Previous Page Archive Next Page
Winter & Early Spring Harvest - April 30 2020
I'm not a very fanatical veg gardener yet, but here is an overview of what we ate from the garden in the winter months into April:
Kabocha pumpkin "Winter Sweet".
We harvested a single pumpkin last year, although we had two quite big plants. Most of the pumpkins fell of when they were small, probably due to the extreme heatwave we had at the time. The one pumpking was extremely sweet and delicious though. It is a kobocha type pumpkin appropriately called "Winter Sweet". Kobocha pumpkins are so far my favorite type of pumpkin, because they are nicely sweet and nutty. I roasted this pumpkin, and dressed it with burrata, nuts and pomegranate seeds around the holidays following this recipe. I highly recommend this dish if you have some special occasion in the fall.
FYI, we normally do not put that much butter on things.
I also saved the pumpking seeds and roasted them with various spices.
For the winter I sowed some mizuna. It grew over winter, and we ate from it twice. I made "stamppot" out of it (mashed potatoes with mizuna mashed through it). It was good.
Harvested mizuna. Unfortunately no stamppot shot :).
In April I harvested bear leek (Dutch: daslook) which I cultivate in my raised beds. I received a bunch of bear leek bulbs from my aunt about a year ago. In early spring leaves and flowers pop up from the little bulbs. The leaves smell and taste of garlic, so they are perfect for pesto. You can also eat the flowers.
The raised beds in April, with blooming bear leek in the bottem left.
I made pesto from it with some walnuts, olive oil, lemon juice and pecorino, and it was delicious. Bear leek is actually a Dutch native plant which had to be protected for a while (not any more I believe). Some people go and pick it in the wild, but I'm in favor of just cultivating it in your garden if you want to eat it. Not only to just leave it be in the wild, but because the leaves looks a lot like those of lily of the valley (Dutch: lelietje-van-dalen), which will make you dangerously ill when you eat it. So: when in doubt don´ t eat it (and note that bear leek should smell like garlic). Bear leek is very easy to grow in the garden, it grows well in shade. However, it self-seeds like crazy - I would consider it a bit invasive for the garden. So, like mint, I keep it in a container where I can keep it under control.
Bear leek pesto made from the leaves, and the harvested flowers.
Bear leek pesto pasta.
That was it! Hopefully more harvest news in the summer :).