Harvest Monday - November 28, 2016

It's the end of November already but the garden is still eking out a few last gasps of summer.

Pantano Tomatoes

I harvested those tomatoes above earlier in the week when they looked like the tomatoes in the basket below. There's quite a few large green tomatoes still on the vines. I'm not waiting for them to ripen on the vine though, first it's too cold and they color up very very slowly, and second the longer they sit on the vine the more likely it is that the rats will sample them and spoil them. I've been picking them when they start to develop some color which means they are physiologically mature. The flavor isn't quite the same as ones ripened on the vine but they are still quite good. I tallied the ones above after they colored up completely. I'll tally the ones below as they ripen and if they don't spoil.

I leave the cherry tomatoes on the vines longer even though I lose a lot of them to the rats that way. Three more Aji Amarillo Grande peppers were ripe enough to harvest. The plant is loaded with partially ripe and green peppers. We are due for the first frost any night now so I'm going to have to harvest the underripe ones soon and put some frost cloth over the plant to try to protect the remaining green peppers.

Tromba D'Albenga Squash

The Tromba D'Albenga squash vines are still trying to make squash and succeeding at times.

Rotild and Purple Sun Carrots

The nice thing about having carrots in the garden at this time of year is that I can harvest them as I need them so I pulled just a few yesterday for making soup yesterday and for a salad today.

Pink Plume Celery

The celery is still hanging in there also. I'll have to remember to cover them up when the first frost is due so that the stalks don't get ruined.

Honey Nut Butternut Squash

And I spotted one more Honey Nut Butternut squash hanging on the trellis that I had missed last week.

Tronchuda Beira Cabbage

Yesterday I was in the mood for soup, so I cooked up some Petaluma Gold Rush beans, and harvested some Tronchuda Beira cabbage, carrots, and celery. All of those went into the pot along with some onions from my stash, frozen tomato paste, and Cotechino sausage. It was just the comfort food needed on a chilly night. And I still have a lot of dried corn from previous harvests in the pantry so I made a batch of cornbread with some fresh ground Cascade Ruby Gold cornmeal and whole Sonora wheat flour.

Dave and I were on our own for Thanksgiving this year so we decided to indulge in our passion for backpacking again. That didn't mean that we had a boring trail dinner though. The Backcountry Brussels Sprouts and Carrot Salad that I blogged about last week was more delicious on the trail than at home. And we also enjoyed some delicious brown rice with veggies. Cooked brown rice dehydrates and rehydrates ridiculously well, so I prepared a brown rice dish that also featured dried veggies from the garden (sweet peppers, tomatoes, sweet onion, and sage), plus dried brown mushrooms from the market. And we didn't want to forego the turkey so earlier in the week I made a confit of turkey thigh which I shredded and vacuum sealed. The turkey kept just fine for the one day in the cool winter-like weather.

Included in the tally this week is a head of lettuce that I had harvested a couple of weeks ago. It's amazing how well lettuce keeps in the fridge when it is freshly harvested and properly stored.

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

Tronchuda Beira cabbage - 1.2 lb.
Purple Sun carrots - 1.4 oz.
Rotild carrots - 8.9 oz.
Pink Plume celery - 4.4 oz.
Jericho Romaine lettuce - 1.2 lb.
Aji Amarillo Grande peppers - 2 oz.
Camp Joy tomatoes - 9.2 oz.
Pantano tomatoes - 1.2 lb.
Piccolo Dattero tomatoes - 4.7 oz.
Honey Nut Butternut squash - 8.7 oz.
Tromba D'Albenga squash - 1.8 lb.

Total harvests for the week - 8.1 lb. (3.7 kg.)
2016 YTD - 923.9 lb. (419.1 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.