Monday, September 17, 2012

Harvest Monday - September 17, 2012

It was quite the week for peppers and tomatoes and zucchini. The Padrons have been producing in ever increasing numbers, three harvests this week for a total of about 2 1/2 pounds. We aren't tired of them yet!

Pimento de Padrons


Jimmy Nardello's peppers have kept up a steady supply of ripening peppers.

Jimmy Nardello's


I finally got to make a salad of all home grown tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers with some good buffalo mozzarella and fresh picked basil. My husband noted the hint of spice in the Jimmy Nardello's pepper that I included in this salad. It's a very interesting sweet pepper with definite spice but no heat, I like it very much. I wonder what it might taste like dried, if I can restrain myself from eating all of them fresh.

Two Salads in One


Powery mildew is gradually taking over the zucchini plants but it has not slowed it down much. The cucumber production has slowed to a trickle but the plants are hanging in there so I hope to be harvesting a few more over the coming weeks.

Rosabec, Jaune Flamme, Nyagous, Wheatly's Frost Resistant tomatoes
Green Fingers cucumbers, da Fiore zucchini, and Neckarkönigin beans

Melrose is another sweet Italian/American frying pepper. I used this bunch in a stir fry of eggplant and ground pork with oyster sauce the other night, one of my husband's favorite dishes - there were no leftovers.

Melrose peppers


Some of the zucchini was sliced and grilled on my stovetop ridged griddle along with some eggplant and herb crusted pork tenderloins and I made a romesco sauce to serve with it all. This was lunch for my book group and the group didn't leave much behind for my husband to munch on.

Pimento de Padron peppers and da Fiore zucchini


The first Odessa Market peppers. These start out a beautiful pale green, then turn a bit orange before becoming a glowing red. The flesh is medium thick and very sweet. I chopped these up and put them in another tomato, pepper, and cucumber salad.

Odessa Market peppers

The start of another tomato harvest. The Wheatly's Frost Resistant cherry tomatoes are finally starting to ripen. They are not and will never be as productive as the Sunshine Cherry tomatoes and I still haven't decided if I like them very much, I don't hate them, but they don't wow me. I'm liking the Sunshine Cherry tomatoes very much, they have flavor that rivals Sungold but the plants are not so huge and overly productive as the Sungolds. The last time I grew Sungolds (years ago) I got so sick of harvesting the tomatoes off of one plant that I gave up and let a lot of them rot on the vine. And the vines of the Sungolds are so huge and vigorous that they just take over and smother their neighbors. The Sunshine Cherry is a much smaller plant, but it's putting out enough tomatoes to keep the two of us happy and still share with friends.

Nyagous, Wheatly's Frost Resistant, Jaune Flamme

and Sunshine Cherry tomatoes

and da fiore zucchini, Shephards Ramshorn, Sunnybrook pimento,
Lady bell pepper, Green Fingers and Tasty Green cucumbers

Amish Paste and one Rosabec

and Jimmy Nardello's peppers

and Pimento de Padron peppers

Not photographed this week was the lone harvest of a few Diamond eggplants and a couple of broccoli shoots and a couple of big scallions. And the harvest totals would have been a few pounds greater if I had had the time to harvest the ripe Fiaschetto tomatoes.

Here's the totals for the past week:

Neckarkönigin beans - 10.6 oz. (ounces instead of pounds, whew!)
Apollo broccoli - 2 oz.
Green Fingers Persian cucumbers - 7.8 oz.
Tasty Green Japanese cucumbers - 15.9 oz.
Diamond eggplant - 14.8 oz.
Parade Scallions - 3.6 oz.
Jimmy Nardello's peppers - 13.4 oz.
Lady Bell pepper - 5.8 oz.
Melrose peppers - 4.8 oz.
Odessa Market peppers - 6.7 oz.
Pimento de Padron peppers - 2 lb., 7.8 oz.
Shephard's Ramshorn peppers - 3.7 oz.
Sunnybrook Pimento peppers - 2.8 oz.
Amish Paste tomatoes - 2 lb., 11 oz.
Jaune Flamme tomatoes - 1 lb., 15.2 oz.
Nyagous tomatoes - 1 lb., 10.4 oz.
Rosabec tomatoes - 2 lb., 11.5 oz.
Sunshine Cherry tomatoes - 3 lb., 8.6 oz.
Wheatly's Frost Resistant cherry tomatoes - 7.7 oz.
Da Fiore zucchini - 3 lb., 9 oz.

The total harvests for the week came to - 24 lb., 13.1 oz.
Which brings the totals for the year to - 230 lb., 11 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.

14 comments:

  1. A brilliant collection of peppers, chillis and tomatoes! I'm not a fan of very hot chillis - I prefer ones that add taste instead of heat. Most of your tomato varieties are ones I don't know. There must be literally thousands available these days.

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  2. Wonderful harvests. That is a lot of peppers. I think I miss peppers most. They have such a wonderful taste especially the slightly spicy ones.

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  3. Really love all of the peppers that you grew this year, some of which I have never even heard of. And that salad looks absolutely wonderful!

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  4. Beautiful variety of peppers and tomatoes!Lots of good stuff.
    And I took you up on your refrigerator challenge and I linked it in my harvest Monday post. Though my fridge was a bit empty.

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  5. Wonderful and such a gorgeous selection of harvest you have here.

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  6. Oh you always do so well Michelle. The pardon peppers particularly impress me.

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  7. Lovely as usual!! Yummy peppers. I think I just wimped out on watering and left some of my plants in the lurch.

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  8. I wonder if I could grow the Jimmy Nardellos in my climate/growing area? They sound like a perfect pepper in that sometimes I want the spice but not a lot of heat. I may have to try a few plants next season.

    The salads look scrumptious. I love that kind of combo and you just cannot go too far wrong with lovely ripe tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, basil and various cheese combos. They are just such a happy marriage of textures and flavors.

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  9. I dream of having so many tomatoes I leave some to rot on the vine..sigh.....

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  10. Your salad looks absolutely divine! I think I'll go try to reproduce it :-)

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  11. Beautiful harvest, love the varieties of pepper you grow. I have too many tomatoes this year and not enough sweet peppers.

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  12. Summer is not finished yet but I'm already planning my spring sowing for the next year, I think I will add Melrose chili and Sunshine Cherry tomato!

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  13. All those peppers look wonderful. This is such a great time of year for them as they're all ripening.

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  14. Wowie! Your garden is so beautifully productive!

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