Harvest Monday - August 8, 2016

The harvests were fairly light again last week. I'm still waiting for the first ripe peppers and for the tomatoes to start in earnest. The bush beans have finished producing and the pole beans haven't started yet.

Zebrune shallot, Piccolo Dattero & Sweet Gold tomatoes

One of the shallots made its way off the curing rack and into the kitchen but I don't remember what I used it in.

Camp Joy, Jaune Flamme, Piccolo Dattero, Sweet Gold

That's the first Camp Joy cherry tomato and the first Jaune Flamme tomatoes. Camp Joy is pretty big for a cherry tomato and Jaune Flamme is a small salad type tomato.

Pink Plume Celery

The second of my 8 Pink Plume celery plants started to bolt. I didn't cut the entire plant but I did cut off most of the side shoots. Most of that harvest went into a saute with corn, onions, apple, and sausage.

Pink Plume Celery & Romanesco Zucchini

Yet more celery, some of which went into salads and the rest is in the fridge. I didn't get around to harvesting the zucchini when I should have a couple of times. I haven't been spending as much time in the garden as I usually would because the mornings have been really awful with the valley filled with a mixture of fog and smoke. We've had more calls from the county warning about the unhealthy air. Even indoors it can be quite unpleasant. Yesterday I finally bought a couple of HEPA air purifiers to cut down on the indoor smoke stench.

Romanesco Zucchini

The Romanesco zucchini is still quite firm and not seedy even at this size so it wasn't a problem, I sliced up most of the harvests this week and put them in the dehydrator.

Batavia Broccoli

The Batavia broccoli keeps putting out side shoots. Half of that basket is filled with shoots from the winter sown plants and the other half with the shoots from the spring sown plants. One night I used some of the big side shoots from last week. First I cooked up a few slices of bacon and set them aside, then cut a few shoots of broccoli in half, laid them cut side down in the hot bacon fat, covered the pan and let the broccoli slowly brown and steam in its own juices until it was tender. I served it browned side up with the chopped bacon and a sauce made by deglazing the pan with some balsamic and red wine vinegars.

Rosso di Firenze Onion

I raided the curing rack for yet again for an onion. This one went into another veggie saute, this time it was broccoli and the last of the bush snap beans seasoned with some tomato conserva (from last year), a couple of anchoy filets and some Mareko Fana pepper flakes. It was delicious served with a sprinkling of grated parmesan.

Manoa Crisphead & Little Rosebud Romaine Mix Lettuces

I thinned a few more heads of lettuce from the garden. They are sizing up really quickly. I suspect that I'll have to harvest the rest of them in the next week or so, but fortunately they keep really well in the fridge.

So the damn Soberanes fire continues to burn and burn and burn. Another 18,000 acres have gone up in smoke in the past week for a total loss of 60,400 acres. I would love to see the culprit who lit the illegal campfire that is the cause of all this misery tied to a spit and slowly roasted over a campfire. Just kidding. Sort of... At least the fire is now 45% contained, mostly on the north end which is the part closest to where I live. But Sunday night, the first night in many without thick fog and smoke filling the valley, I could see the glow of the fire in a couple of places just a few miles away. All it would take is a shift in the wind to send it back this way. The residents of Big Sur got a rude awakening at 3:00 a.m. on Sunday with a reverse 911 call from the Sheriff's Department alerting them to a mandatory evacuation. What a shock that must have been, not a warning that they may have to evacuate, but an order which means LEAVE NOW! Part of that area has had the order rescinded to a warning, but there's still over 300 people in Big Sur who have had to leave their homes. And there's yet more people in Cachauga, not far from here in another part of Carmel Valley, that are under orders to leave as well. Not everyone does leave, but those who don't can't count on anyone coming to their rescue should things go wrong. And they finally got smart and closed the regional park across the valley. It's so strange to drive by and see not one single car in the parking lot - I've never seen that during daylight hours, it's a very popular park. It's all so depressing.

If you are curious, here's a link to a map that shows the progression of the fire from July 22 when it started through August 7 - Soberanes Fire Progression Map.

Anyway, here's the details of the harvests for the past week:

Batavia broccoli - 2.5 lb.
Pink Plume celery - 2.1 lb.
Green Fingers cucumbers - 3.7 oz.
Little Rosebud Romaine Mix lettuces - 5.5 oz.
Manoa Crisphead lettuce - 9.7 oz.
Rossa Lunga di Firenze onion - 5.6 oz.
Zebrune shallot - 8.6 oz.
Camp Joy cherry tomato - .9 oz.
Jaune Flamme tomatoes - 2.5 oz.
Piccolo Dattero cherry tomatoes - 1.2 oz.
Sweet Gold cherry tomatoes - 1.6 oz.
Romanesco zucchini - 3.9 lb.

Total harvests for the week - 10.9 lb. (4.9 kg.)
2016 YTD harvests - 409.8 lb. (186 kg.)

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