Harvest Monday - December 17, 2012

One might be fooled into thinking that it is still summer here by the looks of my harvest baskets this past week. But no, it was just time to glean the last of the lingering summer veggies. It's been growing increasingly cold and I can't risk having the last eggplants and peppers damaged by a surprise freeze. I'm surprised that we haven't had a freeze already, the first one is late this year.

The peppers have been very sweet and flavorful in spite of spending nights out in the cold. I found enough Pimento de Padrons to fry up a batch to share with some friends who dearly love them. We were all surprised by how really good they were and there wasn't a single hot one in the bunch.

Odessa Market, Pimento de Padron,
and Large Sweet Antigua

There's two new peppers in the harvest basket. That skinny little one in the bottom center is Guampinha de Veado, a semi-wild baccatum pepper from Brazil. This is my total harvest. This plant just does not like my climate. This harvest came off of my 2 year old plant, which didn't even bloom last year. I started 2 more plants this year, neither of which bloomed and really didn't even grow much. So, it's a goner. The other new pepper is down there on the bottom right, Pimenta Barro do Robiero, another baccatum from Brazil. More on these later when I finally get a chance to taste them properly.

Aji Angelo, Aji Pineapple,
Christmas Bell, Guampinha de Veado, Barro do Robiero

Wisconsin Lakes, Liebesapfel,
Shephard's Ramshorn,  Flamingo

I managed to harvest a decent amount of the small Pimenta Biquinho peppers. These are also from Brazil but they are a mild Capsicum chinense. I'm liking them fresh, I just pop the whole thing in my mouth (other than the stem) and enjoy the sweet fruity flavor. They have just a hint of heat to make the experience more interesting. I found enough peppers on my Big Jim plants to use in a final batch of Roasted Tomato Salsa which also featured some of the last tomatoes that I harvested the week before. Yum, was that good. I think that I'm going to use some of the final eggplant harvest, along with some of the last tomatoes and a few more green peppers (still in the garden!), to make one more recipe of Turkish Eggplant and Lentil Stew with Pomegranate Molasses. That could be dinner tonight.

Big Jim, Mayo Pimento, Pimenta Biquinho peppers
Sicilian and Diamond eggplants

I broke off a branch from one of my Pimenta Biquinho plants when I was harvesting. You can see how many little peppers set all over on these plants.

Pimenta Biquinho

But wait, there's more eggplant!

Kamo and Salangana eggplants

The Red Salad Bowl lettuces are large enough that I can now harvest a few leaves from each plant to make a decent sized salad every few days.

Red Salad Bowl lettuce

The Flamingo chard is growing by leaps and bounds in the cold weather. This photo is deceptive because the "scallion" is about 2 feet from tip to root and weighs about 13 ounces. I'm infatuated with the neon pink color of the stems of this variety. It's so pretty, and unlike the red stemmed variety, the color doesn't bleed all over everything when you cook it. It has a nice mild flavor also.

Flamingo chard and Parade "scallion"

The celery is equally happy in the cold weather and I've been able to harvest some very nice stalks a couple of times a week. The stems are juicy and crisp and the flavor is more assertive than the typical commercially grown stuff. I'm enjoying it cooked in soups and raw in salads.

Dorato di Asti celery

I finally accumulated enough broccoli shoots this week to cook up a batch as a side dish for the two of us. The Purple Peacock broccoli has a typical broccoli flavor but it turns a darker green. I'm reserving judgement on this variety, my poor plants don't have a favorable spot in the garden and aren't very productive, but I'll give them a better growing spot this spring and see how they do.

Apollo and Purple Peacock broccolis
Cilantro

Winter (coastal California style) has finally arrived. It has become cold with the nighttime lows down in the 30ºF's on the clear nights. We usually have some frost or a freeze by this time of year. I saw some radiation frost on my neighbor's roof the other morning but the garden has been spared so far. I covered my pepper patch before the cold set in and it will be interesting to see how long I can prolong the harvest of at least green peppers, I cleaned out most of the ripe ones last week.

Here's the harvests for the past week:

Apollo broccoli - 1.4 oz.
Purple Peacock broccoli - .9 oz
Dorato di Asti celery - 12.9 oz.
Flamingo chard - 2 lb., .4 oz.
Diamond eggplant - 13.4 oz.
Kamo eggplant - 1 lb., 4.5 oz.
Salangana eggplant - 2 lb., 3.9 oz.
Sicilian eggplant - 11.6 oz.
Aji Angelo peppers - 1 lb., 2.1 oz.
Aji Pineapple peppers - 2.5 oz.
Barro do Robiero peppers - 4.3 oz.
Big Jim peppers - 8.3 oz.
Christmas Bell peppers - 6.6 oz.
Flamingo bell peppers - 1.9 oz.
Guampinha peppers - .3 oz.
Large Sweet Antigua peppers - 9.6 oz.
Liebesapfel peppers - 12.5 oz.
Mayo Pimento peppers - 2.1 oz.
Odessa Market peppers - 8.4 oz.
Pimento de Padron peppers - 6.3 oz.
Shephard's Ramshorn peppers - 9.6 oz.
Wisconsin Lakes peppers - 2.9 oz.

The harvests for the past week came to - 15 lb., 5.9 oz.
Which brings the harvests for the year up to - 763 lb., 13.5 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.