Harvest Monday - November 27, 2017

This probably isn't the opening photo you were expecting for a November 27 harvest post - tomatoes! Yes indeed, there's still a trickle of fresh ripe tomatoes coming from the garden, mostly cherries as you can see.

Mixed Cherry Tomatoes and Jaune Flamme

The weather has been very mild this fall, more than mild actually, we just went through another round of 80ºF plus weather. The warmth has kept the tomatoes and peppers ripening on the vine but the plants are slowing down and looking pretty ratty and most of them don't have much left to ripen so it won't be long before the colorful harvests are finished.

Gogosar, Ometempe, and Rosso Dolce da Appendere

That's the last of the Ometepe and Rosso Dolce da Appendere peppers but there's still a few Gogosar peppers ripening but once those are done that will be it for the sweet pepper harvests. I'll be clearing out most of the plants soon.

Aji Amarillo Grande, Aji Golden, Aji Angelo
Habanada, and Craig's Grande Jalapeno

Most of the peppers that are left in the garden now are seasoning peppers. That's the first harvest of Aji Amarillo Grandes and there's still one more Aji variety to ripen. Aji Golden and Aji Angelo are about finished producing. There's a few more Jalapenos left, a bunch more Habanadas, most of the Caribbean Seasoning peppers have yet to finish ripening, more Mareko Fana peppers are ready to harvest, and most of the remaining Ethiopian Brown peppers are still green. Last season I was harvesting some Aji Amarillo Grandes in January and February and perhaps that will happen this season again. I have the Aji's and other seasoning peppers growing together at one end of the bed where I can keep them protected through the winter so there's a chance that the green peppers that remain may ripen and maybe some of the plants will survive the winter and produce again next year.

Tromba D'Albenga

The Tromba D'Albenga vines are still growing and blooming and producing squash. Those plants are really amazing. I keep cutting them back and clearing out old dead growth and the vines just keep putting out new growth. It seems like it's going to take a hard freeze to finish them off. The squash don't seem to be pollinating well so the bulb end isn't filling out but the long necks are full and firm and just fine. That basket of squash came in at over 4 pounds!

Batavia Broccoli, Broccolini, Chianti Rose Tomato

There's a few Batavia broccoli plants that have been growing for over a year now and they are still producing great shoots, the big bunch of broccoli shoots to the right of the tomato is from the 2016 plants, that small bunch on the left are from the younger plants. The new Broccolini plants are putting out good side shoots also.

I didn't do a lot of cooking this past week in spite of it being a big eating holiday weekend. Dave and I spent a couple of nights out backpacking taking full advantage of the amazing warm weather. I promised Susie that I would be posting about some of the ways that I use my homegrown and dehydrated vegetables in backpacking meals so stay tuned for that. I've also been experimenting with fermenting peppers and using them in various ways so I'll also be posting about some of those experiments in the days and weeks to come.

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.