Top 10 Plants for Early Spring Harvest

February 8, 2018 by Michelle Marine Leave a Comment

If you’re trying to eat local, in-season food, make sure to include these top ten plants for early spring harvest. They will yield the first food in the spring so you can have farm fresh produce as soon as possible.

*This post contains affiliate links which means I earn a small commission from your purchase.*

One of my long term life dreams is to eat only locally grown and produced food, like Barbara Kingsolver did in her book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle {one of my most favorite books of all times}. At first thought, it sounds kind of doable, right? I mean, I have a big garden, and I have egg and meat chickens. I’ve also found a source for local pastured pork and organic, local, grassfed beef. But the logistics are really a lot more complicated than my pea-brain can handle. And it would take a REALLY REALLY REALLY big garden to produce enough food to feed my family of six. Maybe some day.

For now, I will be content to do what I can, and that means maximizing every growing season, and this post starts with spring! Enjoy my list of the top 10 plants to consider if you want to get the earliest possible harvest out of your garden.

Top 10 Plants for Early Spring Harvest

Name: Brussel Sprouts with Bacon, Pine Nuts & Parmesan Cheese
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 15 min
Yield: 4-6 side dish servings
Ingredients: 3-4 pieces nitrate free bacon, cut into bite sized pieces; 1 lb brussel sprouts, washed and halved; 1/4 cup pine nuts; 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese; salt & pepper to taste

Early Spring Perennials

I love perennials because I can plant them once, and reap the rewards for years! It’s also a bonus that a few garden perennials produce some of the earliest food in the spring, so make sure to include them in your garden.

Rhubarb – it seems a lot of people have a love/hate relationship with rhubarb, but I love it. It’s also ready for picking sooner than most other fruits and is delicious in crisps, scones, and made into syrup too!

Strawberries – strawberries are the first berries to ripen, usually late May or early June in my area. Nothing beats a fresh strawberry right out of the garden! And since conventionally grown strawberries are some of the most pesticide laden fruits grown, we prefer to grow our own.

Asparagus – asparagus is ready for a full harvest the third year after it’s planted. It’s one of the earliest crops of spring – so delicious!! We look forward to fresh asparagus every year.

Spring Veggies to Plant before the Last Frost

Spring Onions / Potatoes – can be directly sown from seed six weeks before the last frost if the ground is workable. Onions grow quickly and the greens can be cut pretty soon after they start growing. If you leave the bulb in the ground and just cut the greens, they will even grow new greens for you!

Potatoes are generally ready for harvest a little later, but you can carefully collect new potatoes without disturbing the plant ten weeks after the potatoes were planted. We use the no-dig planting method to grow potatoes. Learn more here.

Spinach / Kohlrabi / Kale – can be directly sown from seed five weeks before the last frost date. It’s especially important to plant spinach early as it needs six cool weeks to reach maturity and bolts quickly in hot weather.

Peas / Radish / Carrots – can be directly sown from seed four weeks before last frost date. Peas also don’t do well in hot weather, so make sure to plant them as quickly as possible. Every year I have volunteer radish crops in my garden because I let some go to seed in the summer. They are some of the first fresh veggies we eat!

Lettuce / Swiss Chard – can be directly sown from seed two weeks before last frost date. I also have volunteer lettuce in my garden from time to time and love it! Fresh lettuce is just delicious.

Check your seed packets to see which varieties mature the quickest. Some radishes are ready within 25 days! And lettuce is very quick growing too.

What plants do you look forward to most in spring?

Brussel Sprouts with Bacon, Pine Nuts & Parmesan Cheese

November 5, 2017 by Michelle Marine 22 Comments

This recipe for Brussel Sprouts with Bacon, Pine Nuts & Parmesan Cheese is simply delicious! It’s the perfect addition to any holiday meal and it makes a nice side dish for week night dinners as well. It’s not to hard to make and it’s definitely one of my favorite ways to eat brussel sprouts.

*This recipe contains affiliate links. Thank you for supporting my site!*

Brussel Sprouts with Bacon, Pine Nuts & Parmesan Cheese

If you’ve never seen brussel sprouts growing, this is what they look like. They’re basically little cabbages growing up a stalk. The picture above shows very small sprouts, and they normally grow a bit bigger.

In addition to tasting great, brussel sprouts are incredibly nutritious. They look a little like a cabbage, but taste much better in my opinion. According to Nutrition and You, they are a great source of Vitamins A, K, and C, are rich in B Complex vitamins, full of anti-oxidants, and are also a rich source of minerals like copper, calcium, potassium, iron, manganese, and phosphorus. Nutrition and You mentions all kinds of cancer fighting properties that brussel sprouts have and claim that these vegetables should be eaten on weight loss programs because they have a low glycemic value and are low in calories.

