It's mid-October and the last varieties of tomato and sweet pepper to ripen have finally joined the party in the harvest basket. I thought for a while that the Jazz tomato plant hadn't even set any tomatoes but it was when I was in the process of whacking the vines down because of their failure to produce that I discovered some very green tomatoes lurking in the tangle of greenery so I stopped whacking and waited to see if they would amount to anything. I'm glad I waited because that first tomato turned out to be very tasty. Ometepe set plenty of peppers but they really take their good old sweet time ripening. Again, it's been worth the wait. The peppers have a medium thick flesh that is very sweet. Ometepe peppers are a good size too, about as large as a small bell pepper.
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| Jazz Tomato and Ometepe Pepper |
Another first glimpse...
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Hopi Greasy Head Corn
Taos Red Beans |
That's about half the ears of Hopi Greasy Head flour corn that I rescued from the rodents. The Taos Red beans have colorful pods as well as beans. You'll get to see the shelled dry beans later.
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| Mareko Fana |
The two year old Mareko Fana plant has produce more peppers this year than last year. It will be more than enough to restock my supply of pepper flakes.
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| Baby Aji Amarillo |
The two year old Baby Aji Amarillo plant produced enough peppers to make a batch of
pepper jam, which I haven't gotten around to making yet.
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| Unnamed Turkish Sweet |
The Turkish pepper has some very nice specimens ripening now. Growing the plant in a cage made for a lot of wonky shaped peppers so I'm looking forward to growing them again next year and giving them room to spread their branches out so that the peppers are more straight. I'll have more than enough seeds to be able to grow this pepper again in years to come.
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Florina, Petite Marseillais, Topeop Giallo,
Gogosar, Rosso Dolce da Appendere |
For the latest harvest of sweet peppers I had no time to photograph each variety by itself so here's a group shot.
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| Marzano Fire |
Marzano Fire has totally exceeded my expectations. The plant started off quite spindly and seemed rather week and it never did get to be a large plant, but it is producing a lot of really nice tomatoes. I plan on turning these into more tomato paste.
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| Pantano |
Pantano is another favorite. It's a basic red beefsteak from Italy that is well adapted to my climate.
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| Jaune Flamme |
Good old Jaune Flamme starts early and keeps on going...
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Sweet Gold, Sunrise & Purple Bumble Bee,
Green Bee, Piccolo Dattero |
The Sweet Gold cherry tomato plant is petering out, which is a surprise because it usually produces prolifically through the fall. The Bee cherry tomatoes haven't been prolific but it's been nice to have a variety of colors and actually it's kinda nice to not be overwhelmed with a glut. On the other hand I'm really happy to have a glut of Piccolo Dattero tomatoes since they are my favorite. I love this one so much that I'm growing 2 plants instead of the usual 1 apiece because I didn't get enough last year.
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| Pink Plume Celery and Green Fingers Cucumber |
The celery is finally large enough that I can cut stalks on a regular basis. There's a few cucumbers still trickling in too but not for long, the plants are looking pretty tired.
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| Tromba D'Albenga |
Tromba D'Albenga is a reliable producer through the fall. The plants don't produce a lot of squash but I'm getting 2 or 3 nice ones every week which is plenty.
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| Rice Stuffed Peppers Turkish Style |
This dish was too pretty to not attempt to take a photo of it. It's based on a Turkish recipe from the book
Eat Istanbul (thanks Jane for inspiring me to buy the book). The recipe called for green bell peppers which I hate so I used some Gogosar and Topepo Giallo peppers instead.
Other harvests this week included a few heads of Manoa lettuce and more side shoots of Batavia broccoli. I also didn't get around to photographing the latest harvests of Ethiopian Brown, Shepherd's Ramshorn, and Lady Bell peppers. The birds have been pecking at the Shepherd's Ramshorn and Lady Bell peppers which is why I didn't photograph them.
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.
The stuffed peppers look gorgeous. I'm glad you found the book useful for cooking as well as drooling over.
ReplyDeleteSuch lovely peppers and tomatoes! The stuffed pepper dish looks wonderful. I want to try stuffing the Pritavit peppers I have which are similar in size and shape to the Gogosar. I'm still waiting on those to ripen. I'm thinking a quinoa stuffing, but I haven't gotten much beyond the thinking stage!
ReplyDeleteAha, now I know your secret to abundant peppers--your plants are perennial there! I really like the look of the Hopi corn, and can't wait to see how the beans dry. I love stuffed peppers, and using something more interesting than bells must be wonderful.
ReplyDeleteThat corn is a very unusual colour. I’d like to be able to harvest more peppers but we need to grow them in the greenhouse and space is limited.
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad that you at least harvested a few cobs of corn - it was looking very bleak there for a while. The peppers - just gorgeous! - and those tomatoes too. I've been cutting down on the # of cherry tomatoes I grow each year - you can have too much of a good thing.
ReplyDeleteWhat beautiful tomatoes! I have never heard of this variety of corn before. I guess we don't grow the flour ones here, but they do look very pretty
ReplyDelete