Monday, August 19, 2013

Harvest Monday - August 19, 2013

Oh wow, I was so amazed to find 2 big eggplants ready to harvest last week! It seemed like they were just little things just days before. My plants aren't loaded but what they've got is good sized and good quality. Both of these were seedless and not at all bitter. On the left is Sicilian, grown from seeds that I saved from one lone plant that I grew last year, and on the right is Bonica, an Italian hybrid. The Sicilian had a very white and slightly lacy interior, the Bonica was creamier colored and very solid, but neither had any seeds. I prepared these simply, just sliced into 1/2-inch rounds and pan fried in a little olive oil and then topped with a fresh tomato-basil-caper salsa.


First and last in this basket, the first ripe chile Manzanos and the last of the blueberries.


The Manzanos are quite spicy, at least for my wimpy palate, so I'll be making a hot sauce with them.


And the Pimento de Padrons finally produced enough peppers to fry up a nice bowlful.


The broccoli harvests are continuing, Di Ciccio is on the bottom and Purple Peacock is on the top. I wrote up a Saturday Spotlight post about the Di Ciccio broccoli yesterday (yeah, Sunday, I know).


The cucumbers keep trickling in. These are, from top to bottom, Tasty Green Japanese, Green Fingers Persian, and Tortarello Abruzzese.


And the zucchini keep on giving, and giving, and... (68 pounds so far)


Just a few tomatoes again, Jaune Flamme, Nyagous, and Galinas cherry are shown below and I ate the lone Isis Candy cherry tomato before it could be photographed. I have to keep reminding myself that the glut will happen, it's still August, the glut comes in September and October. Patience, I need more patience.


The French Gold filet beans produce a handful almost every day and it doesn't take long to accumulate a nice pile of them. The Spanish Musica beans are producing a second round of beautiful long flat big tender beans. These were great prepared using a simple method that I found on a Food52 post about Penelope Casas' Garlic Green Beans - check it out.


I prepared that dish by cutting these big beans on the diagonal in big pieces. My favorite way to cook these beans is to leave them whole, slick them with a bit of olive oil and grill them on a ridged stovetop griddle or on the BBQ until they are blistered and tender, dress them with some good vinegar, salt and pepper and chopped herbs. They make great finger food appetizers.


I also harvested another big but slighty funky looking Sugarsnax carrot that was grated and added to a smashed cucumber salad with tomatoes and shrimp.



I also harvested more green runner beans and I weighed more garlic. I'm not weighing all my garlic at once this year. It has been bundled into a faux braid and is hanging in my pantry and I weigh each head as I cut it from the bundle to be used.

The weather has warmed up and it seems like summer coastal California style may be starting. We've actually been able to dine outside a couple of evenings without wearing a parka! Although it does cool off quickly when the sun dips toward the horizon.


Here's the harvests for the past week:

French Gold filet beans - 1 lb., 2.4 oz.
Runner beans - 1 lb., 8.4 oz.
Spanish Musica beans - 1 lb., 13 oz.
Di Ciccio broccoli - 1 lb., 11.8 oz.
Purple Peacock broccoli - 10.4 oz.
Sugarsnax carrot - 7.6 oz. (one carrot!)
Garden Oasis cucumber - 6 oz.
Green Fingers Persian cucumbers - 15.4 oz.
Tasty Green Japanese cucumbers - 6.4 oz.
Tortarello Abruzzese cucumbers - 3 lb., 2.1 oz.
Bonica eggplant - 14.2 oz.
Sicilian eggplant - 12.7 oz.
Red Janice garlic - 2.3 oz.
Manzano chiles - 1 lb., 1.4 oz.
Pimento de Padron peppers - 7.5 oz.
Galinas cherry tomatoes - 1.1 oz.
Isis Candy cherry tomato - .4 oz.
Jaune Flamme tomatoes - 2.8 oz.
Nyagous tomatoes - 6.6 oz.
Ortolano di Faenza zucchini - 1 lb., 7.5 oz.
Romanesco zucchini - 5 lb., 14.6 oz.

The harvest totals for the week came to - 23 lb., 10.6 oz.
Which pushes the total for the year over the 300 pound mark - 317 lb., 14.2 oz. to be more precise

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


23 comments:

  1. Great harvest. Maybe I would like eggplant if I tried a seedless type. I'll have to look into that. Do you just have to pick it at a certain time to get it seedless? Worth a try, I'd love to grow them they are so pretty.