If you’d like to try brussel sprouts, I highly recommend cooking them in the following manner. NOTE – this recipe is likely NOT low in calories…because of the BACON. But truly, bacon is the key to many a person’s heart. Don’t leave it out! {But do source a high quality bacon.}

Let’s make this delicious brussel sprout side dish recipe!

First, fry up some bacon – 3-4 pieces is plenty. I use nitrate free bacon I buy at Costco. It’s YUMMY! I just use my kitchen scissors to cut up a few pieces and then cook them over medium high heat in a nice cast iron skillet.

Then, clean the brussel sprouts. Make sure you check your bacon! Don’t want to burn it…

Cut the sprouts in half and remove any outer leaves that look bad. Your bacon should be done by now. Remove it from the pan so it doesn’t burn. Reserve half the bacon grease and leave the rest in the pan.

Now, take those little brussel sprouts and put them cut side down right in all of that delicious bacon grease. And leave them alone. Let them cook like this {medium heat} for about 5 minutes.

After 5 minutes, stir up the sprouts and add a handful of pine nuts. If the pan looks a little dry, add a bit of the reserved bacon grease. After the pine nuts look nice and toasty, add the bacon bits back in and top everything off with freshly grated parmesan cheese.

Michelle Marine
Yields 4-6 side dish servings
Brussel Sprouts with Bacon, Pine Nuts & Parmesan Cheese
5 minPrep Time
15 minCook Time
20 minTotal Time

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Ingredients
3-4 pieces nitrate free bacon, cut into bite sized pieces
1 lb brussel sprouts, washed and halved
1/4 cup pine nuts
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
salt & pepper to taste
Instructions
Cut bacon and fry until crispy in a cast iron skillet. Drain half the bacon grease and reserve.
Place halved brussel sprouts cut side down and fry in the bacon grease for about 5 minutes. Do not stir the sprouts during these first 5 minutes.
Then, stir sprouts and add pine nuts. Cook 5-7 more minutes.
Garnish with shredded Parmesan cheese, salt & freshly ground pepper, and enjoy!
7.6.9
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https://simplifylivelove.com/brussel-sprouts-with-bacon-pine-nuts-parmesan-cheese/

Would you eat these Brussel Sprouts with Bacon, Pine Nuts & Parmesan Cheese? Share another favorite way to eat brussel sprouts, if you have one!

For more delicious side dish recipes, check out these posts:

Baked Camembert with Pomegranate & Hazelnuts

Easy Buttery Carrots

Green Beans w/ Garlic & Toasted Almonds

Cream Cheese & Parmesan Asparagus Spears

Pepper Jack Mashed Potatoes

Busy Week Night Greek Salmon Sheet Pan Dinner

September 5, 2017 by Michelle Marine 7 Comments

This delicious Greek Salmon Sheet Pan Dinner combines all of my favorite flavors and makes a delicious meal. With a quick prep, it’s great for busy week nights too! And best of all, it’s kid approved at my house, even with the kids who don’t care all that much for salmon.

*This post contains affiliate links. Thank you for supporting my site!* 🙂

Welcome back to the next to last Tuesdays in the Garden for the year! It’s hard to believe we’re almost finished with another gardening season. Especially since I have YET to harvest a single ripe tomato. It’s true! 🙁 But I have harvested a nice crop of garlic, potatoes, peppers, and herbs, so from that harvest, this dish was created – and it is DELISH! Check at the end of the post for more farm-to-table recipes form the Tuesday gang. They all look fabulous.

Busy Week Night Greek Salmon Sheet Pan Dinner

I’ve been incorporating a lot more salmon recipes into our diet because of all the health benefits! The other day after staring at all of the potatoes in my kitchen (I grow a lot of potatoes!) and wondered what to do with them. I thought about the Greek Chicken Sheet Pan Meal recipe I shared a while back and decided to try one with salmon. Hence, busy week night Greek Salmon Sheet Pan Dinner was born. And it is a keeper! 🙂I love sheet pan meals because they come together pretty quickly and my family seems to enjoy them. After one small prep I can have an all inclusive meal on the table with little effort. The cooking time on this sheet pan meal is a little longer because the potatoes take longer to cook than the salmon. Even so, it’s still pretty easy to put this sheet pan meal on your table.

Here’s how to make this delicious Greek Salmon Sheet Pan Dinner!

