Monday, November 26, 2018

Harvest Monday - November 26, 2018

We are finally getting some real rain. The dust has been washed away and everything looks clean. It's so wonderful to have fresh air to breathe, it smells so good. And more rain is supposed to arrive starting Tuesday night through the weekend, hopefully not too much. The sun came out on Sunday so I had a chance to get out to the garden to do some tidying and harvesting.

It was a pretty good week of harvests especially considering it's the middle of November. First up is a new veggie for the season, some kalettes. These are a cross between Brussels sprouts and kale, and produce mini heads of kale along a stalk, kinda of like frilly purple and green Brussels sprouts. I just harvested those yesterday and haven't gotten around to cooking them yet.

Autumn Star Kalettes

Speedy arugula was ready for another cutting. I found one plant starting to bolt so I pulled that one but the rest seem to be resisting and with the change in weather to cooler and wet I hope they will keep from bolting a while longer.

Speedy Arugula

It's prime time for lettuce!

Three Heart Butterhead Lettuce

Queen of Crunch Crisphead Lettuce

I pulled a couple of Celeriac roots. They looked pretty gnarly before trimming.

Prinz Celeriac
But they cleaned up nicely and you can see in the shot below that they got to be a good size. The largest was over a pound after trimming the stalks down even more. I took the largest one and cut it into cubes (after more trimming of course) and roasted it in a cast iron skillet with a cubed purple sweet potato (not from my garden) and made something of a hash with shredded turkey leg confit, onions, Nero di Toscano kale (also not from my garden) and bulgur wheat. That was really delicious and satisfying.

Prinz Celeriac

I can't believe how much fennel I've harvested this year. Those 2 additional bulbs brings the total fennel harvest for the year so far to over 18 pounds. It's a good thing it holds really well in the refrigerator.

Orion Fennel & Short Stuff Carrots

And more celery too for an annual total so far of 20 pounds.

Pink Plume Celery

And there were yet more peppers too. I really won't have to grow more than just a few plants for fresh eating next year because I've got enough processed peppers to last a couple of years. There's jars of fermented hot sauce and pepper paste in the freezer, and lots of dehydrated peppers, and lots of dried fermented pepper flakes and peppers ready to be turned into flakes. I've also got a year's supply of preserved sweet peppers in the fridge. Crazy. And of course I still have to process the latest harvest...

Joe's Giant Aji, Sugar Rush Red, Sugar Rush Peach

Habanada
Aji Cacho de Cabra, Baby Aji Amarillo
Ethiopian Brown, Aji Angelo
Aji Amarillo Grande
And there were actually a few other peppers that I didn't get around to photographing, including ripe Craig's Grande jalapeƱos, Urfa Biber, Florina, Gogosar, and Rosso Dolce da Appendere.

That's the latest from my garden, head on over to Dave's blog Our Happy Acres to find links to more Harvest Monday posts.


9 comments:

  1. So glad the rain has cleared the air. We're hopeful for predicted rain Thursday. I've never heard of kalettes! How interesting. Your lettuce is gorgeous. Any reason why you grow Speedy arugula? It's always a race for me to eat and share the arugula before it bolts. I need to do succession plantings more diligently. You seem to produce enough veggies to keep a small restaurant going!

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    1. I like Speedy because it is mild flavored and I like the frilly leaves and it is quick to produce as the name implies. But I don't think it is any quicker to bolt than any other arugula that I've tried. A small restaurant for 2 exclusive customers, me and my husband! We do love veggies and eat a lot of them.

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  2. More beautiful peppers! I am a little envious of your fennel, as ours was poor this year and it is a real favourite

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    1. Fennel can be a real hit or miss veggie in my garden. Some years I get very little but this year I got for more than any other time that I've grown it.

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  3. Lots of peppers preserved - what a great situation to be in! I thought I had plenty of kimchi peppers dried then I kept fermenting more and now I'm running out. I am in awe of your fennel harvests. It's one thing I've never really grown well here, and I'm happy buying it. I roasted one last night for dinner. Your hash sounds like a hearty main dish meal. I love sweet potato and kale hash, but I've never put protein with it. I need to give it a try.

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    1. My Dave loves to eat what he calls "bowl meals", everything all together in one bowl. The Thanksgiving hash was a hit with him. And I loved it too.

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  4. I’m happy that your rain arrived. It’s been more drizzle than rain here. Just enough to keep us indoors.

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  5. Wow - that's a crazy amount of both fennel and celery! I'll be cutting back on tomatoes next year for the same reason as you are peppers - I find that I still have a lot left over from the previous year when the new crop starts arriving. The only problem with cutting back is that there are just so many varieties I want to keep growing and/or want to try. I don't want to end up in the opposite situation (harvesting too little) so figuring out a good balance between old (reliables) and new may be tricky.

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  6. Lovely harvest, especially the peppers!

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