In My San Diego Garden and Kitchen

Romanesco is ready after months of tending, I harvested it over the weekend. It was one of six transplants in a cauliflower rainbow mix set out in early November. Last February I did a substantive post on Romanesco that included links on fractal patterns, Romanesco recipes and a source for the vegetable here in San Diego.

With only one head of Romanesco I chose to make Roasted Romanesco Cauliflower Pesto Spaghetti again. It’s not basil season in SoCal so I used parsley and a few celery leaves for the pesto. I’ve resolved to grow Romanesco from seed next year and plant more.

The critter (presumed raccoon) damage stunted the orange cauliflower and I lost two purple cauliflower plants. Overall, a disappointing season for cauliflower, a usual staple of the winter garden.

Garlic chives don’t disappoint. They thrive year round here at the coast but are especially abundant in the winter months.

Garlic chives sub well for green garlic in Green Garlic Parsley Lime Flavor Bomb. I like it over salmon, vegetables and with pasta and freeze the extra in cubes for later use.

A winter garden salad of various lettuces, carrots, cauliflower and calendula petals.

And another salad with baby red cabbage leaves.

Winter garden salads never disappoint.

I must admit to harboring two softball sized beets in my produce drawer since last spring. Sort of like a root cellar in colonial times? Once the disgusting layer was removed, a lovely beet emerged.

With the addition of other garden vegetables a hearty beet borscht simmered and with biscuits made a perfect winter dinner. My recipe is a take on the beet borscht in the original Moosewood Cookbook.

Garden flowers obliged and a Valentine’s Day bouquet came together.

To see my vegetable garden check my post from last week, Scenes from the Winter Garden, Mid-February.

To see what other gardener bloggers are gathering in, head over to Harvest Monday hosted by Dave at Our Happy Acres. Happy to have Harvest Monday up and running for 2020.