Monday, 14 April 2014

Harvest Monday - 14th April 2014

Only a small contribution to Harvest Monday from me this week, but an interesting one because it is the first time I have harvested Wild Garlic (other than one or two leaves used as a garnish).


I have read about Wild Garlic pesto a lot, and most people seem to think it is nice, so that's what I did with my harvest. I "zuzzed" it in a food-processor, along with pine-nuts, Parmesan cheese and olive oil, producing this beautiful bowl of pesto:


It was powerful! You wouldn't want huge quantities of it (unless you were prepared to have smelly breath for the next couple of days!).

This week I have also picked a bit more Purple Sprouting Broccoli:


The broccoli has not been very prolific this year, and although I had plants of three different varieties, supposedly flowering at different times, they all came on at once. It's tempting to say "Oh, forget it; I'll grow something else instead", but I know that every year is different and you can't expect perfect crops every time. I have been growing PSB for many years now, and I'm not going to stop just because of one poor crop.

I have cut another few spears of Asparagus. Not enough though!




The final harvest I have to report is this endive - it is the one I wrote about blanching, the other day. The blanching process only took 7 days this time.





11 comments:

  1. That asparagus looks so delicious. I've been eating it too, but sadly from the market.

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  2. I am still impressed with your harvest, my husband will in fact be very jealous of your asparagus.Your wild garlic pesto looks fabulous, I made some chickpea pancakes with my foraged wild garlic. My neighbours have some PSB growing, but not much, its spaced out a lot and with only one head.

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  3. That pesto looks such a vivid green. There's loads of wild garlic growing in our local woods, I should really take some leaves and do something with them myself.

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  4. Wild garlic has become the in-thing to grow hasn't it? So does it taste like normal garlic?

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    1. Sue, I think that it tastes very similar - but perhaps (unsurprisingly) fresher. More "vegetabley"!

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  5. All look so stunning! I have never know about wild garlic. I only know a pesto that made from basil, sounds great!.

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  6. Great looking harvest Mark! Then endive looks great, I'm going to have to give that a try some year!

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  7. Hi Mark, what varieties of PSB did you grow? Mine are OK but a bit straggly; very long- maybe I should harvest it more often. Are you growing Tenderstem for the summer this year again? I have bought and sown some seeds after seeing your crop last year.

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    1. Hi April; this past year I grew Red Arrow, Red Spear and Early Purple Sprouting Broccoli. I think you need to pick the spears when they are really tight and compact - before the flowers open or show any yellow colour. I have got a couple of Tenderstem plants coming on - now it's just a question of finding some space to plant them!

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  8. That asparagus looks perfect! Nice harvests. Guess what? It snowed last night! For a change....

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    1. Oh David, poor you! You have had more than your fair share of snow. I bet you just can't wait for a bit of Summery weather.

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