The Modern Victory Garden

Each Monday, Daphne’s Dandelions hosts “Harvest Monday” where everyone submits links to their blog posts summarizing their harvest for the week.   It’s fun to see what people are producing from gardens from so many different regions, and how they are using it.    Check it out and join in!             

On Tuesday, I harvested a few artichokes, a nice pepper, and some tomatoes.   

The pepper was chopped up and frozen for future use.   The artichokes were steamed and served with some yummy bacon lettuce and tomato sandwiches for our evening meal.   The BLT’s were made with the tomatoes, some onions from storage, and lettuce that was harvested previously on Sunday.    

Wednesday night I pulled up the carrots that had some carrot fly damage.   I was able to salvage a pound and a quarter of the carrots through careful trimming.   The carrots were placed in the fridge and we have been snacking on them.             

On Saturday I harvested some tomatoes, a head of cabbage, a small cucumber, a full colander of bush beans, and some potatoes.                    

The tomatoes went on the counter to finish ripening up a bit.   The cucumber was just eaten for a snack.   The bush beans were blanched and frozen for winter use.   The cabbage was roasted using the following recipe:                

Oven Roasted Braised Red Cabbage

• 1 red cabbage, cut into 8 wedges and then coursely chopped
• 1/2 onion, medium diced
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 3 tablespoons good quality balsamic vinegar
• a sprinkle of salt, pepper
• 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1-2 tablespoons of sugar

Preheat the oven to 375 F degrees.                      

Place all the ingredients, except the sugar, in a large edged baking pan and toss/mix to ensure everything is coated with the oil/balsamic vinegar. Place in the oven and roast for 20 minutes.  Remove the pan from the oven and sprinkle sugar on the cabbage and mix well and then put it back into the oven and continue to roast for another 20 minutes.   The vegetables carmelize by roasting them this way and it is really delicious.                   

The roasted cabbage was served alongside baked pork chops and mashed potatoes and gravy (made from the fresh harvested potatoes) for dinner on Saturday.   The extra roasted cabbage was put into dinner sized serving containers and frozen for future use.                           

On Sunday I harvested the rest of the Ruby Ball cabbages as they were ready and I wanted to make room for some more fall crops to be transplanted out.     I also did a hard harvest on the swiss chard plants and did a final harvest of the Toscano kale.   The kale was also pulled out after this harvest because I wanted to plant a large bed of spinach and other greens there for fall and early winter use.      

Everything harvested on Sunday was processed for freezing with the exception of the two smallest heads of cabbage, which I held out to keep in the fridge for use in the next several weeks.   The remaining four heads of cabbage were roasted in a large roaster pan using the recipe above multiplied by 4.    Once cooled the roasted cabbage was placed in freezer containers in portions sufficient for a single meal.    This is a great way to use a  bounty of red cabbage because the roasted cabbage recipe reheats beautifully and can be dressed up with additions of diced apple, raisins, and additional spices and sugar as desired at the time it is reheated.    The kale and swiss chard was simply blanched and then frozen.                        

Harvest totals for the week of August 8th through August 14th (rounded to the nearest ¼ pound).

• Artichokes 0.50 lbs
• Beans 2.25 lbs
• Cabbage 10.75 lbs
• Carrots 1.25 lbs
• Cucumbers 0.00 lbs (not enough to round up to ¼ pound)
• Kale 1.50 lbs
• Peppers 0.25 lbs
• Potatoes 2.25 lbs
• Swiss Chard 1.50 lbs
• Tomatoes 1.75 lbs

Total For Week 22.00 lbs

Total Year To Date 174.75 lbs                               

Eggs collected this week – 30                

Laura

kitsapfreedomgardener