Doesn't it feel good to eat your own produce?! Pics inside...

I thought it might be great for us to have a place to showcase our harvests. I hope you'll join me in uploading pics every now and then. I know seeing all the delicious produce folks are growing inspires me to keep on keeping on!

On Sunday I ate my first salad from the garden.

Here's a picture:



The bowl was full, but I started nibbling on the lettuces and kale before I remembered to take a picture of it.

I mixed it with a bit of romaine I had left over and made a chef's salad out of it! I served the salad with my homemade herb ranch dressing (the green onion was used in the dressing)!

Do you have any harvest pics to share?

The ranch dressing sounds good. Do you give out the recipe?

Absolutely!

This version is low-fat, but you can make it full fat if you want. The low-fat version is excellent and by far the best low-fat dressing I've ever had...

Here is the link: http://www.lowfatlifestyle.com/sauces_dressings/sauceandressingrecipes/freshherbranchdressing.html

If you want to thin it out some you can use a little more buttermilk or just plain milk.

If you are going to do the low-fat version I highly recommend using Hellman's mayo. They don't use all the chemical substitutes that kraft and others use in order to make the mayo low fat. You can also sub in homemade mayo. That would be yummy too.

Looks good. I was going to try to grow kale and swiss chard but then I realized I had no clue how to prepare it so I stuck with what I do know how to prepare: lettuce, spinach, and broccoli.

We had fresh parsnips last week. They overwintered in my garden and were sooooo tasty. I'm in Maine where the winters are long and cold and where we had 2' of snow cover in my garden beds most of the winter.


These are the ones I harvested this spring.

I roasted them with taters and carrots for dinner and they were fabulous.
I'd only had them once in my life and that was last fall when I harvested some. I wasn't too keen on them for flavor and thought I'd not grow them again. The flavor is certainly a lot nicer after overwintering in the cold. They are now in the garden plan for this year.

If you want an early harvest next year, try sowing parsnips this spring. They take 100-120 days to mature but taste much better after a few freezes so next spring they will be great.

hitchhiker90 wrote:Looks good. I was going to try to grow kale and swiss chard but then I realized I had no clue how to prepare it so I stuck with what I do know how to prepare: lettuce, spinach, and broccoli.

Well, since those are cool weather crops that will finish up pretty soon, give swiss chard a try when they are done and prepare the leaves just like spinach! I use the stem in the place of celery in cooked dishes. I'm pretty amazed by mine as I've seen it thrive in temps anywhere from 28 to 103 degrees since last fall when I planted it!

Another good substitute for mayo is greek yogurt. If you want a bit of sweetness, honey is an option instead of sugar.

These types of salads are a daily affair at the moment.....yum yum !!!

Everything here came from the garden. I resisted the urge to add other ingredients which I had in the fridge so I can provide for the family purely from the garden (at least for lunch).



Finished product drizzled in Olive oil and Apple cider Vinegar. I sprinkled with chives and the purple flowers are actually chive flowers I added as a garnish.



Couldn't resist the pun by adding the plate to a spare square....."Square foot Salad"



The only thing I'm not too proud of saying are the spring onions coming from rows

Here's my SFG. Notice the trowel....gotta love that as your ONLY tool !!!

Lucky you.
Your garden is looking terrific. You've got a head start on some of us, but I hope to catch up in a month or so.
Happy Gardening and many more great salads.

We are harvesting family salads a couple times a week right now, but soon it will be everyday if we want it!

Here is what I harvested today:



Red Russian kale, Radishes with greens, mesclun mix, and a green onion at the top

Here it is bagged up and waiting for dinner tonight!



Tonight I'm going to saute the kale and radish greens in butter with garlic and onion. I'll serve it with baked tilapia and rice. We'll have a salad on the side.

Oooh, I love those little radishes. I can't wait to taste mine.

Love it !!! I love the tail tips on the radishes and I also think that radish greens are yummy, if not a little "fuzzy" sometimes.

Enjoy your dinner !!!