Monday 21 December 2015

Harvest Monday - 21st December 2015

This past week I harvested the first few shoots from my "Endeavour" Brokali:


For those of you who don't know Brokali, it is a cross between Kale and Chinese broccoli. Its parentage is very obvious here:-


I have pulled up a few Leeks too. I had been hoping they would get bigger than they are, but looking very closely at them I judged them the be full-grown. In fact one or two of them were looking as if they might bolt, so I thought it best to use them sooner rather than later:


Apart from their diminutive size, these were nice Leeks. My deep planting method has worked well and the shanks of the Leeks are nicely blanched.


Some of you will already have seen that this batch of four went into a Leek and Potato soup.

We have had exceptionally mild weather just recently, and there has been no frost to kill off my salad plants, so I'm still harvesting Lettuce and Endive every now and then.


This little batch formed an accompaniment to a mushroom and Pecorino risotto. They are not prime specimens, but still perfectly acceptable.


With yesterday's dinner of roast Goose we ate two whole Savoy Cabbages!


In all honesty, they were truly tiny. You don't get much of an impression of their size until you see them alongside something else - like here:-


The cabbages were some of those that have been growing underneath my huge PSB plants, so they are a bit of a bonus really. Grown in full light I'm sure they would have been bigger!

As you can see, I also harvested some Parsnips and some Carrots. The Parsnips were totally pathetic. Just like the previous batch they were long and skinny with very little substance, and badly affected by canker.


All I can say is "Thank goodness for the Carrots!"




This is my contribution to Harvest Monday, hosted by Dave at Our Happy Acres, so please drop by there and see what other Christmas produce has been harvested.

9 comments:

  1. That's a great demonstration of perspective! We just used up the last of the garden lettuce this past week, so unfortunately, we will have to make due with grocery lettuce until spring arrives. I wonder how long you will be able to keep your lettuce patch going this winter...

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  2. Another nice harvest. It's good to have so much variety at this time of year.

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  3. Thanks as always for the images. I will have to post you my recipe for rendang someday.

    By the way I just pulled some leaves off my Brokali too... You can pluck leaves here and there before the broccoli part is finished and use it in stir fry or other dishes, juice etc... Also I had these beautiful Parsnips in previous years but also seem to have what yours suffered from. When I moved allotments I think this ground is ruined though many claim it to be better than where I was.

    Another person has claimed this rot/sickness was the same source and damage (from carrot fly)

    Curious if you ever heard that?

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  4. That's a really nice variety of veggies you have for this time of year. Your Brokali must be a different variety than what I grow, as my leaves are never curly like that. Yours also has more of the leaves, which is a nice bonus too.

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    1. Yes, I think one of the parents is the Cavolo Nero style of kale (Lacinato kale to you!).

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  5. The brokalis that I grow, like Dave's, have smooth leaves also. It's difficult to tell them apart from the sprouting broccolis. It's such a shame that your parsnips fared so poorly this year, it seems that your entire patch has been infected. I hope that you have better luck with them next year.

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  6. I wish our harvest was as good as yours. It is nice to have followed your leeks progress from seed. Our's aren't big enough to pick yet but at least they are still in the ground, despite the strong winds! sarah x

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  7. I wish our harvest was as good as yours. It is nice to have followed your leeks progress from seed. Our's aren't big enough to pick yet but at least they are still in the ground, despite the strong winds! sarah x

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  8. I wish our harvest was as good as yours. It is nice to have followed your leeks progress from seed. Our's aren't big enough to pick yet but at least they are still in the ground, despite the strong winds! sarah x

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