a winter garden harvest

I was so inspired by the red cabbage salad I had for dinner at a friend’s house last night! It was such a hearty, flavourful, crisp and refreshing winter-time salad.
So earlier today I went running out to the garden to see if I still had some red cabbage to harvest. I did! And some yellow carrots and beautiful dark green tuscan kale too! I feel SO lucky here on the coast…..we get to harvest veggies out of the garden in the wintertime!

Look at the beautiful tuscan kale sparkling with raindrops….

And the carrots still in the ground with that nasty looking little red cabbage way in the background….it cleaned up real good!

Just pulled yellowstone carrots.

The kale, cabbage and carrots all rinsed and cleaned up, ready to take into the kitchen…..

All chopped up and sliced, tossed with a simple dressing, so delicious and nutritious!

How I did it:
I planted the kale in the spring and left it to resprout (I’ve been harvesting these kale plants since summertime), the cabbage was planted in mid summer, the carrots in late spring and left in the ground.
I thinly slice the cabbage, grate the carrots, chop up the kale, not too fine….I also threw in some thinly sliced shallot that I’m storing from the summer garden.
Then I tossed the veggies with a dressing of about 1/4 cup olive oil, juice of a lemon and a splash or 2 of apple cider vinegar. I also mixed in some crushed garlic from summer.
Next time I think I’ll throw in some broccolli shoots that I have in the garden, maybe try some grated beet that’s also out in the ground….orange carrots would be a pretty colour combo….these veggies get so tender and sweet when they’re left out in the cool winter weather. And just harvested is the best flavour ever.
Last night we ground some seasalt with kelp onto our salads….from these folks: the gathering place yum!!
It’s available at Happy Tides on Mayne Island and it was delicious and I’m going to go get me some!