Harvest Monday

Tags

farm fresh eggs, flower arrangement, flowers, free range eggs, frittatas, garlic, Mushipan, organic eggs, potatoes, spinach, wild flowers

Harvest was sporadic throughout the last week and a half. Didn’t really have much chance to get to the garden. It rained and rained, everything was wet and muddy. On days that were dry, I found myself having other commitments taking me away from the garden. 

The garden seems to be in a transition, but not in a good way. Spring crops are dwindling, but Summer crops have been slow to produce. So I’m left with not much to harvest. This really is one of the slowest years for me.

That’s why I’d rather be talking about this, also from the garden. Don’t you just love flowers from the backyard?

Haha … all kidding aside, I did dig up some garlic and a few potatoes. Is there anything more thrilling than digging in the dirt and finding these?

I only took a few and let the plants continue growing. I never did this before, but I learned from Granny that you could scrabble for a few new potatoes without uprooting the whole plants. Hopefully they’ll continue to produce more tubers.

Aren’t they beautiful? I need to plant more potatoes! They were steamed and dressed with a simple yogurt dressing, and we each had a little taste. Sabo and the kids were so impressed. I was even able to extract promises of help in the garden from the kids, as long as I plant more potatoes. But somehow, in the middle of the conversation, the subject of getting them a puppy came up again. So, as it stands now, a puppy = help in the garden. Am I getting bamboozled again? We’ve trained them too darn well!

Unlike the potatoes, the garlic on the other hand, was pathetic and failed to impress the family. They were probably not ready to harvest, but I was impatient. The small single bulbs were planted thickly in March from garlic that sprouted in storage, so I suppose they had no hope.

But I actually like these single bulbs. I think they’ll be beautiful in a jar, as pickles. I have a head of garlic that’s sprouting in the kitchen right now, so it will be planted. Hopefully in September I will be harvesting more single garlic bulbs.

There was also a bit of spinach, the last of it. It was added to a frittata, along with some gigantic scallions.

I also harvested lots of lemon balm, which I used in many recipes, including a Japanese steamed bun called “Mushipan.” It really turned out smashingly good! Give it a try, it’s a healthier version than muffins since it uses less sugar and no butter, just a drop of oil.

Then, there was always a handful of strawberries every now and then. Mostly the alpine strawberries. I’m happy to report that they are still putting out fruits. The Sequoia strawberries, on the other hand, are about done.

Can you see how rich the color of that yolk is?

Last but not least, there were eggs from a friend’s backyard. Thank you, Laurie! I keep telling her I would pay for these eggs, but she keeps refusing my money. These eggs are big and oh, so rich and so good, because they are free-range organic eggs. I have to turn them into something special. Stay tuned, I have something in mind.

All in all, it wasn’t bad, I guess. At least I was able to use something from the garden for a few meals, and that’s always a good thing, right? I can’t wait for the tomatoes and peppers to start kicking in. Seems like everything is slow this year.

In the meantime, enjoy this one more time, and then hop over to Daphne’s Dandelions to view more harvests, real ones!