Harvest Monday

Our sole Danish Ballhead. All of the others
are a savoy type that I need to pin back to
an actual name.

We picked the first of the cabbages this weekend. It was on the small side, but it was more than enough for the pumpkin curry recipe it was plucked for. The pumpkin curry isn't pictured, but it certainly warranted being captured. I have some for lunch today and I expect that it'll be as tasty as before.

Also not pictured are some truly gorgeous Collards that Shari picked yesterday (their leaves are a deep uniform green and look super healthy and tasty after the recent frosts), as well as the smattering of carrots, chard and onions that made it into the week's meals.  Not pictured for better reason are the few straggling tomatoes we managed to pull from the greenhouse. Actually they probably should have been posted, just to commemorate their fortitude.

For many well pictured posts, head over to Daphne's Dandelions for many Harvest Monday contributors.

Baking interlude

The hours of light are short. The temperatures have dipped. The sky its dripping. It is time to bake. It has been years since I've made bread on a regular basis. I let my sourdough starter go and turned my attention elsewhere. I have some attention again and have acquired part of a great starter from a friend. It is nice to turn some attention back to bread.

Multigrain just before baking.

A country-white, the essence of bread:
flour, water, starter, salt.

Multigrain cooling, delicious potential at 

Bagels with a nice chew.

Frosty Morning

There was a pretty thick fog last night that our 26 degree night turned into a blanket of frost. Everything is certainly hunkered down.

Non-Purple broccoli. It is an experiment.
I don't know if it will last the winter.

Up close with a frosty broccoli.

Purple Broccoli.

Leeks, beets and chard. There are carrots
tucked down  beneath the autumn leaves.

Blustery Harvests

It is fall, the first leek came out of the ground the other night. It was a beauty, a good omen for the coming winter. This leek found its way into the wok. There it met some green onion, garlic and chard. Leeks are one of the many vegetables that I didn't know what to do with a few years. I could think of nothing aside from Potato & Leek soup. That always seemed too hard, too involved, too heavy. Then Alicia Silverstone told us, through her book The Kind Diet, to steam it with a bit of vinegar and pepper. It is terribly simple and terribly tasty. Now I can incorporate a leek or two into any dinner in a matter of minutes.

The first of many leeks to come

It was also a week to pick the last of the peppers and tear down the couple remaining tomatoes that were still outside the greenhouse. We are down to less than a 5 gallon bucket of green San Marzano.  I'm not sure what to do with them, aside from trying to let them ripen. I've read that they are easily canned, but that still doesn't tell me what to do with them. It would be fine to let them go to compost, but I'll look around a bit more before that happens.

Shades of green -- Tomatillos, the last of the peppers
and a handful of San Marzano Romas.

A squash per week

Squash is a super-food, packed with vitamins and 'good stuff' according to nutrition writers. I don't doubt this at all, but I don't think that one vegetable thrown into an unhealthy diet is going to save a person. Everyone should throw in handfuls, gobs, mounds and mountains of greens, reds, and oranges. That'll lead to profound changes.

As for us, we need to eat at least a squash a week if a have any hope of making it through our stores by the time spring is upon us. It is a good 'problem' to have. Last year we lost several to freezing temperatures. Without a cellar, it is a challenge to find storage. I will try to insulate them better this year.

Pictured is a sunshine kabocha. The meat is dry and sweet. They are supposed to be good keepers. I can tell you, so far, that they are good eaters. A simple steaming was all that was required for this one to be super tasty.

Also pictured is my other sunshine, in front of a mound of chard that is awaiting the wok.

This post was added to Daphne's Dandelions Harvest Monday entry. Go take a gander and see what's growing around the world.

Freeze

First real frost of the year (11/5). That's not much of an entry, but I'll surely ask myself next year this very question.