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Sunday, September 3, 2017

Harvest Monday - September 4, 2017

One new item hit the harvest basket this week, a big bunch of Ethiopian Blue Mustard , aka Ethiopian Highland Kale. A planting can be harvested 2 or 3 times but I grew it for a quick single cutting.

Ethiopian Blue Mustard
Ethiopian Blue Mustard, Baby Tuscan Kale, Baby Leaf Chard
The mustard greens were threatening to overpower the neighboring greens so they had to be cut, plus they were also the greens that were suffering the most in the intense heat that we endured the last few days so I figured they would do better in the fridge than in the garden.


Next I'll harvest either the Baby Tuscan kale or the Special Baby Leaf chard (both from Renee's Garden Seeds) and in the meantime I'll sow some baby spinach where the mustard was growing. I like the idea of having a cutting now and then of some baby greens. It adds some variety to the harvests and at this time of year they grow quickly and it doesn't require a big space commitment.


I'm harvesting enough cherry tomatoes that both Dave and I can snack as much as we want and I can use them in salads and other preparations. I just wish the "bumblebee" varieties were more productive, the plants don't seem to be very vigorous.

Romanesco Zucchini, Batavia Broccoli, Gagon Cucumber
Mavritanskite and Jaune Flamme Tomatoes

Just a few larger fruited tomatoes are ripening. Mavritanskite and Jaune Flamme have been reliable early producers and both are delicious so I keep growing them. Every year I try a new variety or two. This year it is Jazz which is turning out to be a big disappointment, it has hardly any tomatoes on the vine and doesn't seem inclined to set many more. Jazz won't be returning next year. There's a Gagon cucumber in the basket also, which I'm not sure I'm going to grow again. It's tasty enough but it seems to produce about 1 female blossom per 50 male blossoms. The vines are growing all over the place, blooming like crazy, and there's hardly a cucumber to be found.

Romanesco zucchini is another veggie that has proven it's worth in my garden so I haven't even tried growing another variety of zucchini for a few years. No other zucchini has compared, absolutely nothing except for Tromba D'Albenga which is different enough that it stays on the grow list year after year also.

Tromba D'Albenga Squash

When the bulb ends of the Tromba squash get to be large I like to use them to make stuffed zucchini, or I guess it would be more accurate to say stuffed squash. Last night I had three big ones that came to a total of 2 1/2 pounds. So I cut each bulb in half and scooped them out, reserving the guts. Then salted the gutted squash halves and laid them cut side down on paper towels to draw out some moisture to firm them up. Then for the filling I soaked 1/2 cup of quinoa in 1/2 cup of water. As the quinoa soaked I browned 1/2 pound of ground beef, and then sautéed some onion and the chopped squash guts together in some olive oil with a couple of fresh bay leaves. Then I drained the quinoa and mixed it with the beef, onion, and squash along with some chopped dried sweet peppers from last year and seasoned the mix with some dried fennel seed, 1/2 teaspoon of ground cumin, and 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon. (I forgot to mention that while the squash halves sat on the towels giving up some moisture I was slicing up the long necks into thin slices to dry in the dehydrator.) All the filling went into the squash halves which I simply wiped dry before stuffing. The stuffed squash halves fit quite snugly into my Chamba roasting pan. Then I topped the squash with 2 cups of crushed canned tomatoes and drizzled some olive oil over all and then covered the pan with some parchment paper, tucking the edges of the paper in around the contents.  It was too damned hot to heat up the house by turning on the oven so I fired up the Big Green Egg and baked the stuffed squash in the BGE set to about 350 to 400ºF for an hour.

Beef & Quinoa Stuffed Squash 
My comment to my Dave as we enjoyed the stuffed squash was that it is not a dish that you'll see in a restaurant - it's too homely looking. Ugly but oh so good!

Roasted Broccoli
I had some blanched broccoli in the fridge so I tossed that with a mixture of garlic smashed in a mortar with salt, anchovy, meyer lemon juice, and olive oil. The broccoli took about 30 minutes to roast in the BGE in a preheated cast iron skillet.

As I mentioned, it was hot this weekend. I can't remember the last time it got to be this hot. Saturday it topped out at 109ºF (42.8ºC) here (hotter elsewhere) and it didn't cool off at night which makes it so much worse because that's how we cool off because we don't have air conditioning. Most homes around here don't have A/C because we don't generally need it. We open the windows at night and perhaps set a fan by the window to suck in the cool marine air and we're happy. That doesn't work so well when the nighttime temperature don't drop much below 80ºF...

Wilting Squash Vines
Most of the garden got through the heat wave in good condition. I set up some agribon to cover most of the veggies in one bed (brassicas, carrots, greens, lettuce, etc.) and the light shade seemed to help. The winter squash vines suffered though (both C. maxima) and at one point I had to give them a misting and turn on the irrigation to give them some extra water. Some of the leaves came out crispy but the plants revived and I think the immature squash will be ok.

