Harvest Chores - All Day Monday

 The Spring.is.Here.Harvest rush is upon my house.  I planted a few more tomato plants today, otherwise, it was all harvesting and cleanup. 

I blanched another freezer container of mixed greens - Broadleaf Mustard, Collards, Turnip Greens & Kale.  We made tuna salad for lunch and used some of the mustard ribs for celery and chopped up turnips, radish, and green onions for more flavor.  Oh, and some bean sprouts for crunch.

I actually finished the in the kitchen part of the blanching during lunch.  I've finally got an assembly line method that is working pretty well.  I load up one side of the sink with ice cold water.  The other side of the sink has a cooling rack stretched over it.  I use my 8qt multi-pot that has a pasta cooker and steamer insert and a 5q dutch oven.  The inserts fit in both pots.  The 8qt pot I fill with ice water, the 5q is boiling water that I keep on a low roll.  I fill up the first insert, into the boiling water and start a 5 minute timer.  Meanwhile, fill up the next insert.  When the timer goes off; out of the boiling water into the ice water.  The second insert goes into the boiling water.  Start 5 minute timer.  Get the last batch of greens from the sink ready to go.  When the timer next goes off; I move the batch in the ice water to the cooling rack over the sink to drain and continue the assembly line.  After it has all sit on the cooling rack to drain for about a half hour or so, I move the greens to a salad crisper to drain some more and to refrigerate overnight.  The next day, I'll pull it out; chop coarsely and pack tight into a freezer box.  I don't do any cutting until the end when everything has cooled.  I sometimes have to break a Broadleaf Mustard Leaf - OMG those things get so huge so fast!  I want as much of the goodness of the greens in my tummy in a few months, not out with the water - so minimal chopping.

I have a batch of kimchi in progress.  This is the first of the green cabbage.  I can't believe I grew this!  I picked one of the red cabbage today that was starting to head.  After cutting this open I kind of wish I had left the red to finish heading.  The next cabbage that will be ready is bigger than this one.  Another batch of kimchi in our near future.

Thanks Julie for the recipe!

Chop bok choi, layer in bowl with hawaiian salt, let it sit for four or five hours. Mix it around with your hand once in a while. Rinse thoroughly. Grind up a clove or two of garlic, a knob of minced ginger, two or three chile peppers and 2 tablespoons of fish sauce in a blender. Mix with sliced scallions and rinsed bok choi. Pack into quart jar and press on cabbage until it is all submerged in the liquid. Let it sit on the counter for three or four days or until it starts to taste good.

Kimchi can be made many different ways.  My loose Americanized explanation is fermented spicy cabbage and stuff.   I started with a sink full of green & red cabbage, kale, mustard, turnip, radish.

It's all chopped and layered with sea salt in a 5 quart SS prep bowl.  We are thinking we will add some hot pepper and perhaps some of the pickled green cherry tomatoes I put up from the last of the cherry tomato plant.

We are having salad for dinner tonight, it will contain a hodgepodge of baby greens, some lettuce, some turnips, some strawberries, and one lonely purple podded pole bean.  All from our very own garden!  Augmented with bean sprouts from lentils that I learned how easy is to make from Daphne.

I can not believe I've got the first pole bean of the season already.  Although, it is a fluke.

I've got a bowl of stems, ribs and tough leaves set aside to blanche tomorrow with my next round of putting up greens.  I plan to package them into dutch oven size additions, to add to beans or stew.  Part of my 5 days a week servings of brassica's plan.  OK, so I've 2 days a week covered.  Something tells me I need to plant more next fall.

Joining in Daphne's Harvest Mondays!  Where we are using what we are learning; isn't it great!