Harvest Monday - January 23, 2017

Welcome to Harvest Monday. I'm stepping in for Dave of Our Happy Acres as the temporary host of Harvest Monday for the month of January while he takes a much deserved holiday from the task of hosting every week. Harvest Monday is where we celebrate all things harvest related. This is the place to share your latest harvests and what you've been doing with them. If you would like to link up you will find Mr. Linky at the end of this post.

It was a big week for Brussels sprouts. The plants seem to be thriving on the rain and chilly weather. I can hardly keep up with the harvests and the sprouts are getting to be quite large. Fortunately the quality of the sprouts doesn't seem to be impaired by their jumbo size. And the chilly weather also seems to be keeping pests at a minimum.

Gustus Brussels Sprouts

Last week I started to get caught up on harvesting the Gustus sprouts.

Gustus Brussels Sprouts

Of course that means that I have to do something with them. I did go back to one of my favorite methods of preparing them, oven roasted in a cast iron skillet with some of one my last sweet red onions. And I made another "bowl meal" for Dave that featured Brussels sprouts. He loves a meal that he can eat from a bowl with just a spoon or fork. He's a lazy though enthusiastic and appreciative eater! Anyway, I had a pound of bulk Polish Sausage that I needed to use so I sauteed that along with onions and I don't remember what other seasonings, but it also included a pound of shredded Brussels sprouts. I called it Brussels Sprout Hash and it got Two Forks Up from Dave. And then I had to try something entirely new - the Brussels Sprouts Challenge continues. I adapted a classic Italian soup to make Stracciatella Soup with Brussels Sprouts. It was a nice quick, delicious, and warming dish to have on another cold and rainy evening. (OK, it's official, I'm tiring of the rain.)

Dazzling Blue Kale

I cut more kale to saute to accompany some winter squash as I describe below. You can see the difference between the two plants that are growing. One has big purple veined blue leaves and the other has smaller less colorful veins with greener leaves. Both are delicious.

Purple Sun and Pusa Rudhira Red Carrots

The carrots are holding well in the garden and I'm still pulling just a few at a time. The purple and red ones are looking particularly lovely now and they are sweeter than ever. I thought they looked very pretty together.

Bolero, Purple Sun, Pusa Rudhira Red

That's the last of the Bolero carrots. It's a very good carrot, quick to size up and sweet.

Cresses, Arugulas, and Mizuna

The greens that I tried to grow for winter salads were progressing soooo sloooowly that I gave up and cut them all down to make way for some lettuce seedlings that have been sitting in 4-inch post awaiting transplant into the garden. That's all of them in the basket above. Of course it's been so wet that I still haven't had a chance to get the lettuce into the garden. It might be better at this point to start more seeds.

That's all the harvests for the week but I also had to contend with a couple of big Discus Buttercup squashes that were starting to spoil. One of them I peeled and sliced into about 1/2-inch thick slices, generously brushed with olive oil and roasted in a hot oven until tender and browned. Those I served topped with sauteed Dazzling Blue kale and seared sweet red onion all with a drizzle of balsamic vinegar and a sprinkling of toasted pumpkin seeds. Dave loved it. I used part of the other squash in a new way, at least for me, I used raw coarsely grated squash to make individual Winter Squash Flans which are basically fraternal twins of the crustless quiches that I also like to make. Using raw grated squash saved a lot of time compared to first roasting and pureeing the squash and the texture of the flan was more rustic as well.

To end I thought I would share a collage photo of the Carmel River, one view from the height of the drought in September 2015 and another that I took Saturday when the rain stopped long enough for me to get out for a hike.

 Carmel River January 21, 2017 and September 22, 2015

I was standing on pretty much the same spot when I took either photo. Back in September 2015 there wasn't any need for a bridge to cross the "river" and now that bridge would have been under a few feet of water.

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

Apollo arugula - 1.7 oz.
Speedy arugula - .5 oz.
Gustus Brussels sprouts - 3.3 lb.
Bolero carrots - 8.1 oz.
Purple Sun carrots - 6 oz.
Pusa Rudhira Red carrots - 4 oz.
Greek cress - .8 oz.
Persian Broadleaf cress - .6 oz.
Dazzling Blue kale - 8.7 oz.
Ruby Streaks mizuna - .2 oz.

Total harvests for the week - 5.2 lb. (2.4 kg.)
YTD 2017 - 18.5 lb. (8.4 kg.)

If you have a harvest you would like to share or share how you are using your harvests then add your link to Mr. Linky below. Then go check out what other bloggers have to share.

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