Monday, April 27, 2015

Harvest Monday, 27 April 2015

This title might more appropriately be called the lasts and the firsts. The lasts were my storage harvests from last year. Above is the last sweet potato.

I cut them up into fry shapes and roasted them. They are such a lovely mottled lilac before they are cooked. But after cooking they turn dark purple.

I cooked up the last three butternut squash.

Which I pureed. Two got frozen for future use, but one got made into a custard right away for dinner.

I also finished up the last of the carrots. So except for that little bit of frozen puree, I've finished off my colorful storage crops. I'll miss them. And though the garden has started to produce it isn't nearly enough to feed me yet. So I'll be buying yet more from the market until I ramp up later in the spring.

Though I've used up my main storage crops, at least the garden is producing something. This is one week's harvest. It contains the first spinach harvest and the first bok choy harvest. I'm really thrilled to pick enough that I can cook it up for dinner.

After a long winter of no harvests, it seems like a lot. But the reality is that it was just 0.86 lbs which is only about five servings of vegetables once it is cooked up. I try to eat eight a day give or take (since last September before then it was closer to six servings). That many servings comes to about 2 cups of cooked vegetables at lunch and again at dinner. I tend to like fruit at breakfast. It is easy to keep up over the winter. I have my frozen greens (spinach, chard, kale, broccoli) which I eat a cup of at each meal. And I have my colorful storage crops (carrots, squash, sweet potatoes). I eat a cup of them too. So I get some variety. But will I want two cups of greens this spring? I'm not so sure. I suppose I'll find out. If not I'll end up supplementing for a while until I get more of a varied harvest.

Dinner with my first spinach and some of my last squash. And the very rare boxed dinner. Most all my food is made from scratch. Even the mayo for the sauce was homemade. But not the fish sticks. It is my rare "I don't want to make dinner" dinner.

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.

17 comments:

  1. I have no more purple SP in storage, waiting for new crop. My garden is not producing any greens yet but I am hoping soon.

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  2. Thankfully we still have some purple sweet potatoes in storage, plus a few Beauregard. My butternuts are long gone, though I do have some of the Thai squash left. It is too bad you haven't had luck with asparagus. It goes well for us this time of year. It's green, but not a green like spinach, kale, etc. I have a hard time eating more than one green per meal, or more than one brassica. Now if I could just get carrots to last longer, I would really be happy!

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  3. Valerie informed the other day that we are out of last years veggies. We ate the last bag of peas on Friday. So now we are dependent on the garden for fresh as well. Great job with your first harvest!!

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  4. Purple when cooked? Would love to see those sweet potatoes. Usually the purple in vegetables becomes green. I'll have to wait until next year...

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  5. What a beautiful basket of greens. It looks like the bugs haven't woken up yet, those leaves are pristine.

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  6. Those greens look amazing! I so can't wait but just this morning realized that I am a full month behind on sowing my lettuce. I knew I was behind but not THAT behind.

    I often have "I don't want to make dinner" moments - but if I didn't cook, I would be eating take out most of the time as that is what my husband specializes in ;)

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  7. Everything looks delicious! It looks like your garden is starting to produce just in time. Your sweet potato is so beautiful, what variety is it?

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  8. Daphne, I'm intrigued that you made custard with your butternut squash, would you be happy to share the recipe? The sweet potato is an amazing colour too.

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    1. No real recipe. I just added coconut milk and eggs, vanilla and cinnamon and mixed it together. If I had to guess I'd say for every cup of squash puree I added 1 egg and 1/4-1/3c milk.

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    2. Thank you, I will try to give it a go someday.

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  9. A late entry from me this time! Very busy - not much opportunity for any harvesting or gardening...

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  10. Your food includig the spinach and bok choy, look very appetizing

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  11. The sweet potato is an incredible colour! All those leaves look brilliant too. It's amzing to think your snow has only recently gone.

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  12. Hi! May is almost here and you did well to make your supplies last this long! Beautiful looking greens. 2 cups of veggies a day. Think I need to up my amount of veggies! Nancy

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  13. Oh, so exciting to see your greens - I'm at least a couple of weeks behind, maybe more so I'm envious! And I LOVE veggie "custards" - make them often myself.

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