Harvest Monday - Christmas Edition 2017

Merry Christmas! Tis the season to be picking peppers and tomatoes and squash? Depends on where you live but it's not typical here so this is an atypical Christmas Harvest post for me.

Baccatum peppers are actually not all that unusual a harvest in December for me because they are fairly cold tolerant and they ripen late but I don't typically have this much to harvest.

Aji Amarillo Grande, Aji Angelo, Joe's Giant Aji,
Aji Golden, Craigs's Grande Jalapeno, Ethiopian Brown

But vine ripened tomatoes are an unusual treat for late December. Those half ripe larger tomatoes finished ripening quickly on the kitchen counter and are surprisingly sweet and flavorful or perhaps I just have lower expectations for December tomatoes. The Jaune Flamme tomatoes have been a real treat, there's really no compromise in their flavor.

I cleaned out all the sweet peppers that I could find and they are also ripening on the kitchen counter. Most of those are also good eating when green, far better than a horrid green bell pepper. The orange Habanadas were prolific enough to fill another quart jar for another batch of dried fermented pepper flakes.

A freeze warning prompted me to collect all the tender Tromba D'Albenga vine tips and squash of nearly any size that I could find.

Tromba D'Albenga Vine Tips, Baby Tromba D'Albenga

Most of those vine tips and half of that big squash below went into a pot of soup. The vine tips are really good in soup, they lose the fuzzy texture and have a delicate squash flavor. I was reading somewhere online that in some parts of Mexico they sell the vine soup ingredients together in a bag which includes the shoots, squash, and squash blossoms. I'll remember that for next year. My version of the soup was not traditional, I added some brown rice, shredded chicken, and tomato puree. A big pinch of fermented pepper flakes added some zing.

Not-So-Baby Tromba D'Albenga

Here's the most wintry harvest I could manage last week, some thinnings from my winter radishes. I like to ferment the tops and then dehydrate them. The chopped dried fermented greens add flavor to soups, stews, and sautes. 

Radish Thinnings

That last harvest of radish tops pushed my total harvests for 2017 to within a hair's breadth of the half ton mark so next week I get to brag a bit about my annual harvest total.

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.

Oh, and if you are looking to link up to Harvest Monday next week come on over here, I'll be giving Dave a break and hosting for the month of January.