Harvest Monday - October 28, 2013

Ripe peppers are the hot thing this week. Well, not so hot actually, these may be hot looking but most of them are pretty mild and some are simply sweet. This first box is all sweetness, Piment doux long des Landes is a sweet frying pepper from France, Happy Yummy is supposed to be sweet (I haven't tasted it yet, and Shephard's Ramshorn is a fleshy sweet pepper that is a good all purpose sweet pepper.

There's a bit more spice here, these are all New Mexico type chiles with the exception of that one yellow pepper which is another Happy Yummy that should have some spice.

More mild New Mexico type chiles. I've been drying them for future use in chile powders and other such uses.

Dave of Our Happy Acres fame sent me seeds from the Happy Yummy peppers that he's been growing and saving seeds from. I managed to get at least one plant each from the four different strains that he sent me, the yellow peppers below are from the 2009 seeds. The peppers in the center boxes are more New Mexico type chiles and the slim red peppers on the right are Aleppo peppers (maybe I should call them Caleppo peppers). I've been drying those to grind into pepper flakes. If they are seeded and deribbed before they are dried the ground peppers have a mild heat, but they are quite spicy if the seeds are not removed before drying them.

More melons! I'm really happy with the Alvaro melons, they've produced a respectable crop (almost 14 pounds so far) and the melons have been delicious. I'll grow these again next year. The romanesco zucchini are still coming in, another 2.5 pounds this week. My single plant has produced nearly 94 pounds so far, not including the overgrown ones that I didn't weigh because I don't use them as anything other than fodder for the compost critters.

There are plenty of sweet cherry tomatoes for my husband's lunch bag.

And good tomatoes for salads and baking and quick sauces. Sunday breakfast was eggs poached in a quick tomato sauce with some sautéed onion and sweet peppers, sprinkled with some Zatar spice mix. I also braised some eggplant in a quick tomato sauce that was seasoned with capers, anchovies, garlic, and olives. A number of tomatoes also went into a batch of my favorite tomato soup.

The spring sown Di Ciccio broccoli plants are still putting out some really good side shoots.

Look how long the stems get. I cut the stems down to the lowest bud to force the plants to produce more large shoots rather than a lot of little shoots. The bottom third of the stalk is usually too tough to eat even if it is peeled, but the middle third can be peeled and cooked and the top third I cook up like broccolini. I like to cook the tender leaves from the top third or so of the stalks separately, the leaves from the previous harvest went into a fritatta. I think the leaves from this harvest will go into a batch of vegetable soup tonight.

Cucumbers are still trickling in. The threat of rain prompted me to gather all the dried beans from the late planted Fagiolo del Purgatorio beans. This will be weighed after I've shelled them and when they are thoroughly dry.

Perhaps you saw my post on Saturday about my venture into growing saffron, if not, here's a photo of my harvest this week. You won't see it in the tally below, I'll never be able to grow enough for it to register on my scale!

The weather was rather mixed last week with some atypically cool and foggy days and last night a system rolled in with some rain so it looks like the rest of the day today is going to be dreary. I probably should have harvested a few sensitive items such as the nearly ripe tomatoes but it's too late now, they've already been rained upon.

Here's the harvests for the past week:

Di Ciccio broccoli - 13.1 oz. (weighed after trimming)
Garden Oasis cucumbers - 1 lb., 3 oz.
Tasty Green Japanese cucumbers - 12.8 oz.
Lorz Italian garlic - 2.5 oz. (weighed as I use it)
Alvaro melons - 4 lb., 8.6 oz.
Alcalde peppers - 7.3 oz.
Aleppo peppers - 9 oz.
Cochiti peppers - 6.3 oz.
Isleta Long peppers - 11.1 oz.
Happy Yummy peppers - 15.8 oz.
Jarales peppers - 15.4 oz.
Negro de Valle peppers - 21 oz.
Piment doux Long des Landes peppers - 5.6 oz.
Quatro Milpas peppers - 1 lb., 10.7 oz.
San Juan Tsile peppers - 1 lb., 7.8 oz.
Shephard's Ramshorn peppers - 42.1 oz.
Tarahumara Chile Colorado - 6.4 oz.
Zia Pueblo peppers - 1 lb., 4.6 oz.
Andine Cornue tomatoes - 4 lb., 8.8 oz.
Chianti Rose tomatoes - 2 lb., 9.6 oz.
Galinas cherry tomatoes - 4.1 oz.
Green Grape cherry tomatoes - 1 lb., 15.9 oz.
Isis Candy cherry tomatoes - 2 lb., 15.5 oz.
Jaune Flamme tomatoes - 2 lb., 7.3 oz.
Martian Giant tomatoes - 1.9 oz.
Nyagous tomatoes - 3 lb., 4.4 oz.
Romanesco zucchini - 2 lb., 9.8 oz.

The total harvests for the past week came to - 45 lb., 13.4 oz.
Which brings the total harvests for the year up to - 744 lb., 13.1 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.