Harvest Monday - November 11, 2013

Every year I'm amazed at what I'm harvesting in November. I spend the summer watching other garden bloggers harvesting tomatoes and peppers and other summer vegetables. It's always so difficult to be patient but I know that all I have to do is wait, it will happen, "summer" will start 'round about the end of August.  And then the glut of tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant will begin and if the weather cooperates I'll be harvesting them well into November.

Sonora Anaheim type peppers

 I fire roasted most of the Sonora peppers and used some of them in a soupy stew with slow roasted pork shoulder seasoned with cumin and lots of cilantro. The rest of the peppers were baked with Crescenza cheese and cream.

Bonica eggplant

The Bonica plants have been incredibly prolific. A couple of nights I prepared some of them very simply by cutting them into thick slices, salting them a bit to draw out some water, dried the slices and then generously brushed them with olive oil and baked them at 350ºF until they were tender. We had them with fresh salsa one night and plain another night. Last night I did a variation on that, I baked them for about 10 minutes and then I topped each slice with a generous dollop of ricotta mixed with grated Parmesan, parsley, garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper, and baked them about 30 minutes longer until the cheese was browned a bit and the eggplant tender. That was sooo good.

Potiron Ecarlate tomatoes

The Potiron Ecarlate is a late producer but the plants are hanging in there and the tomatoes as well. They didn't crack very much when we had some rain a couple of weeks ago, you can see one of them above did get a bit infected in a crack but the rest of them didn't crack enough to spoil them. These have been very flavorful and it's very nice to have a late producer to extend the season. We are still enjoying simple salads of sliced tomatoes with basil (yes the basil hasn't succumbed to cold or disease  yet). And the cherry tomatoes are still ripening although I didn't get around to photographing the harvests last week.

Topepo Rosso peppers

My Topepo Rosso peppers are more pleated than I anticipated, but that's ok.

Aleppo (top) and Tarahumara Chile Colorado peppers

I hope the mild weather continues so that more of the Aleppo peppers ripen, there's lots of green ones left on the plants. I've been drying the Aleppos by cutting them in half, removing the seeds and ribs, and salting them very lightly.

Cucumbers and zucchini start producing in late spring and if the powdery mildew doesn't take over too quickly the harvests will continue well into fall. I grow PM resistant varieties to keep the harvests coming. The Romanesco zucchini that I'm growing this year seems to be particularly resistant to PM. I started harvesting from the plant on May 21 and the plant is just lately becoming overtaken by PM, although it is putting out a final few zucchini of remarkably good quality.

Tasty Green cucumber, Romanesco zucchini, Andine Cornue tomatoes

That's nearly the last gasp for the Andine Cornue tomatoes. The three plants produced enough good tomatoes so that I was able to can 15 quarts of tomatoes which will be enough to get me through the year.

Tasty Green and Garden Oasis cucumbers

The cucumber plants have held up well against powder mildew as well.

Green Fingers cucumbers

The broccoli harvests can go from spring through fall depending on the variety that I grow. Di Ciccio broccoli is a reliable producer, better than any other sprouting broccoli that I've ever grown. These shoots came from my spring plants. My fall plants are producing some heads now as well so I may be able to harvest shoots into the winter.

Di Ciccio broccoli and Lacinato kale

The birds have been ravaging my Lacinato kale. These are some of the better looking leaves. I've had to swathe the plants in row cover. I hope they do ok under cover, I'm concerned that it may be a nice comfy spot for aphids but so far it doesn't seem to be a problem. This week I harvested enough to make a kale salad with almonds and apples. That came out so good that I wanted to make it again but my husband was lobbying for sauteed kale with pancetta and pine nuts. I compromised and made a wilted kale salad with pancetta, pines nuts, and apples. I'll try to write up my notes for the recipes on my recipe blog one of these days.

The weather this past week has been kind to both the garden and me. The forecast is for continued mild weather so look for some more colorful harvests from my garden next week!

Here's the details of the harvests for the past week:

Di Ciccio broccoli - 10.1 oz.

Garden Oasis cucumbers - 8.2 oz.

Green Fingers Persian cucumbers - 10.3 oz.

Tasty Green Japanese cucumbers - 12.3 oz.

Bonica eggplants - 10 lb., .6 oz.

Salangana eggplants - 10.3 oz.

Sicilian eggplants - 3 lb., 4.3 oz.

Lorz Italian garlic - 1.4 oz. (weighed as I use it)

Red Janice garlic - 3 oz.

Lacinato kale - 2 lb., 4.1 oz.

Sweetie Baby romaine lettuce - 9.8 oz.

Aleppo peppers - 1 lb., 1.3 oz.

Happy Yummy sweet peppers - 1.3 oz.

Pico de Pajaro peppers - .4 oz.

Piment doux Long des Landes peppers - 2.2 oz.

Sonora peppers - 5 lb., 9.4 oz.

Tarahumara Chile Colorado peppers - 1 lb., 3.5 oz.

Topepo Rosso peppers - 3 lb., 11.2 oz.

Andine Cornue tomatoes - 1 lb., .5 oz.

Isis Candy cherry tomatoes - 5 lb., 12.3 oz.

Potiron Ecarlate tomatoes - 5 lb., 1.2 oz.

Romanesco zucchini - 1 lb., 13.8 oz.

The total harvests for the past week came to - 45  lb., 8.8 oz.

Which pushes the total harvests for the year up to - 839 lb., 10.7 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.