Harvest Monday - September 16, 2013

The highlight last week was the eggplant harvests. This delightful basketful of eggplant weighed in at 10 pounds. It was all harvested on Saturday so I'll be working my way through it  in the coming days.

Lets check out the details.

Bonica

Sicilian (both from the same plant)

Those two fat Sicilians were turned into a casserole last night, one of my husbands favorite eggplant dishes, it's something like lasagna made with eggplant instead of pasta. A layer of panfried eggplant (or grilled or broiled) placed on a bit of tomato sauce and topped with ricotta, Parmesan, basil, and more tomato sauce. Then a layer of thin sliced prosciutto to cover it all, then more tomato sauce, eggplant, sliced mozzarella, basil, and tomato sauce. Sprinkle on a bit more Parmesan and bake at 350ºF for about half an hour. Yum, yum, yum. The secret to success with that casserole (at least to my husband's taste) is to make sure the ricotta is well drained, the mozzarella sliced and laid out on towels to get rid excess moisture, and to bake it in a wide enough pan that it's not too thick. Too much moisture and too thick makes for a soupy casserole.

Lavender Sicilian

One of my Sicilian plants is producing completely lavender colored fruits. That plant was grown from seeds that I saved last year and I suspect that it may be a cross with one of the other eggplants that I grew last year. Not only are the fruits different from the other Sicilians, but the foliage has less purple to it also. It's still a great eggplant and very productive.

Salangana

I harvested another smaller basket of Salangana eggplant earlier in the week. The first basket of Salanganas were used to make Caponata. I adapted two different recipes to make it and it came out great. Fortunately I took notes as I went along so I'll be writing up that recipe later this week.

Salangana

One section of the beet patch was cleared out. I didn't save the greens because they were quite infested with leaf miners and I just didn't need to deal with that.

Golden, Baby Ball, Chioggia

That one big beet isn't exactly a "Baby"

It was more of a softball and in spite of its girth it turned out to be non-fibrous and sweet and made another great batch of Ottolenghi's Beet Puree with Za'atar (the recipe can be found on Food & Wine Magazine's website).

"Baby" Ball beet

The last of the French Gold filet beans and Spanish Musica beans are trickling in and the first of the Emerite filet beans and Australian Butter beans are also trickling in which turns out to be a nice steady supple of beans.

Australian Butter
Spanish Musica
French Gold
Emerite

 The cucumber harvests have been abundant and the ripe peppers are starting to trickle in.

Liebesapfel and Alcalde peppers
Tortarello Abruzzese (fuzzy) and Garden Oasis cucumbers

Alcalde nose and ears

And the zucchini plants continue to be hyper-productive. And the cucumbers are trying to keep up with the zucchini.

The one that got away. There's always at least one every year. Don't ask me what it weighed, it's not in the tally and it never made it past the compost bin.

Yeah, the cucumbers are definitely trying to keep up with the zucchini. The Pimento de Padrons are being rather modest producers though, it took a week to gather enough for a good bowlful.

Sheesh, I did harvest a lot of cucumbers. And the Emerite and Australian Butter bean production is picking up also.

My one Fiaschetto plum tomato plant turned out to be a modest producer, this is the bulk of the tomatoes from the plant. It probably won't produce a lot more, the plant is definitely growing as a determinate type this year, in past years it tended to be more semi-determinate. It figures that the year that I decide to grow only one plant that it turns out a modest harvest.

Fiaschetto

Jaune Flamme, Martian Giant (hah!), Nyagous, Galinas, Isis Candy, Green Grape, Chianti Rose

The first Potiron Ecarlate tomato is the pleated one up on the right.
Casados Native peppers

The first ripe New Mexico type peppers are ripening and I've been drying them.

Casados Native (L) and Zia Pueblo (R) peppers

Alcalde peppers 

Di Ciccio broccoli is still trickling in also.

Can't complain too much about the weather, although the last couple of nights have been a bit chilly.

Here's the harvests for the past week:

Australian Butter beans - 4.2 oz.
Emerite filet beans - 1 lb., 2.3 oz.
French Gold filet beans - 4.1 oz.
Spanish Musica beans - 15.5 oz.
Baby Ball beets - 2 lb., 10.4 oz (no greens)
Chioggia beets - 10.2 oz. (no greens)
Golden beets - 2 lb., 9.1 oz. (no greens)

Di Ciccio broccoli - 15.4 oz.

Garden Oasis cucumbers - 3 lb., 9.9 oz.

Green Fingers Persian cucumbers - 12.9 oz.

Tasty Green Japanese cucumbers - 7.1 oz.

Tortarello Abruzzese cucumbers - 2 lb., 1.2 oz.

Bonica eggplant - 2 lb., .4 oz.

Salangana eggplant - 7 lb., 4.1 oz.

Sicilian eggplant - 2 lb., 13.8 oz.

Red Janice garlic - 1.7 oz.

Alcalde peppers - 6.4 oz.

Casados Native peppers - 10.3 oz.

Liebesapfel peppers - 10.9 oz.

Melrose peppers - 5 oz.

Pimento de Padron peppers - 12.6 oz.

Zia Pueblo peppers - 4.8 oz.

Chianti Rose tomatoes - 1 lb., 11 oz.

Fiaschetto tomatoes - 2 lb., 6.4 oz.

Galinas cherry tomatoes - 2.2 oz.

Green Grape cherry tomatoes - 14 oz.

Isis Candy cherry tomatoes - 13.7 oz.

Jaune Flamme tomatoes - 2 lb., 1.4 oz.

Martian Giant tomatoes - 3 lb., 1.6 oz.

Nyagous tomatoes - 1 lb., 14.6 oz.

Potiron Ecarlate tomato - 6.8 oz.

Orotlano di Faenza zucchini - 1 lb., 6.8 oz.

Romanesco zucchini - 4 lb., 9.2 oz.

The total harvests for the past week were - 51 lb., 4.8 oz.

Which brings the harvest totals for the year up to - 467 lb., 6 oz.

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