dry and blazing hot. I'm eyeing those fava beans. Maybe next year I'll try again with Robin Hood. Will be interesting to see what your yield is for that one.
ReplyDeleteMy so-called summer lettuces, Nevada and Flashy Butter Oak (like your Joker), did the same thing, and it wasn't even hot!
ReplyDeleteI would love to be able to eat fresh Broad Beans throughout the year, but I'm not that enamoured of frozen ones - which is just as well, since I never produce enough to make it worth freezing any! my Robin Hoods are absolutely laden with flowers now, so I hope they all set. The plants were beginning to topple over so I have staked them with 50cm bamboo canes. The cippollini make pretty competent Spring Onions by the look of it. I have never seen them being grown. My only experience of them is in relation to a jar and some balsamic vinegar!
ReplyDeleteHomegrown produce from the freezer - fantastic. I love your fresh leafy greens too - the red in both the lettuces is just stunning.
ReplyDeleteThat is too bad about the lettuce bolting. So far mine is growing bigger, but then we have had a cooler than normal spell the last few weeks. I need to remember your trick of freezing the food before vacuum sealing. That would work with some things like cherries or spinach that are just too juicy to freeze otherwise.
ReplyDeleteYummy, I can't wait for my own lettuce (still a few weeks away). That's a very neat job for the freezer, clever!
ReplyDeleteMy autumn fava beans (broad beans here) that escaped the strong winds and fox-stomping have flowered and just started to produce pods, but are again a way off of harvest.
Who would have thought lettuce could look so pretty ...
ReplyDeleteLovely harvest!
ReplyDelete