Monday, October 25, 2010

Harvest Monday - October 25, 2010

The stars from the garden this week were the chile peppers. Here's a mix of Chorizero (top), Aji Pineapple (yellow), and PI593480 Morocco (bottom). The Chorizero peppers are a mild seasoning pepper from Spain, I'm drying those in my dehydrator since the weather is not at all conducive to sun drying at the moment. I used half of the Aji Pineapples in a batch of Spicy Meyer Lemon Marmalade. Some of the Morocco peppers, which are completely sweet but have spicy flavor, were starting to wrinkle and dry on the plants so those went into the dehydrator. I think the Morocco peppers will make a very good flavored sweet paprika. I'm going to experiment with stuffing and baking the rest of the Morocco peppers.



The next bunch of peppers are Espelette and Topepo Rosso (center). The Espelettes are a Basque pepper that makes a mild ground pepper, those are in the dehydrator. I've not yet decided what I'm going to do with the Topepo Rosso peppers, they are somewhat spicy, so far I've roasted them and incorporated them into salsa. I think they might make a good roasted pepper paste that I can freeze.



This is all Iberian Cayenne peppers. Hmm, I don't think I've sampled one of these yet, so I don't know how spicy they are....  Most of these are in the dehydrator also.



And another shot of the Marina di Chioggia squash that is shown in my previous post about how I plan to use it. So far I've made the risotto, lentil salad, and panzanella from this one squash and there's still half of it in the fridge. There are lots of great ideas for preparing winter squash in the comments to that post, along with some links that I've included for some of my favorite recipes. This particular specimen is not true to type, it should be more flattened with a turban shape, but the flavor and texture have been good so I'm not really complaining. I've still got three more good sized squash in the garden waiting to be harvested, so keep those great ideas coming!



Here's what is probably the final harvest of Diamond eggplants. I sliced these lengthwise about 1/4-inch thick and grilled them on my stovetop ridged griddle, rolled the slices up with a bit of fresh goat cheese and served them just warmed through in a freshly made sauce of grated tomatoes (Andine Cornue paste) seasoned with a chopped salted anchovy, chopped salted capers, garlic, and parsley that was all sizzled in olive oil. Oh boy, was that good. I've got frozen grilled eggplant slices in the freezer that I think I'll use to make that again.



I also shelled the dried Turkey Craw beans and the last of the Petaluma Gold Rush beans.

Here's the harvest totals for the week:

Petaluma Gold Rush beans - 1 lb., 15.25 oz.
Turkey Craw dried beans - 1 lb., 10 oz.
Diamond eggplant - 1 lb., 2.75 oz.
Portuguese Dairyman's kale - 5 oz.
Aji Pineapple peppers - 4 oz.
Chorizero peppers - 7.25 oz.
Espelette peppers - 2 lb., 1.25 oz.
Iberian Cayenne peppers - 1 lb., 7 oz.
PI593480 Morocco peppers - 14.5 oz.
Topepo Rosso peppers - 1 lb., 9 oz.
Marina di Chioggia winter squash - 10 lb. 12.25 oz.

The total for the week was - 22 lb., 11.25 oz.
The totals for the year are - 601 lb., 7 oz.

Harvest Monday is hosted by Daphne on her blog Daphne's Dandelions, head on over there to see what other garden bloggers have been harvesting lately.

16 comments:

  1. I love your artistic pepper photos. You have a lovely blog. I'll be back!

    -Mary... your newest follower

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  2. Those peppers look amazing. What type of dehydrator do you use? Do you recommend it? I'm looking for one to purchase.

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  3. Yumyumuyummmm!!! Looks Delicious!

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  4. All your peppers looks lovely and I'm glad you've had a good crop from the Espelette and chorizo peppers. The aubergine/egg plant recipe sounds delicious - we've still got some left in the garden, so I'll try that!

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  5. Lovely crop and absolutely fantastic photos!You should have them on an exhibition:)

    Have a nice week,
    Charlotta
    Cesar's Garden

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  6. I'm amazed by the amount of peppers you can harvest! Not one of the best crops around here...

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  7. You've sure had some lovely peppers this year. Reading about that eggplant dish has my mouth watering!!!

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  8. So many beautiful peppers :-)

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  9. I have severe pepper envy. We got only green peppers this year due to the crazy summer weather (or lack of summer actually) - so no mature red peppers to enjoy in this household. Your plates of them all artfully arranged are just too tempting!

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  10. Your peppers are incredible. I really like the looks of your Topepo Rosso peppers. I looked them up and see that they are sweet and spicy...I prefer that combination over just really hot peppers.

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  11. Hi Mary, welcome and thanks!

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    meemsync, I have an American Harvest Snackmaster that I bought at the hardware store years ago, it was not terribly expensive and has worked fine. My unit must be at least 10 years old, they don't even make the model that I have anymore. If you buy one be sure to get one with adjustable temperatures.

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    Barbie, thanks!

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    chaiselongue, the Espelette peppers have been especially prolific, there's still some ripening on the plants. Thanks again for the seeds.

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    Madame C, thank you, I'm having a great week, I hope you do too!

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    gintoino, I'm surprised that peppers don't grow well where you are. Not all of them do well here either, I'm experimenting with a number of them even now...

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    villager, thank you!

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    Dan, and thank you too!

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    kitsapFG, severe pepper envy, that sounds bad. :-) Only green peppers would bring that on for me as well... I'm actually rather relieved that I got the pepper harvest that I did after our equally weird summer. It's actually a rather meagre harvest considering I have 72 plants.

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    Mr. H., there's actually 2 types of Topepo Rosso peppers, one is completely sweet and one is picante, I'm growing the picante one. I'm not fond of overly spicy peppers either, I like to be able to taste the peppers, not just sear my mouth and bring on an attack of heartburn. :)

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  12. Wow look at all those gorgeous chilies. My cayennes didn't produce much. I had two plants and one was off type and they all rotted before ripening, so not even decent off type peppers. The other gave me about five ripe ones and then I have about eight still green. Not a good year for my cayennes. I'm not sure why. All the other peppers did quite well.

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  13. You have three more 12 lb. squashes in the plant? Wow! With only four fruits you have enough squash for the whole winter! Do this squashes take longer to ripen that smaller varieties such as butternut or kabocha?

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  14. Love your peppers and eggplants, the sauce for grilled eggplants sounds really good, I never thought of freezing eggplants that way, thanks for the tip.

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  15. Daphne, I had a few pepper varieties that performed like you cayennes. Some of them just didn't grow well and some just don't want to set peppers, it's been hit and miss in the chile patch this year.

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    Angela, there's 3 more squash but not all of them are 12 pounds, one's about 6 pounds, another about 8 pounds, and the 4th one is still on the vine but could be about 12 pounds. But yes, that's enough to get me through the winter. I don't think that there's a significant difference in the time they take to ripen, once they set they size up very quickly and seem to harden as quickly as any other squash I've grown.

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    mac, the eggplant freezes really well that way, I freeze the grilled slices on cookie sheets and then pack them in food saver vacuum freezer bags.

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  16. Thanks so much for the tip on freezing grilled eggplant slices..great idea. Fine peppers you have, and your squash are making me envious))).

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