Welcome to Harvest Monday, where we celebrate all things harvest related. It’s hard to believe it is November already, with Thanksgiving only a bit over three weeks away. It must be true though, because I just put in an order for a fresh turkey from our favorite local producer, Uebelhack Turkey Farm. Here at HA we are enjoying fresh seasonal veggies like the Coalition Mix kale I harvested last week. I like the big flat leaves on this kale which are easy to clean and easy to cut. It’s also tasty, and we braised this batch to go with some baked pork chops we had for dinner one night.
Coalition Mix kale
I also picked out some of the larger Hakurei and Tsugaru Scarlet turnips to grate up for turnip kraut. The kraut has been fermenting for five days now, and it has stopped bubbling. I made one pint jar each from the Hakurei and Tsugaru Scalet and I will taste them later today and see if they are ready. I harvested another batch of the Hakurei for a meal earlier in the week. It was my wife’s turn to cook last week, and I always give her a list of what’s available from the garden. There’s lots of kale and turnips ready right about now, and she has worked them both onto the menu several times now.
Tsugaru Scarlet and Hakurei turnips
The leaf stems on the Tsugaru Scarlet turnips are a lovely shade of reddish green, and they almost look like rhubarb. I gave one a taste, and they had a nice juicy crunch to them. I decided to try fermenting them. I’ll let you know how they turn out, but I will say the stems were pretty tasty even before fermenting.
Tsugaru Scarlet turnips
It was a good year for spinach here, and I froze quite a bit for later use. It finds its way into all sorts of dishes, but one of my favorites is my wife’s Spinach Pie. It’s not exactly a quiche and not exactly a tarte, so we just call it a pie! She served it up for dinner one night with some cooked Hakurei turnips as a side dish.
slice of Spinach Pie
I planted lots of kale this fall. It’s something we enjoy eating, and with any luck we will have it available until really cold weather arrives. I made another cutting of the Wild Garden Mix last week. It’s a little bit more curly than the Coalition Mix, with the occasional plant that is downright frilly, but the leaves are big and still fairly flat and smooth. The leaves in the basket in the below photo came from several different plants, and you can see the color differences plus a leaf on the far right from one of the ‘frilly’ plants. I need to do a spotlight on these two kale mixes because they have been great performers for me here.
Wild Garden Mix kale
I think the flat leaves makes it great for kale chips, among other things. My wife whipped up a batch of those last week. We pretty much ate the whole bowl of them in one sitting too! The slightly different colors and textures of the Wild Garden Mix made for a colorful display.
kale chips from Wild Garden Mix kale
My smallest harvest of the week came from the greenhouse. I wanted to save seeds from the Aji Golden peppers, and I had a few that ripened after I put the container plant in the greenhouse. I’m not sure where the peppers will wind up after I take the seeds out, perhaps in a dish later this week. I still have Aji Panca and Malawi Piquante peppers ripening on other container plants in the greenhouse. I’m planning on a report on the pickled Malawi peppers later this week.
Aji Golden peppers
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 share, add your name and blog link to Mr Linky below. And be sure and check out what everyone is harvesting!
What a beautiful colour on those turnip! I recall not liking turnip as a child, but should consider tasting it again some time as it seems a popular crop to grow. And that spinach pie looks delicious.
The white salad turnips like Hakurei, Oasis, White Lady, etc have a mild sweet flavor. Hakurei is quick too, maturing in about 40 days.
I have never tried growing turnips before…I can’t recall eating them either, but yours are so beautiful! I might just give them a try. Also, I really enjoyed your post on saur kraut yesterday. Have you ever tried making Kim Chi? I have a good bit of bok choy doing impressively well in my garden, and I’m thinking of trying to make that.
I have not tried making kimchi yet, but I know others who make it in the jar just like the sauerkraut. You should give it a try! I’ve not had good luck growing the bok choy myself.
Those scarlet turnips are certainly vivid – they look very like Beetroot (Beets to you!). Kale is the “In” vegetable these days, isn’t it? Previously it has had a bad press, but I think this is being offset now, and people recognise its good qualities – like its high nutritional value.
