Harvest Monday - August 21, 2017

Did you see my Harvest Monday post last week? Guess what, this week looks a lot like last week with the exceptions of a new variety of cucumber and no wasp photo, although I did "harvest" another half gallon of dead Western Yellow Jacket wasps. If you follow me on Instagram you can see plenty of wasp pics and a couple of videos there.

Green Fingers, Chelsea Prize, and Gagon cucumbers

That's the first Gagon cucumber of the year. I grew them last year but ripped out the plants because the cucumbers were entirely extremely bitter. After I ripped out the plants I found that the young cucumbers that were on the plant weren't actually bitter so I decided to try them again this year. That first one got away from me and got to be huge so I was afraid it might be bitter. The first inch at the stem end was bitter but the rest of it was quite good. Last year I figured out that the bitterness was caused by the plant being under water stress, the corner of the bed where the cucumbers were growing was being invaded by oak tree roots which were sucking up a lot of water. It wasn't only the cucumbers that suffered, the usually hyper-productive Romanesco zucchini that was growing in that end of the bed was also under-performing.

Romanesco and Tromba D'Albenga Zucchini

The Romanesco zucchini is back to its usual hyper-productivity this year and the Tromba vines are trying to catch up. Production so far is 36 pounds of Romanesco and 26 pounds of Tromba. Last night I made another variation of a grilled zucchini dish that is becoming a favorite. I grilled a few of the Tromba squash, I like to cut them into about 6-inch lengths the split those lengthwise. Once grilled I arrange them on a platter and top them with a sauce of sautéed ground meat (lamb this time), onion, maybe garlic, chopped dried sweet peppers (because I don't have fresh ripe ones yet), maybe spicy pepper flakes, a spice blend or single spice which was simply cumin this time, I also added toasted pine nuts this time, and that is all simmered in tomato puree (still using last year's freezer stash) and then finished with pomegranate molasses and chopped cilantro. I thought that last night's variation came out particularly good.

Mixed cherry tomatoes, Broccolini, Filet Beans

Oh wait, last week I didn't show any broccoli or broccolini, this week there's both. And there's some Rolande filet beans and one Amethyst Purple filet bean to accompany the Roc D'Or beans. There would have been more tomatoes but the rodents have started in on them. Grrrrr.

Batavia Broccoli

The Batavia broccoli plants that produced through the winter and spring are still putting out side shoots. The spring sown plants got gnawed by either a rodent or a rabbit or both so they are only now recovering and starting to put out some side shoots, they are those 2 good sized ones on the left.

That's the latest from my garden, head on over to Our Happy Acres where Dave is hosting Harvest Monday, there's lots more beautiful harvests to be found there.