Monday, April 22, 2013

Harvest Monday, April 22, 2013

Whoohoo! Finally a harvest. My greens are getting bigger. The kale has put on new growth and is pickable. I have bunching onions ready to pick. These onions went to seed last summer. I sprinkled their seed in spots around the garden. Though the seed was from a hybrid plant I figured there would be plenty of nice onions from it. Some might be different from others, but they are just bunching onions. What would I care if they had different traits. The mixed greens (4 types of lettuce, mache, Fun Jen, 2 kinds of mizuna, spinach, cilantro) were put into a salad. I didn't weigh them separately. There was often just a couple leaves of something picked. I weighed it all together and put the total under lettuce. Close enough.

Two days later I picked again. Little baby leaves. I do prefer full grown lettuce leaves. I like the crunch and texture better. But it is still April. I'll take what I can get. Our spring was late this year and I really want fresh greens.

This is the salad I made. The beans were pickled. Kind of like a three bean salad, but with one type of bean. They were a nice tangy addition to the salad. I also put in some roasted sweet potatoes, both orange and purple. After the photo was taken I sprinkled on some onions. I had forgotten to put them on earlier and was thinking there was something missing. Oh yeah, the bite of the onion. In addition I bought myself an avocado to add.

Now I have to go and add up my totals and get it on the side bar. The weight might not be much, but I always celebrate the early harvests, no matter how small.

Harvest Monday is a day to show off your harvests, how you are saving your harvest, or how you are using your harvest. If you have a harvest you want to show off, add your name and link to Mr Linky below.

25 comments:

  1. That's the great thing about gardener's we celebrate the small victories. A small salad, 1 small beetroot - great greens, I'm in a similar boat only having greens again now after a harsh summer.

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  2. Yay for harvests. And although I have a reasonable amount still to harvest I am jealous of those leaves as I stuffed up the succession planting of lettuces and I don't have any harvestable at the moment.

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  3. I have been buying salad fixings from the store, because I so want the taste of fresh veggies from the garden. Nothing yet, though. I am really impatient with this garden this year. I want it to get going already. :)

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  4. Congrats on the harvest after that long break. Nothing better than getting into the salad greens at the start of a new season.

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  5. Your salad combination is so unique, love the idea of the roasted sweet potatoes and pickled beans. Do you roast a big batch of sweet potato and freeze or roast as needed?

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    1. I use what I have, and since I had those I used them. It was good too. I roasted several sweet potatoes in small bite sized pieces at the beginning of the week. I've been using them as sides and on top of my salads for many of my meals. I do often freeze such things too, but didn't this time. I'm going to have to do something with my remaining sweet potatoes. My basement is now officially at 60F - at least in the sweet potato bin. So they will start to sprout soon if I don't use them up. Maybe I should can the rest. Though I could freeze some as my freezer is getting much more empty now.

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  6. NICE salad. It's 9am and I'm already thinking salad now. LOL. Thanks!

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  7. Mmm...picked beans sounds good. I love anything pickled.

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  8. That salad looks so delicious and nutritious too. The onions would definitely make it even better. Glad you are getting the early greens harvests now. Before you know it, you will be swimming in produce once again.

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  9. Beautiful greens and beautiful salad. I'm with ya on the bunching onions, who cares what they are!

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  10. Nothing beats the sweetness and rich flavor of roasted sweet potatoes. Such a "problem" to have too many in the cellar!

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  11. Great that you got a harvest after the "lean and hungry" months! That salad you made does look very nice indeed, and the combination of fresh things with preserved things makes maximum use of colours and flavours. My Baby Leaf Salad is about an inch tall, so I have a while to wait yet before I can pick any.

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  12. A lovely harbinger of the rich season to come — Happy Earth Day!

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  13. Hooray for your first harvest of the spring! It is always so exciting to have something fresh and green after the winter. That salad looks very yummy. I hope I can do a better job at storing sweet potatoes this year.

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  14. Congrats on your harvest! Just love all the colors and textures of fresh lettuce leaves. Was your hubby just as excited with salad or did you enjoy it all by yourself?

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    1. No hubby doesn't eat salad (or veggies). So it was all mine.

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  15. Your greens look great! I finally went out to harvest my first greens today too. The mache is starting to go to seed in my cold frame.

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  16. Woo hoo! I'm in for my first harvest of the year!

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  17. You are getting a nice little harvest already. The salad look great and you are giving me ideas! Gardeners are always so excited for the first little harvests! Nancy

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  18. I'm attempting to grow Kale this year...so far it's looking good.

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  19. Congratulations on your harvest! It's good to see you finally having a chance to enjoy fresh food again!

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  20. Nice harvest! I really like it when a few bunching onions survive the winter and begin growing. They help fill the gap until the other onions are ready.

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  21. As always, your salad gave me new ideas. Never thought of using roasted sweet potatoes in a salad but I can see how that would work.

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  22. Your canned food always looks so pretty. I did a comparison with starting my celery indoors in different size pots. My link this time shows the huge difference between peat pot sizes and the sizes of the celery plants. No more little pots for starting plants at my house. Thanks for sharing your harvest photos and creating a space for us to share.

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