Harvest Monday - November 23, 2015


Not much to report this week - only one basket of veg, which I harvested a couple of days before our recent cold snap:

Last of the tatsoi & broccoli together with a handful of mizuna
The broccoli side shoots were an added bonus - I had planned to rip out the plants about a month ago, but since our weather was expected to be rather mild, I decided to leave them be.  And the reward for having such patience was an additional 676 grams (1.49 lbs) of broccoli.

The last of the tatsoi was also harvested, but there is still a big mop of mizuna in the bed.  Having never grown mizuna before, I have no idea how much cold it can take, but so far it's holding up surprisingly well.

Anyhow, that's it for the harvests.  I had planned to harvest some lettuce - we went through the last of the previous harvest yesterday - but it's frozen solid in the face of sub-zero temps.  We are expecting a bit of a warm up in a few days, so once it gets above freezing, I'll be going in to see what the story is....and hopefully coming back with a basket of lettuce.

As you may recall, I had a VERY small sweet potato harvest about a month ago.  I set aside the largest of the potatoes - which were not very large at all - to use for slips next year.  The question was what to do with the rest of the small harvest, which was just enough to serve as part of a mid-week lunch.  Inspired by Dave's recent post, I decided to do a mash.  The potatoes were boiled until tender, plopped into the food processor - skins and all - and pureed with the addition of a delicious sage butter.  The sage was also courtesy of the garden (small herb harvests like this are not tallied).

Steamy sweet potatoes about to be blitzed
It was good.  So good, in fact, that I forgot to take an "after" picture - I just gobbled it right up.  Thanks Dave!  So the moral of the story is that even if you only have tiny sweets, don't despair...they still make for some very good eating.

My harvest totals this week were:

Broccoli – 676 grams (1.49 lbs)
Chinese Greens – 234 grams (0.52 lbs)

Total for Week – 910 grams (2.01 lbs)

Total to Date – 211 kg (465 lbs)

To see what everyone else has been harvesting over the past week, head on over to Our Happy Acres where Dave is our host for Harvest Mondays.

Till next time…

Comments

  1. Beautiful harvest of greens! Love the tatsoi and mizuna. Mizuna is wonderful in salad and it holds very well to the colder air.

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    1. Thanks Jenny - the mizuna seems to be doing fine, but it was bitterly cold with more snow yesterday, so we'll see what I find when the temps warm up.

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  2. Your broccoli has done so well for you. Good news that you got to enjoy those sweet potatoes, even small harvests are definitely worth having.

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    1. Oh, definitely Jo - and because they are so small, they are often the harvests that we end up savouring the most!

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  3. An extra pound and a half of broccoli, that's a nice bonus. That tatsoi is so pretty, it makes me want to try growing some. Sage butter - big yum! Did you brown the butter first? I love to crisp the sage leaves in the butter and then the mix on all sorts of things - sweet potatoes of course, winter squash, carrots, snow peas, it's even good on things like pasta (squash tortellini!), gnocchi, fish, and chicken. Getting hungry...

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    1. I think I did brown the butter first, but can't really recall. I haven't had sage butter in so long & forgot how lovely it was. Half of those crisply sage leaves ended up in my mouth rather than in the sweet potatoes! Ooooh and great sage butter ideas - there were still many good sized sage leaves on the plant before the freeze; not sure how they will fair, but I'll be checking once we get above zero.

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  4. That's amazing about the side shoots on the broccoli, and what a pleasant surprise! So glad you liked your sweet potato mash. We always find something to do with our tubers small and large. I also like to cut up and roast the odd sized ones. My mizuna usually lasts well into winter, even longer when protected so I would be surprised if yours didn't hang on a bit longer.

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    1. I'll have to try roasting the sweet potatoes next year - hopefully I get more than a bowlful then! I'm keeping my fingers crossed on the mizuna - I'm really enjoying it so will be quite sad when it's at an end.

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  5. When you grow your own veg, every little counts. I'm sure we gardeners eat veg that others would dismiss as insignificant and not worth bothering with. Aren't we good?! What do you do with the Mizuna? Is it just a salad ingredient for you, or do you sometimes cook it? I have heard that it works well in a stir-fry.

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    1. We ARE good Mark! And we also know the secret - those "insignificant" harvests are often very tasty...people don't know what they are missing!

      The mizuna is delicious both raw and cooked. The younger leaves are amazing as part of a salad. I have also used it in stir-fry's as well as simply blanched it and had it as cooked vegetable. It's such a versatile veg; I wish I had started growing it sooner.

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  6. The broccoli plants that keep on giving, pretty amazing. And your tatsoi and mizuna look wonderful.

    Potatoes are such a fun crop, you never know what's lurking beneath the soil. Are you going to grow sweet potatoes next year? Sweet potatoes do much better than regular potatoes here, I've never actually been able to harvest a single regular potato in Kentucky.

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    1. Thanks Phuong - the broccoli has been such a wonderful surprise this year. We've been eating a lot fresh and have a ton in the freezer as well - can't get better than that!

      I do plan to give sweet potatoes another go next year & hopefully get better results. I know that regular potatoes prefer a moderate sort of temp - not too hot. I'm not sure how long your seasons are there, but maybe they would do better in the spring or fall? I'm wondering if there are any other warm climate gardeners that have been successful with them - they may have some tricks to impart.

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  7. Hi! Isn't it sad when you near the end of a harvest. Enjoy yours this week. Sounds like you did on the sweet potatoes!! Nancy

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    1. Oh, I definitely enjoyed those sweet potatoes Nancy! I don't often buy sweet potatoes as I'm the only one in my family that seems to enjoy them, but that mash had me placing them on my shopping list.

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  8. Sweet potatoes and sage butter!? Yum, that sounds so good I'm going to have to try it. And still a lovely basket of veg for this time.

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    1. Thanks Susie - that may be the end of the road for me...the weather has been so bitterly cold in the last couple of days that I'm starting to have my doubts as to whether I'll have anything to harvest once it warms up.

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  9. Yum! Your harvests are truly inspirational, Margaret, and it's so fun to see how you prepare your produce, too. The sweet potatoes look so tasty.

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    1. Oh, thanks Beth...you are just too kind. I wish you lived closer...we could have shared that bowlful of sweet potatoes :)

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  10. I used to grow mizuma and found them to be very hardy so yours will hang in there for a while. The snowstorm you got was supposed to head our way but decided to head your way instead, not complaining :) Late November and you are still getting a decent harvest, not bad at all.

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    1. Thanks Norma...except for the snow, that is ;)

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  11. You have had more to report from us as this week, or should I say last week, has been plotless.

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    1. I'm sure you'll more than make up for it next week!

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  12. Oh, great, really pleased to hear you got more broccoli. It definitely pays to not be too hasty to 'tidy up' for winter.
    Mm I love sweet potatoes so any harvest looks good to me.

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    1. Oh yes, no issues being too hasty doing anything this year ;)

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  13. Very impressive, Margaret. I bow down to your skill with veggies. And would have loved a taste of those taters -- sage butter, yum.

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    1. Oh, I still have a LOT to learn. It's like they say - the more you know the more you realize that there's so much you don't know! You are more than welcome to pop by for a sweet potato tasting (with sage butter, of course!) - hopefully next years harvest will yield more than a few spoonfuls :)

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  14. Don't you just love the way those little heads of tatsoi grow?

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    1. They're gorgeous, aren't they - and I just found another one hiding under the mizuna when I gave it a haircut the other day...

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