It’s time once again for Harvest Monday, where we celebrate all things harvest related. It’s salad season here, and lettuce continues to play a big role in many of our meals lately. I cut a couple of smaller heads of Hyper Red Rumple Waved last week, along with a big head of the green leafed Starfighter. We used the Starfighter in a wilted lettuce salad, which is one of my favorite treatments. Hyper Red Rumple Waved lettuce Starfighter lettuce wilted lettuce salad It’s also asparagus season, and we have been enjoying it in a variety of dishes. The daily harvests are usually just a few sp ..read more

It’s time once again for Harvest Monday, where we celebrate all things harvest related. The harvests last week truly ‘eclipsed’ those of previous weeks, which is an appropriate thing on this Eclipse Edition of Harvest Monday. We’re having guests come in from out of town  since we are in the path of totality for today’s solar eclipse, which will be quite an event for sure. Now for the harvests – and let us begin with lettuce! Green Forest is a romaine type that I’ve had mixed results with. I cut this one before it was fully headed up since it looked like it was trying to bolt. I have bette ..read more

It’s time once again for Harvest Monday, where we celebrate all things harvest related. Harvests have picked up a bit lately, and that’s no April Fooling! It’s salad season here, with the greenhouse lettuce finally maturing. Bergam’s Green is a green leaf lettuce that typically makes big heads of wavy green leaves. It makes a good base for my wife’s Classic Wilted Lettuce Salad, which we enjoyed for dinner one night last week, along with some burgers. Bergam’s Green lettuce wilted lettuce salad Sea of Red is one of my favorite red leaf lettuces, and I can always depend on it to make colorf ..read more

It’s time once again for Harvest Monday, where we celebrate all things harvest related. Thankfully, my wife is doing better after her bout with Covid and is gradually returning to normal activities. Last week we got our first ‘real’ harvest in a while – the first cutting of asparagus! Lynda and I always look forward to asparagus season here, which usually runs from around this time of year to early June. It’s running a bit ahead of last year, when our aging asparagus patch gave us 13 pounds of spears. I roasted these first ones, and my wife and I shared. More spears are coming up and I should ..read more

It’s time once again for Harvest Monday, where we celebrate all things harvest related. I got another small harvest from the greenhouse last week of a scallion and some parsley to make a batch of tabouli salad. Parsley is one of my favorite herbs, and I have it growing here pretty much year round. The tabouli went well with my wife’s curried chicken salad and some toasted pita bread for our lunch one day. scallion and parsley for tabouli tabouli salad with curried chicken salad We continue to have a lot of birds visit our feeders outside. Red-bellied woodpeckers are frequent visitors at th ..read more

It’s time once again for Harvest Monday, where we celebrate all things harvest related. My only harvest again last week was green onions from the greenhouse planting. The greenhouse lettuce should be ready to harvest soon, and I have more greens started for  spring plantings. Thankfully we have lots of veggies stored from last year, and we have been enjoying them often. green onion Every summer I always freeze lots of veggies for use in soups. Last week  I cooked up a batch of vegetable soup that featured green beans, yellow squash, tomatoes and cubes of frozen kohlrabi from last y ..read more

It’s time once again for Harvest Monday, where we celebrate all things harvest related. I only had one small but tasty harvest last week – a scallion I pulled for use in soup. I’ve been pulling these fall planted onions for a couple of months now, but I rarely get a photo of them. Since it was my only harvest of the week I made an exception with this one. These are the Forum onion sets I planted last year in spring and in fall, and they have done quite well for me both as scallions and as young spring onions. scallion Last week I baked a loaf of crusty sourdough bread using heirloom Rouge de ..read more

It’s time once again for Harvest Monday, where we celebrate all things harvest related. Lettuce is the only winter green I am harvesting right now, and it will be limited until I can replant for a spring crop. I sowed more seed last week, which means it will be March before any of that will be ready to eat. I have some more planted in the greenhouse beds that is sizing up, but not quite large enough yet for cutting. Salanova Green Butter lettuce We have plenty of food stashed away in the freezer though, and with the cold weather still hanging on it has gone into many soups lately. Greens and ..read more

It’s time once again for Harvest Monday, where we celebrate all things harvest related.  Lettuce is coming back and growing in the greenhouse, and I managed to cut a couple of heads of the Salanova Red Butter. It is time to start more seeds for the spring crop, something I need to add to my to-do list! I started seeds for parsley and eggplant last week, and the eggplant is already coming up. I also need to sow some seeds for greens like mizuna, baby kale and arugula. Salanova Red Butter lettuce I made a big cutting of collard greens before the big freeze came a few weeks ago. They weigh ..read more

Last week I shared some photos from our recent getaway to the Big Island of Hawaii and our stay in Hilo. Today I want to share photos from our stay in Kailua-Kona on the west side of the island. We stayed in a condo there with a great view of the ocean, and we enjoyed watching the sunsets as well as surfers and whales during the day. We ate many of our meals out on the lanai, which featured local produce we got at the various farmers markets we visited during our stay. We also made a trip to the Paleaku Gardens Peace Sanctuary, a 7 acre tropical botanical garden overlooking historic Kealak ..read more