It's a Pineapple Express day today. The current atmospheric river which is dumping rain on us today and prompting the National Weather Service to issue flash flood warnings took dead aim at California from directly over the Hawaiian islands. A Big Sur blogger that I follow has posted some photos of the damage wreaked in my area by the previous storm so if you are curious to see what 86 MPH winds can do to trees weakened by drought then check out
Big Sur Kates post. Fortunately the storm coming through today is much less windy.
I've had a few chances to do some harvests between storms.
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| Tronchuda Beira Cabbage |
I cut the leaves and flowering top from the second Tronchuda Beira Cabbage plant. I dehydrated most of what I harvested from the bolting plants but saved enough to make some Okonomiyaki pancakes. The recipe calls for regular cabbage but the Tronchuda Beira has a sweet cabbage flavor that I think should work well in the pancakes.
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| I'itoi Onions |
The Okonomiyaki recipe also calls for a bunch of scallions which I don't have in the garden right now, but the I'itoi onions need to be trimmed because they are getting matted down by the wind and rain so I cut a few bunches of them. Most of those also got sliced and dehydrated. The house is quite fragrant right now even though I had the dehydrator in a room with an exhaust fan running.
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| I'itoi Onions |
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| Syrian Medieval Chard |
Some of the chard also needed a trim.
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| Aji Amarillo Grande Peppers and Gustus Brussels Sprouts |
The last of the Aji Amarillo Grande peppers finished ripening so I got another round of those making an odd couple companion in the harvest basket with another big bunch of Gustus Brussels Sprouts. The sprouts tally from the current plants has hit 26.5 pounds so far! And the Aji Amarillo Grande plant provided a total of 3.8 pounds of peppers. Another 1 1/2 pounds of that haul of sprouts got shredded and dehydrated. My dehydrator has gotten quite a workout lately! And I need to get those peppers into the dehydrator next so that I can make some pepper flakes.
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| Gladiator Parsnips |
I pulled a few more parsnips and more carrots (which didn't get photographed). I shredded a couple of the parsnips to include in a saute with some shredded carrots and Brussels sprouts.
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.
Curious. What did you use for sauce on top of the pancakes? I have lots of fresh cabbage. So good! I thought those peppers were carrots at first glance. So large! Good website. Lost of firewood will be available for next season.
ReplyDeleteI prefer it without any sauce so I just sprinkle some toasted sesame seeds and bonito flakes on top.
DeleteI can imagine the house is fragrant with dehydrating those onions! I know how it smells when I dry garlic, not that I dislike it. I've got scallions growing but I find myself reaching for the I'itoi onions more often. It's a versatile onion, and I can't wait to try it when it's mature. I have been pulling mine for green onions but I'll have to try clipping them instead like you did.
ReplyDeleteDo you just use the onions for onion greens rather than using the bulbs?
ReplyDeleteA rare event a crop that is the same variety as we grow here - we have Gladiator parsnips too.
The onions are used both ways. I cut the greens to use like scallions or chives. They go dormant in the summer which is when I dig up the clumps and collect the bulbs. The bulbs are small, about the size of a small shallot. I wrote a post about them a while back which you can read:http://fromseedtotable.blogspot.com/2016/08/variety-spotlight-iitoi-onion.html
DeleteYes, Gladiator parsnips are English, my seeds came from a local company that imported them.
I'd like to hear what you do when your Brussels sprouts form sprouts. I don't know what I should do to encourage the sprouts to develop, and when to pick them once they have. Do you have to remove leaves? When? Do you top the plant at some point? It's a mystery veg to me. Thanks,
ReplyDeleteOh, I'm not really an expert on growing Brussels sprouts, this is only my second year. I did learn that crowding the plants produces smaller sprouts, this year I spaced them further apart and got much better results. They also seem to produce sprouts in their own good time, I'm not sure you can do anything to induce them, just be patient. I think it's also important to be sure they get adequate water, which is an issue for me because it has been very dry here, at least until of late. I don't worry about leaves, I cut them off as I harvest the sprouts, and I remove leaves that get covered with powdery mildew, and a lot of the leaves turn yellow and drop off themselves. I really don't know if removing leaves will produce more or better sprouts. Some gardeners like to cut off the tops of the plants to make the plants put their energy into the sprouts. I experimented with that last year, cutting some tops and leaving others and found that the plants that I didn't cut produced better sprouts, the sprouts on the cut plants loosened up. I start harvesting the sprouts when they start to size up and are nice and firm, although one of my plants this year was more inclined to produce loose sprouts so I just cut those off as they sized up, later in the season it produced more firm sprouts. You can pick them when they are fairly small or wait until they are larger - for me that's anywhere from the size of a large olive to the size of a large walnut or larger, wait too long though and they will start to crack open. They don't have to be harvested all at once, I've been picking them from the same plants since November, starting at the bottom of the stalks and working up.
DeleteThat's an interesting chard, I love the shape. I'm jealous of anyone with parsnips...my seedlings all got eaten by slugs.
ReplyDeleteWe have a big storm at the moment....the back garden fence is looking worse for wear, hopefully we can rescue it rather than replace it. It's dark now so will have to wait for the morning to see any further damage. And who knows what might be happening down at the allotment, yikes!
I'm shocked to see you harvesting peppers this late in the game - wow! And those sprouts are beautiful. So you're now on your 5th month harvesting sprouts - that is quite the extended harvest!
ReplyDeleteI really have to try making Okonomiyaki pancakes some time, they seem very versatile. Your brussels sprouts are impressive!
ReplyDelete