Pre-heat oven to 425 and prep potatoes and onions by slicing. Combine them in a bowl with 1/4 cup olive oil, salt and pepper, and then spread them on a sheet pan. Bake for 25 minutes.

Add the salmon and other veggies, top with crushing garlic and remaining olive oil from potatoes. Bake for 8 more minutes. By the way, not all salmon is created equally. If possible, buy wild caught salmon (preferably Alaska sock-eye) over farm raised salmon. Wild caught salmon has a better fat ratio, fewer contaminants, and more nutrients.

Finally, add tomatoes and feta cheese. Top with juice of one lemon and bake for 5 minutes more. That’s it! Enjoy!!

Michelle Marine

Yields 4-6 servings

Busy Week Night Greek Salmon Sheet Pan Dinner

10 minPrep Time

35 minCook Time

45 minTotal Time

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Ingredients

1 lb wild caught Salmon
2 lb baby potatoes, halved or quarterd
1 onion, sliced into wedges
1/4 cup olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
2 garlic cloves, sliced
1 lemon, sliced
4 small peppers
2 TBS fresh oregano, sliced
1/2 cup cherry tomatoes
1/4 - 1/2 cup feta cheese
juice of 1 lemon

Instructions

Preheat oven to 425. Combine potatoes, sliced garlic, onions, olive oil, salt and pepper until the veggies are coated.
Put the veggies on a sheet pan and bake for 20-25 minutes.
Move the veggies to the side and add the salmon, peppers, sliced lemon, and oregano. Pour any remaining olive oil from the potatoes on the salmon and top with crushed garlic. Bake 8 minutes.
Add tomatoes, feta cheese, and top everything with the juice of one lemon. Bake 5 more minutes.
Enjoy!

https://simplifylivelove.com/greek-salmon-sheet-pan-dinner/

Tuesdays in the Garden

Be sure to check out the other fall inspired Farm-To-Table Recipes! Just click the link or photo to take you to each blog post.

Patti at Hearth & Vine – Cooking Collard Greens!

Diane at Homemade Food Junkie – Stuffed Squash Blossom Stir Fry

Shelly at Frugal Family Home – Ginger Garlic Green Beans

From Angie at The Freckled Rose – 15 Fall Inspired Garden-to-Table Recipes

Jami at An Oregon Cottage – Harvest Vegetable Ham Bone Soup

What’s your favorite recipe with salmon? Have you tried a sheet pan meal yet? Let me know what you think!

How to Freeze Carrots & 4 More Ways to Preserve Them

August 16, 2016 by Michelle Marine 13 Comments

I love to freeze carrots I grow in my garden. Frozen, sliced carrots are wonderful to add to sauces and soups all winter long. Here’s not only how to freeze them, but four more ways to preserve carrots as well!

How to Preserve a Bumper Crop of Carrots, 5 Ways

1. Freeze Carrots –

Freezing carrots is really easy and is my preferred method to preserve this delicious veggie. To freeze, simply slice the carrots, then blanch them for 1-2 minutes, shock with cold water, pack and freeze. Easy peasy. Especially since I used my 11 cup Cuisinart Food Processor to do the slicing. I froze mine in 2 cup portions and they’ll be great for winter soups or quick side dishes! They’re so sweet and tasty!

To freeze your own carrots, I recommend using a food processor to slice your clean carrots. I always peel mine too because they look a little straggly coming out of my garden, but if you grow beautiful carrots, feel free to skip the peeling. I absolutely love my Zyliss veggie peeler. I have used many different peelers over the years, but the Zyliss version is my favorite! Such an awesome peeler for less than $10 on Amazon. By the way, if purchase anything from Amazon, you help support this blog at no cost to you and you earn my eternal gratitude!

Bring a pot of water to boil while you prepare your carrots. Once the water has reached a hard boil, add the carrots and bring the water back to boil. Blanch the carrots for two minutes. I really like to use my Cuisinart 8 quart stockpot with strainer. Using a strainer makes draining so easy! I picked up this set at Costco a few years ago and love every pot in the set. You can get the same set on Amazon, too.

Now shock the carrots by draining the hot water and adding ice cold water. It’s super easy to drain them if you cook them in the strainer. Then to drain them again, I simply dump them back in the same strainer they cooked in!

Now dry your carrots as best you can by dumping them on a towel. Make sure all the ice is gone.

Measure them out and put them in freezer baggies. I freeze mine in 2 cup portions. Label, freeze (make sure to squeeze as much air as possible out of the baggie), and enjoy your carrots all winter long.

Here are 4 more ways you can preserve carrots too!

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