Harvest Monday - November 30, 2015

It has been chilly here for the past week. The lows at night have dipped down to the freezing point, albeit briefly, so the "summer" garden has officially come to an end. I gleaned what was remaining on the pepper and Tromba D'Albenga squash plants in anticipation of the certain frost. So I've got one more mini glut of veggies to attend to and then I can start planning for next year.

We had warmer than normal temperatures for the few days before the chilly weather set in. Day time highs up to 78ºF (25.6ºC) prompted the Tromba D'Albenga squash to go through one last spurt of production. Last Monday I harvested some good sized squash that sized up because of the warm days.

Tromba D'Albenga squash

Wednesday night was predicted to be frosty so I picked every remaining squash from the vines and ended up with quite a large basketful. I sliced and dehydrated the largest of them and then I made a final Scarpaccia (Zucchini Tart), actually 2 tarts since they are delicious leftover and Dave could take them for his lunch instead of his usual wedge of frittata.

Tromba D'Albenga squash

Scarpaccia is one of our favorite ways to eat zucchini, it's usually one of the very first things I make when the zucchini start to come in and we enjoy them pretty regularly while the season lasts.

Scarpaccia

I even harvested the baby squash with blossoms but ended up not saving them (enough squash already...). And there was one squash that I had allowed to mature just to see what would happen. That's not in the tally either, at least not yet, I'm not sure if it's mature enough to be tasty. Underneath the squash you can see some of the peppers that I gleaned. I haven't been spending a lot of time composing photos of the harvests lately. I seem to get around to harvesting at the end of the day and the cold temperatures and fading light just aren't conducive to arranging pretty shots.

More peppers, mostly green now, I harvested but didn't tally the green Giallo di Cuneo bell peppers. If they taste good I'll include them in the tally, but I don't normally harvest or eat green bell peppers, I don't like the flavor of unripe bell peppers, other peppers are good green, but not bells.

These green peppers are worth harvesting, nearly the last of the Padrons, these were from Monday. I harvested the very last peppers yesterday, the plants actually came through the frosty nights this week with very little damage and the remaining peppers were still good, tiny but good, we snacked on them before dinner last night. I think they seemed more delicious than ever since I knew that these were the last we would be enjoying until next summer.

Padron peppers

The broccoli has definitely been unfazed by the frosty nights. It's heading up more slowly but still producing.

Di Ciccio broccoli and Apollo brokali

It ended up being my best year for pepper harvests since I started tallying my harvests back in 2010. It wasn't just my imagination when I felt like the harvests were becoming overwhelming - the final tally is 171 pounds (77.6 kg.), 44 pounds more than the previous best year. And those peppers are going to good use now. We enjoyed Mareko Fana pepper flakes in our warm shredded brussels sprouts (not mine) for Thanksgiving dinner. And some preserved roasted peppers were fabulous in turkey sandwiches this weekend. Those turkey sandwiches were also enlivened by some chipotle butter that I made by mincing one of my smoked jalapeños and folding it into some softened sweet butter which I spread on some good rustic sourdough bread before toasting it.

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

Apollo brokali - 4.3 oz.
Di Ciccio broccoli - 16.9 oz.
Criolla de Cocina peppers - 1 lb., 2.2 oz.
De La Vera peppers - 1 lb., 6.4 oz.
Florina Greek peppers - 5.7 oz.
Gogosar peppers - 1 lb., 8.4 oz.
Markeo Fana peppers - 7.2 oz.
NTR peppers - 14.9 oz.
Odessa Market peppers - 1 lb., 2.2 oz.
Padron peppers - 1 lb., 2.2 oz.
Long des Landes peppers - 1 lb., 1.3 oz.
Rosso Dolce da Appendere peppers - 6.1 oz.
Sonora Anaheim peppers - 31 oz.
Yummy Belle peppers - 1 lb., 10.7 oz.
Tromba D'Albenga squash - 15 lb., 1.3 oz.

Total harvests for the week - 29 lb., 8.8 oz. (13.4 kg.)
2015 YTD - 1219 lb., 10.9 oz. (553.2 kg.)

Harvest Monday is hosted by Dave on his blog Our Happy Acres, head on over there to be inspired by what other garden bloggers have been harvesting and cooking up lately.