As some of the winter garden vegetables finish, there is the promise of the spring season and a different crop. I walked by the espaliered apple tree with the purple cauliflower in hand and the blossoms beckoned. Before me, a confluence of colors, beginnings and endings worthy of a photo for remembrance.

Such happy coincidences of color occur frequently. Most times it’s not until flowers and fruit land on the kitchen island that there’s a photo capture. These are only some of the pairings in the pink and red range. My photo file “Flowers and Fruit” shows duos in the yellow, peach, orange, green and purple hues. Those are for another day—maybe a separate blog post.

The final DePurple cauliflower deserves a last hurrah. I trialed it against Graffiti and as the folks at Territorial Seed Company told me when we stopped by, it’s more reliable under marginal conditions. The heads were larger and plants more vigorous.

With a half dozen kinds of lettuce growing now, I’ve let the Catalina spinach leaves enlarge instead of using the smaller leaves in salads. I lightly steam the succulent leaves and add a dash of rice vinegar—perfection. Where cauliflower grew, I’ve planted more spinach in rows and baby leaf spinach in a scatter fashion.

As daylight waned at dinnertime, I brought together a few of the garden ingredients for Sesame Cauliflower Sauté: Romanesco, Italian parsley and shallot greens. Missing are the toasted sesame seeds, minced onion and butter. Tomorrow night I’ll try it with olive oil. After a sauté/pan roast of the Romanesco, I added a few tablespoons of water and covered to steam briefly.

Continuing harvests include broccoli side shoots, snow peas and celery.

For a brief few weeks Bromeliad ‘Queen’s Tears’ makes an appearance and I revel in the delicacy and toughness of the plant.

Check my What I’m Planting Now page to see what’s been planted in the space opened by the cauliflower harvest. Harvest Monday, hosted by Dave at Happy Acres Blog has returned. Join in and see what garden bloggers around the world harvested last week.

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