Not much new is coming out of the garden right now, just a few radishes. The winter sown Batavia broccoli continues to pop out some nice side shoots.
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Red Planet, Malaga, Pink Punch, Helios Radishes
Batavia Broccoli |
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| Bolero Carrots |
I pulled all the remaining overwintered carrots. A lot of them were funny shaped, I can only guess that their weird shapes were caused by moisture and/or temperature fluctuations. Ugly, but good! The Starica carrots sized up more slowly than the other varieties which turned out to be a nice thing since it extended the harvest of fresh carrots.
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| Starica Carrots |
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| Batavia Broccoli |
I've been growing Batavia broccoli since 2015 and it has become my favorite variety. It produces beautiful main heads and lots of good sized side shoots and it's really tasty. I also like that the plants stay fairly compact, they don't get as tall as the Di Ciccio and Calabrese heirloom sprouting broccolis that I also like which makes it easier to cover it up if the birds are in the mood to snack on my brassicas. I suppose I should do a spotlight post on it.
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| Peppermint Stick Chard |
I cut most the overwintered Peppermint Stick chard. The big surprise was that it hadn't started to bolt yet so perhaps I'll get one more nice harvest before it goes. I used most of the greens to make another Chard and Ricotta Galette. I'm going to have to write up a recipe for that since I've made it at least 3 times now. And the bulk of the big fat juicy stems are in the process of being pickled. That photo is deceptive, that's more than 2.5 pounds of chard.
One other harvest that I neither photographed nor tallied was a big bagful of baby Cilician parsley that I had growing in the onion patch. It was time to clear it out since it was starting to compete with the onions. It's a very mild and tender parsley that has a distinctive hint of nutmeg flavor. I've been using a lot of it to add to salads because I don't have any lettuce right now. It's been a real treat. I'll have to remember to get a big patch of it growing again next winter.
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.
I love chard. (Hate kale.) Chard makes a good salad, boiled, drained and dressed with olive oil, salt and lots of lemon. Do you have a lemon tree or is it too cold? (Meyer doesn't count; not the same at all.) My newest favorite is chard cooked with basmati rice, olive oil and a little salt. Sometimes I add anchovies. The ribs are like celery (for those who don't use them). Baked or stove top. Hot, cold or warm. Sometimes dill or mint or parsley, too. Green onions. Without without feta, goat cheese or yogurt. Drake Family Farm goat cheeses are excellent and there is a good variety.
ReplyDeleteYou sound like my husband, those Meyers just aren't tart enough according to him! And I don't have a respectable lemon tree, just a couple of runts in pots that don't do much. I made a gratin last week that was mostly chard and brown rice, a delicious combo, the recipe was based on one from the NYT Cooking site, but of course I tinkered using all chard instead of chard and spinach. I love the stems. You've got some great ideas there. Another good one is to stew them in tomato sauce, with or without onions, and/or cheese, maybe capers, etc....
DeleteThat is a lot of chard for sure! You may have the same veggies but they are nice ones. I can admire your chard even if I'm not a fan.
ReplyDeleteThose chard stems are gorgeous...an aptly named variety. Nice ideas of how to use them too.
ReplyDeleteIt's fun seeing your colorful harvests. We're having actual spring weather this year, so I might plant a few radishes to spice things up.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful harvests! Parsley with a hint of nutmeg - that does sound interesting. It's funny that everything you're harvesting, I'm sowing right now - well, except for the carrots. Those don't go in for a few weeks yet.
ReplyDelete"Ugly, but good" ... it's nice to look good but much more important to taste good as we organic veggie gardeners know well!
ReplyDeleteDoes chard taste at all fishy to you? My friends think I'm strange, and I do love chard, but it always taste a bit fishy to me ... hmm.
Tastes fishy when it is sauteed. Not raw. LOL, pretty sure I'm strange on this one.
DeleteI can't say that I've noticed a fishy taste, but next time I have it I'll see if there's a hint. Not that it would be all bad, I do like to add anchovies or fish sauce at times.
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