Sunday, September 26, 2010

First Fall Harvest

fall broccoli
I love this time of year. Yes, the days are shorter, but the leaves are brighter, the air is crisp and I get to write this post seated next to the warmth of a glowing fire. It's a time to savor the remains of summer and get reacquainted with the tender greens of fall.

The jewel of this week's harvest happens to be this crown of broccoli. The variety is called 'Bonanza'. I picked it this afternoon and we had it for dinner. It was absolutely delicious - mild, sweet and much tastier than the 'Piracicaba' I grew this spring.

fall greens
One of my favorite things to do this time of year is to go out into the garden with a pair of scissors and cut a mix of greens to stir-fry. We're talking about farm to fork in a matter of minutes. Here, I have a bowl of baby bok choy, choy sum and white stem chard. My favorite way to prepare them is as follows: I get a pan VERY hot, then add about a tablespoon of butter. When the butter is melted, I add the greens followed by a splash of soy sauce and smooth chili paste. With the burner on medium-high and after a few tosses, the greens are done - the process taking about a minute. Simple and delicious.

Fall Harvest
I usually don't like to post the same picture twice, but in this case, it was unavoidable. My ancient laptop crashed the other day and I ended up losing all of my unpublished photos. I'm just glad that I have all of my favorite photos stored on Flickr (though I should probably find a way to export them all onto a backup drive).

I hope everyone is enjoying the cooler weather as much as I am!

This week's numbers:

Asian greens - 0.48 lb
Tomatoes - 14.41 lb
Eggplant - 0.56 lb
Snow peas - 0.13 lb
Broccoli - 0.43 lb

Total harvest this week - 16.01 lb
Total so far this year - 621.90 lb

24 comments:

  1. The picture of the broccoli is so colorful! I bet it was really good...

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  2. Oh, so sorry about the laptop crash and the loss of your recent photos. I still regret losing my hard drive with photos and recipes and back up at least one a week now.

    The broccoli looks amazing! I wish I had given broccoli a try again this fall. I also enjoy cutting things to quickly stir fry for meals. It's never the same dish.

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  3. Your broccoli looks wonderful Thomas! I have broccoli envy!! I am still getting a lot of tomatoes from the garden as well. Sorry about your hard drive crash. I think that it has happened to all of us at least once.

    I sent you an e-mail last night.

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  4. Wonderful harvests! I hope your computer troubles get fixed quickly.

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  5. so I finally get the Piricicaba and now you're telling me there's a better one? LOL! I can't keep up! Mine are growing well now with the slightly cooler nights, although still not down into the 60's yet, still a long ways off from a harvest.

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  6. Broccoli is one of my most favorite vegetables and it is always a small celebration when another crop is available to harvest. My fall crop is heading up and should be ready quite soon. Can hardly wait!

    Your fall transition harvest looks yummy and the stir fried greens recipe sounds delicious and simple.

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  7. Those stir-fried green sound delicious. And you can't get any fresher than that! Too bad about the laptop. As an old IT guy I gotta say you can't have too many backups!

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  8. What lovely harvests, it'a almost worth the chillier weather to enjoy all this stuff isn't it?

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  9. Oh no, not you too, I lost most of my photos when my external hard drive crashed months ago. But I take it you're still harvesting tomatoes, great!

    The broccoli looks great and I bet it was delicious. I still love the Piracicaba, it's a real work horse in my garden and I like the flavor.

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  10. You are writing your harvest monday post by a crackling fire and I am writing mine in 86F heat in the early morning!

    I also like to cook greens this way. I actually grow greens for exactly this purpose and never let get large. So fast, and delicious!

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  11. Your harvest in weight just blows my mind, Thomas.

    I am very sorry that I haven't been weighing mine, to see how funny the difference would be. I guess I do also tell garden design clients to watch the weight on their rooftops and to keep things light :-)

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  12. PS the CRASH, omg - it send chills down my spine. I'm so sorry. Thank you for the timely reminder for the external hard drive.

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  13. Great looking produce from the garden.... :)

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  14. I'm very sorry for the laptop crash! Maybe you can get it fixed?
    The broccoli looks delicious! And I love bok choy and have to try your way of preparing it! Sounds fast and easy - I like that!

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  15. Great harvest. I have tomato envy...

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  16. What a beautiful head of broccoli. I really miss having it in the garden this year. But there is always the farmers market I suppose.

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  17. Nice broccoli and Asian greens, Fall is my favorite time of the year for gardening.

    Sorry about your laptop crash, I should backup my files pronto, I don't do it often enough.

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  18. I'd have to say fall is my favorite season. The fresh air is nice and the lower sun angle gives good light as well.

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  19. What a great harvest and, WOW, broccoli already! It's been so hot in NC this year that we're not going to have much of a Fall. It's only been the past 5 days that high temps have been lower than the mid-90s. Most of our Fall "crops" didn't make it; I re-planted this past weekend. Hopefully we'll have a successful over-wintering for an early Spring harvest.

    Is that a melon there on the left side of the left tray?

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  20. foodgardenkitchen - yes it is but there wasn't much worth eating on the inside.

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  21. What beautiful fall harvest. Do you grow your asian greens under a row cover, too? I just learned that Daphne does that with hers, and am looking to do the same with mine. The cabbage worms have been enjoying all my asian green seedlings, leaving me with hardly anything.

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  22. Hey! I think youa re the first person to harvest fall brocoli! Looks yummy. Your pictures as always are colorful and bright.

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  23. thyme2garden - I only grow mine under cover during the winter and early spring. I grow plenty of brassicas so the cabbage worms nibble a little bit of this and a little bit of t hat but never ruin an entire crop. In my opinion, slugs are much more destructive this time of year.

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