Harvest of the Day – A Year Later

I usually participate in the Friday Flashback Challenge: “… reach back into your own archives and highlight a post that you wrote on this very date in a previous year …” by Fandango @ This That and the Other, by linking to my old post in a comment at his post, but when I went back to check what my June 12 2019 post was, I found a photo of a still life of my Harvest of The Day:   

I was so surprised to see how different it looked from what I have available this year in my garden, that I decided to write a new post, showing photos taken today, to compare to the photo above.  For instance, my Harvest of the Day for June 12, 2020 was a bunch of cilantro and one strawberry! (As shown at the top of this post.)  As for the rest of the produce shown from 2019, from the photo above, left to right: 

1) The last bunch of asparagus for the season – Spring of 2020 was a very short season for asparagus, due to drastic changes in weather and an asparagus beetle infestation, so no harvest today; in fact, the spears have gotten a chance to grow for a while, now reaching up to six feet in height:

2) A bunch of multiplier onions planted in the previous fall – This year, as I mentioned in a previous post, my multiplier onions were planted just this spring, not last fall, so they are still developing:

3) Single sprig of cilantro – In contrast, my cilantro is having an unusually good season for 2020, as may be appreciated at the top of this post.  I find every year that, although I would like to prepare green tomatillo sauce with fresh cilantro, by the time my tomatillos are ready at the end of the summer, all the cilantro has bolted and gone to seed.  Last fall, I placed a couple of bags of peeled and washed tomatillos in the freezer, so this year, I will be able to prepare a batch or two of salsa with both garden tomatillos and garden cilantro:

4) Two young parsnips – This year. first year parsnips are still too small, so no harvest today, and the second year ones have already bolted and are blooming; I will spread the seed later in the summer, for next year’s crop:

5) First strawberries – I had a small bunch last year, but they looked rather pale; today I got exactly one! However, my strawberry patch is looking green and healthy thanks to the rain we have been getting, and more orange and red spots are appearing every day:

6) First bunch of chamomile – Very different this year; I have already harvested four batches of flowers, and I have many more coming soon, as it can be seen below:

7) First bunch of aka shiso (from Japanese aka – red, and shiso – perilla) – This year the red perilla crop is growing slowly, but looking healthy; no harvest today, but there is hope for a good one soon:

To share what I made with my harvest of the day last year, here is the original text, and now I must run to the kitchen, to prepare a fresh batch of green sauce for a lovely chicken dinner tonight!

From “Harvest of the Day” June 12, 2019: ” … Last summer, I wrote about how “chefs who are also vegetable gardeners, often advice to design a meal starting with the produce at hand, and build the menu around that, instead of seeing vegetables as the sidekick on the dinner plate.” I had no problem finding inspiration to cook this harvest, on the contrary, the conflict was to decide on one menu, or even just chop everything in a bowl and add a drizzle of balsamic vinegar. As tempting as that might have seemed, I ended up preparing three separate recipes, which I will share in future posts: Veggie Omelette with a Mexican Touch, Pink Ice Tea Limeade, and Strawberry Ice cream.”

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I am linking to Cee’s Flower of the Day Challenge for June 12, 2020.