Harvest Monday - September 13, 2010

The summer harvests continue, although the tomato and green bean harvests have already passed their peaks. The eggplants are suddenly in full swing and there are actually quite a few eggplants that have been on the plants for too long because I didn't really notice (or believe) that they were there.

Here's a few of the Diamond eggplants and the first real quantity of Not Wes tomatoes. There are a lot of Diamond eggplants left to harvest and I need to get to them this week. The Not Wes tomatoes are late producers and just starting to ripen up. The ones I've tasted so far are delicious.

I harvested all the Malaysian Dark Red eggplant that were larger than babies since they were all starting to get dull skins. The largest fruits were developing dark seeds but were still tasty and the small ones were still surprisingly tender and seedless despite their dull skins.

I made some pickled eggplant with some of them. These were made by blanching peeled and cubed eggplant in white wine vinegar, then they were packed in jars with chopped garlic, small basil leaves and some salt, then covered with the vinegar that they were blanched in. I've not tried these pickles before and they won't be ready to eat for a while yet, so I can't say whether they are good or not.

A couple more pounds of the eggplants were made into one of my husband's favorite eggplant dishes. This is grilled eggplant marinated in balsamic vinegar and olive oil with sliced garlic and dried oregano. This will keep for months in refrigerator. The slices are great in sandwiches or served at room temperature as an antipasto either straight up or rolled with some goat cheese or mozzarella.

I harvested the first Petaluma Goldrush beans as shelly beans. I simmered these in some salted water with a fresh bay leaf and then mixed them into a warm salad of chopped grilled romano beans, slivers of grilled eggplant, sweet grilled onion, chopped seared tomatoes, basil, balsamic vinegar and olive oil. The fresh shelly beans are creamy and delicious, my favorite way to eat beans.

Ok, I forgot to weigh the cherry tomatoes this week, too bad. But I did weigh that huge Ananas Noir, it came in at 1 pound 11 ounces. Unfortunately it had a bad spot that extended in to the center of the tomato, but I was able to use about two thirds of it anyway. Wouldn't you know it, it was the best tasting Ananas Noir that I've harvested so far.

Here's most of the bean harvests for the week, from left to right Turkey Craw, Petaluma Goldrush, and Garafal Oro. That's pretty much the end of the Garafal Oros. The Petaluma Goldrush are just maturing, some are starting to dry and there's a bunch more that I can pick as shelly beans. The Turkey Craw beans are about halfway into the harvest.

I made a very interesting recipe out of Paula Wolfert's cookbook The Slow Mediterranean Kitchen.  It was Sesame Studded Tomato Jam made with some of the Andine Cornue paste tomatoes that I harvested the week before. The tomatoes are roasted until the skins blacken, the skinned tomatoes are chopped and then sizzled in olive oil until reduced to a jammy consistency. The jam is sweetened with some honey and seasoned with cinnamon and orange flower water. Serve it with toasted sesame seeds on top. Paula recommends serving it with Moroccan bread or on top of couscous but I served it as a dip/spread with pita chips, it was a hit.


The harvest totals for the week were:

Thai Tender Amaranth - about 18 oz (I forgot to weigh it)
Garafal Oro romano beans - 1 lb., 4.5 oz.
Petaluma Goldrush beans (shelled) - 9.25 oz.
Turkey Craw beans - 1 lb., 13.5 oz.
Suyo Long cucumbers - 1 lb., 6.5 oz.
Diamond eggplant - 1 lb., 3.75 oz.
Malaysian Dark Red eggplant - 7 lb., 9 oz.
Sweetie Baby romaine lettuce - 14 oz.
Strawberries - about 1 lb (forgot to weigh them too)
Ananas Noir tomatoes - 2 lb., 1 oz.
Andine Cornue tomatoes - 2 lb., 3 oz.
Chocolate Stripes tomatoes - 1 lb., 13 oz.
Gigantesque tomatoes - 1 lb., 1.75 oz.
Not Wes tomatoes - 2 lb., 6.75 oz.
Zucchini - 6.25 oz.

The total for the week was - 27 lb., 2.25 oz.
The total for the year is - 503 lb., 13 oz.

Head on over to Daphne's Dandelions to find more Harvest Monday posts, there's a lot of amazing produce to ogle there.