Preserving

Sunday, May 30, 2010

Harvest Memorial Day

We have been blessed with beautiful weather for the holiday weekend and a bountiful harvest. So far, we have had two picnics. On Saturday evening we had a picnic with my son and little garden helper. We enjoyed a great spinach salad with a wonderful bacon dressing that "The Italian" prepared. (spinach & and strawberry pictures were posted earlier this week) Yesterday we went to my in-laws for a picnic and enjoyed some of the fresh strawberries over vanilla ice cream. It's a simple, yet wonderful dessert!

A little mixed lettuce, parsley and basil.
Just enough lettuce for a nice salad. I am going to dry the parsley and basil today. They are the two most difficult herbs to dry and keep the color. I don't have a dehydrator. So, I am going to try to dry them in the oven on a low heat. I always wait too late in the season to start drying these two herbs. Hopefully this process will work better then drying them in bags. If not, I have a lot of time to dry some more.


2 of the 4 small heads of sprouting broccoli.
My broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower have bolted quite a bit due to the crazy weather we have been having. I am still hoping to get enough cabbage from this early crop for some nice sauerkraut.


8 oz. of fresh snow peas.
The snow peas are producing like crazy the past couple of day. Hopefully we will get enough for a few dinners and some to freeze.


How do you like that for a strawberry face!!
The little garden helper has been having a hard time staying out of the strawberry patch. I planted that bed for him last year. I think that we will have to make a sign for his strawberry bed.


Harvest total for the week: 8 lbs.

Broccoli - 12 oz.
Herbs (Parsley & Basil) - 4 oz.
Lettuce - 4 oz.
PakChoi - 2 lbs.
Scapes - 8 oz.
Snow Peas - 8 oz.
Spinach - 2 lbs. 5 oz.
Strawberries - 1 lb. 7 oz.

9 comments:

  1. Look at that face! hahaha...talk about incriminating evidence.

    A couple of my broccoli plants started to grow heads immaturely too. I think it's a symptom of the crazy weather we've been having.

    Basil? How on earth do you have basil aleady? Mine are still tiny.

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  2. I’ve been meaning to buy food dehydrator for drying veggies, fruits and herbs. I never had any success in drying in the oven.

    Great harvest, I can’t wait for my cauliflower to start growing heads.

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  3. Oooh, strawberries over ice cream sounds nice! And I can identify with that strawberry face. ;-)

    I think basil and parsley are the 2 hardest herbs to dry. I'm never satisfied with how the parsley turns out. We do have a dehydrator, but I just hang the basil up to dry in our basement. We have a dehumidifier down there which helps with the drying. It turns dark but it tastes and smells good.

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  4. Cute strawberry face! I don't blame him for foraging in the strawberry bed, fresh strawberries are sooo good. :)

    Your harvests look really good and that spinach salad with bacon dressing - heavenly.

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  5. Thomas, Yes, the crazy weather is really creating havic with some of the veggies. I started the basil inside and then put in the greenhouse for a while. It's really growing nicely. I will probably have to plant more.

    MojVrt, Thanks, This will be the first time trying to dry herbs in the oven. I think that I'm going to ask Santa for a dehydrator for Christmas.

    Villager, I will let you know how the drying in the oven turns out.

    Michelle, Thanks, I will post the bacon dressing recipe tomorrow. It is really good.

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  6. I love strawberry faces especially as they mean strawberries were eaten! That's a nice looking head of broccoli.

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  7. OG, Thanks... We love that strawberry face and ripe strawberries too!

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  8. I'm getting bolting early this year too. Don't you wish you knew what the weather was going to be like each year so you can plan for it? Your salad greens look just lovely.

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  9. Daphne, Yes, I really wish that I could predict the weather. I just pulled three of my broccoli plants this morning due to the bolting. The greens tasted really good too!

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