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.



17 comments:

  1. Beautiful beautiful, the produce does better than us this weather.

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    1. For the most part with a little help from the gardener. I'm so happy it's cooled off today.

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  2. That is too hot for me - I would wither. The stuffed squash isn't ugly it is rustic.

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  3. All the green leafy stuff looks really good, and that is a beautiful assortment of little tomatoes!
    Have a wonderful week!

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  4. What a great idea to stuff those tromboncino ends! And I can't image dealing with 109°F temps without A/C. I need to start some of the Ethiopian kale for fall, since I have plenty of seeds. Yours look lovely.

    I planted Sunrise BB and Purple BB this year, and the Purple has done well while the Sunrise died without ever really taking off. I do have problems with some of the o/p Artisan Seeds tomatoes. I don't really have disease issues with tomatoes, so I don't think it's that. They just aren't always vigorous.

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    1. OK, so it's not just me. My Marzano Fire plants are doing great and the Green Bees are doing ok, not great but better than the Bumble Bees. Artisan does warn that some of their plants are susceptible to diseases so I keep an eye out for that.

      Fortunately for us the high temps aren't accompanied by humidity, it's been bone dry, good for humans but really scary in case of wild fires.

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  5. Oh man, I know those wilty maxima leaves all too well. We've also been hit by the heat, and with any luck today will be the first day in the last week and half where temps dip below 100. I commiserate.

    I don't know if this helps regarding the Gagon cucumber, but I read something a few days ago that I never knew -- most curcurbits have their blossom sex linked to daylight and heat. When days are long and hot, they produce male blossoms like crazy, and when the days are shorted (earlier season and late season) and cooler, they produce more female blossoms. I wonder if Gagon is highly sensitive to daylight, more so than other varieties? Of course it could be a million other factors or just the variety itself. If you're bored one day, you could try partially shading the plant for a week or so and see if anything changes.

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    1. I never heard of day length sensitivity in cucumbers, perhaps the shorter days of September will produce a few more female blossoms. It is an "unimproved" variety so I wouldn't be surprised at such an issue. The cucumbers definitely sulk when the weather is too cool.

      Day length sensitivity is more common than I realized, this year one of the dry bean varieties and one of the corn varieties I'm growing are day length sensitive and fortunately they are both producing.

      I sounds like you've had to endure more heat than we have, we only had 3 days of 100+ degrees. The breeze from the coast started up again early yesterday evening - instant relief! It was like someone flipped the switch on a fan. It hasn't cleared out the smoke though, the air is still really yucky.

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  6. Here's the link, in case it's of interest: http://www.carolinafarmstewards.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/CucurbitSeedProductionver1.4.pdf
    (bottom of page 16)

    And true, we might have had more hot weather, but I at least have a window AC unit. So all things equal, I think you two had the worse end of the deal. When I was in my early twenties I lived near downtown LA without AC for several years. Lordie... never doing that again. x_x

    I've been lucky with the smoke, except for the first day of the La Tuna fire when I woke up and the garden was covered in ash. I guess the wind must have shifted, because I haven't smelled smoke in a day or so now despite the fire still burning. Hopefully the wind will shift for you guys as well -- outdoor work in the smoke is no bueno.

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    1. Thanks for the link, definitely interested.

      If I lived in SoCal I would have A/C, but it's really not necessary here, these scorchers only happen once or twice a year, if that.

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  7. I wish I had more leafy greens to eat :( but am delighted that you have so much to tuck into. Your Ethiopian Highland Kale intrigued me as I had never heard of it before and then amused me, the Highland part - having lived in Scotland for many years. I love how the colours of the tomatoes in the wooden bowl are arranged like a tomato rainbow.

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  8. That roasted broccoli looks delish! And wow, those trombo squash bulbs are HUGE! Most of mine still aren't forming properly so I end up cutting the bulb end off.

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  9. Ah, I don't miss that kind of heat where your skin feels all tight and dry, it's good that it cooled off for you. Your broccoli and stuffed squash look delicious, and the greens look like they're doing well. I'll be trying different cherry tomato varieties as well, Black cherry and Fat cherry are productive and don't split as much as Sungold but they're monster plants, and I just want to try different flavor palates next year.

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  10. Wow, that is one hell of a heat wave - and here I am complaining anytime it gets in the 30's! That stuffed squash recipe looks amazing - I've made a note and will definitely give it a go if the one female squash on the vines makes it to maturity. If not, I'll likely have to wait until next year...that would be very sad as it sounds SOO good!

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  11. Now that's HOT! I start to worry about out plants when the temps get up to the high 20s but you manage to get crops successfully...brilliant job

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