Harvest Monday - December 19, 2016

This is the last harvest post for what is technically still fall although the weather is decidedly winter. The first freeze descended upon the garden on Sunday morning so in anticipation of that I collected the last of the tomatoes that seemed to have any chance of being tasty after ripening on the kitchen counter.

Aji Amarillo Grande

There were a couple more Aji Amarillo Grande peppers that were ready to harvest and they joined the previous Aji harvests in another batch of pepper jam. There are still green and ripening peppers left on the plants so I swaddled the plants in a combination of greenhouse plastic sheeting and Agribon frost cloth in an effort to keep the plants and peppers from freezing. The plants looked ok yesterday afternoon but it froze again this morning so I won't know if they survived the double dip until later.

Hopi Chinmark Corn

Here's a photo of the Hopi Chinmark corn that I put into the tally last week.

Gustus Brussels Sprouts

There will be regular photos of Brussels Sprouts for the next few weeks. The freezing nights should make them extra sweet.

Pusa Rudhira Red, Rotild, Purple Sun Carrots

And there should be regular shots of carrots too. I wonder if the cold temperatures sweeten them up also?

The only other harvests last week were a couple of cuttings of Pink Plume celery and a couple big leaves of Tronchuda Beira cabbage. I harvested a number of the largest stalks of celery to keep on hand just in case the freezing temperatures ruined them. I covered the plants with a double layer of frost cloth that I hope will protect them from freezing so perhaps I can get a few more harvests through the winter before the plants bolt in the spring. Also included in the tally are more tomatoes that ripened on the kitchen counter.

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

Gustus Brussels sprouts - 14.2 oz.
Tronchuda Beira cabbage - 1.1 lb.
Purple Sun Carrots - 2.8 oz.
Pusa Rudhira Red carrot - 2 oz.
Rotild carrots - 11.5 oz.
Pink Plume celery - 1.3 lb.
Aji Amarillo Grande peppers - 1.8 oz.
Pantano tomatoes - 10.6 oz.

Total harvests for the week - 5.1 lb. (2.3 kg.)
2016 YTD - 948.7 lb. (430.3 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.

If I'm awake at 2:44 AM PST this Wednesday morning I'll celebrate the Winter Solstice in some small way to note the start of lengthening days. Summer is coming! Eventually....  It happens at the exact same time throughout the northern hemisphere but because the earth is divided into 24 different time zones we won't all experience it at the same time of day. Sorry to you in the southern hemisphere - your days are going to become shorter.