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    1. Neither of these is a seedless variety, but you can avoid seeds or at least hard brown seeds if you harvest the eggplants when they are young. One thing to watch for is how shiny the skin is, if it starts to get dull that means it is maturing and seeds are developing.

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  2. Gorgeous eggplants and peppers! the rest of the harvest is very lovely too.

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  3. We have had aubergine (eggplant) success this year. The only trouble is that it is a mini aubergine plant and we are unsure how big the fruits should grow before cropping,

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    1. As I said to Shawn Ann, watch the skin, if it starts to get dull you should harvest. Better small and shiny than large and dull.

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  4. How could you talk about a smashed cucumber salad and not provide photos and/or recipe? Are you like me, always dreading recipe writing? That salad sounds smashing! You got me all curious.

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  5. Beautiful eggplants. I tried Bonica last year and the flea beetles killed it. And how come you have eggplant but not tomatoes? My eggplant (when I can grow them) have always been slower than the toms.

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    1. Ah, one of the mysteries of my microclimate, eggplant but no (or few) tomatoes! Am I ever happy that I don't have the flea beetle problem that you do, they make an occasional appearance but rarely in large numbers.

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  6. Beautiful harvests. And those beans look so pretty.

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  7. I love those eggplants! And thanks for mentioning how you prepare the large flat green beans. My yellow beans are of the same type and it is giving me great ideas about how to prepare them!

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  8. That bean recipe sounds good!

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  9. Your eggplants are perfect! How do you know when is the right time to harvest them? I've read a lot of different opinions and the first two i harvested were good, but how do you *know*? Do you have a trick?

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    1. Ah, I think it's like picking a melon at the perfect time, there just doesn't seem to be a perfect method. With eggplant I use the shine factor, if it has shiny skin it's going to be good, when the skin gets dull it's starting to mature. But that's not perfect. I've picked dull skinned eggplant that are perfectly good, but it rarely works the other way around. If the skin is shiny it is nearly always good. Of course you could be harvwsting it before the *perfect* time, but I think too soon is better than too late.

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  10. Gorgeous eggplants, seedless is even better. Is Padron pepper as productive as Shishito? I tried to grow it 2 years ago it didn't do well in our climate, maybe too hot? Perhaps it likes a bit of shade in the afternoon, maybe I'll give it a go again next year.

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    1. The Padrons have been at least as productive as the Shishistos in my garden and I think they are a bit more cold cold tolerant. I think they will take a fair amount of heat, they did well for me in the Santa Clara valley where it gets warmer than here. But perhaps they do like it a bit less hot, I know they tend to produce more spicy peppers when the weather gets hot.

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  11. We're growing Shishitos as an alternative to Padron pepper roulette. So far, they've been consistently not spicy... have you found if the Shishitos also get spicy with warmer weather?

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  12. I don't recall for sure, it's been a couple of years since I last grew Shishitos, but I don't think they got spicy. I was growing both Shishitos and Padrons that year and that was when I decided that I prefer the flavor of the Padrons, spicy or not. I generally don't get very many spicy ones, not even the 1 in 4 that so many claim.

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  13. GORGEOUS harvest! And thank you for the part where it says: ...the glut will happen, it's still August, the glut comes in September and October. Patience, I need more patience.

    I'm throwing in the towel for this year and look forward to 2014. At least we'll be on a drip irrigation system so no more having to water the garden manually!

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    1. A drip system is a blessing and a curse, but I couldn't manage my garden without it. I think you will find it to be a great help.

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  14. Your eggplant recipes sound delicious! I planted 4 variety this season, but I found an eggplant that done well, suddenly dry and dead. I didn't know why. I planted organicly. I didn't find fungus on it. I was really disappointed about that. Because it gave me some fresh fruits before and have a lot of little fruitset on it. Have you an advice? Thank you
    Endah-Indonesia

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    1. My guess would be that something attacked the roots, either a disease or pest. It's hard to say without seeing the plant.

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  15. Beautiful harvest, Michelle. I envy your eggplant and commiserate with you over your zucchini abundance.

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  16. I love those Musica beans too. I think they have been the best Italian pole bean I have grown. I have sauteed the green beans in a skillet like the recipe for Garlic Green Beans, and I have roasted them in the oven tossed with a little olive oil, salt and garlic. But I have never grilled them! That sounds like a great treatment.

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