Yes, kale has made a comeback. I never used to grow it, but about ten years ago I discovered how tasty the homegrown varieties can be. As for the Tsugaru Scarlet, it looks a lot like beetroot until you cut it open, and then you see the white flesh!
I too love the color of your Tsugaru Scarlet turnips. Did not have a good turnip year, must remember to thin in a timely manner next year. Making kale chips from flat leaves kale is a great idea.
Sorry to hear about your turnips, Norma. I did a better job than usual thinning the turnips this year, and they have done well for me. It is not my favorite garden chore though!
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Turnips are not very well liked in our household. I should branch out and try other varieties. Tsugaru Scarlet turnips are so pretty. I know the foliage would be put to good use either as sauteed greens or as a treat for the chickens.
Not much harvest for me this week, but I am still working on trying to preserve all the apples I can. I linked a spiced apple jelly recipe. I hope this is ok.
We had some of the Tusgaru Scarlet greens last night with dinner, and they tasted lovely. I bet the chickens would go for them too! I haven’t made apple jelly in a while but your spiced jelly sounds yummy. And you know we celebrate all parts of the harvest on Harvest Mondays! Growing it and harvesting is only part of the story. I think what we do with it is often the best part!!!
Wow, what beautiful turnips, and they really sized up, too. I’m curious…since you grow so many different peppers, how do you know they seeds they produce will be true?
I don’t isolate or cover them, so I don’t know for sure that the peppers will breed true. I have had good luck with the ones I have saved in the past, and in the worst case I might get an interesting new variety!
Your lovely fall harvests remind me that my fall-winter garden is not planted yet. Temps in the 80’s make me fearful of bolting lettuce and button broccoli. Looks like it’s cooling this week so I’m headed to the garden this morning.
Thank you for introducing Harvest Monday readers to new varieties and new ways to use our harvests. The flatter ‘Red Russian’ kale leaves make sense for kale chips, leaving the Tuscan kale for salads and soups. I’ve not fermented the winter vegetables yet but am encouraged to try by your reports. Look forward to the Monday read.
Those scarlet turnips are gorgeous as are those peppers! I often think that I have to devise meal plans in advance around what’s growing in the garden, but then completely forget. Hopefully I’ll get better at that in time. I’ve tried kale chips made with frilly kale, but not flat – I’ll definitely make a note to give that a try next year.
I love the kale chips made with any kind of kale!
Do the red turnips have the “turnip” taste/smell or more like radish?
They taste like other turnips, more like a Purple Top than say a white salad turnip. But definitely a turnip taste! The greens were also very good.
I’ll add my “those turnips are incredible”!
Supernaturally colored almost.
Almost ‘glow in the dark’ colored! And they make a good kraut for that very reason. I’ve also pickled them in a vinegar solution, and they are good that way too.
Great looking harvest this week! I’m missing spinach this fall. We had a terrible leaf miner infestation that limited us to just a few leaves. The plants seem to be recovering now so I’ve put a cold frame over them so they can over winter for the spring. I love the turnips! We are trying them for the first time this fall!
The turnips are gorgeous, they look like giant radishes. I didn’t get any planted this fall, it has been so warm that I figured they might just bolt. The weather really turned last night, it’s cold and pouring rain today so maybe later this week I’ll be able to get some cool weather veggies sown. Are the Aji Goldens spicy?
The Aji Goldens are mildly hot, at least in my climate. I wonder how similar they are to Aji Amarillo. I plan to try them both next year to compare.
I have never heard of kale chips. Do you just deep fry the leaves?
You toss them with oil and them bake them in the oven on a sheet. A little salt is nice too. When they are dry, they are done!
Ooh lovely kale….I didn’t know you could get flat leaf varieties. I’ve made kale chips once before, I think I just drizzled with a little oil and baked them in the oven for a little while, trying not to burn them if I recall correctly! Very yummy though.
I really like the look of that spinach pie, delicious.
The flat leaf varieties of kale are fairly new to me too. And that’s the way we make the kale chips too, baked with a little oil and salt.
The turnips are beautiful and flawless. I usually have some maggot damage, but maybe this late that would be minimal. Some of the red ones would be attractive shredded and added to kimchee if you decide to make some. I have used Napa cabbage for kimchee and added shredded turnips and radish for color. Waiting for my second batch of Napa to size up.