Harvest Monday - December 10, 2018

The weather has finally settled into a more seasonable pattern of cool days, cold nights, and some rain, although the rain has dropped out of the forecast for the next week. Some of the harvests are looking more seasonable also.

I got another small harvest of Kalettes, this one is either Mistletoe or Snowdrop. I planted one plant each of three different varieties of kalettes that are supposed to have successive harvest dates and this was the first harvest from the second plant. I'm still learning how to grow this veggie and I think that next year I'll have to put in more plants to get a decent harvest. That harvest below was only 1.6 ounces which was barely enough for a single serving. They are really tasty and the rodents don't seem to be attracted to them so that makes them worth trying again next year.

Kalettes

Cilantro loses it's urge to flower during the shortest and coldest days of the year but it grows pretty vigorously so it's not unusual for me to get a big harvest like the one below. Now I have to find something to make that requires a large amount of it.

The celery is also loving the cool weather and rain. The knife in the photo is my No.10 Opinel which is 9 inches (23cm) total in length which should give some perspective of the size of the stalks that I'm harvesting now. Celery is also the subject of one of my latest fermentation experiments. I took a bunch of stalks and cut them into about 1/4-inch thick slices, placed them in a brine, and allowed them to ferment for about a week before putting them in the fridge for longer term keeping. They retained their crunch and have just a slight tang. The pink hue from the skins colored the brine and the flesh also picked up some of the color. I'm thinking that they would be a nice contrast in a potato salad or used instead of fresh celery in a classic Waldorf Salad. I've been making another salad lately that features celery, dates, pomegranate arils, Parmesan, and almonds and perhaps the fermented celery would be a nice addition to that. But they are also really good just eaten right out of the jar. I'm interested to see how well they keep in the refrigerator over the next weeks or longer. If they keep their crunch and good flavor for a long time it will be a good way to preserve some of the crop when the plants start to bolt in the spring.

Pink Plume Celery

I've started to clear out some of the plants that overwintered from 2017. That's the last of the Aji Angelo, Aji Golden, and Craig's Grande Jalapeño peppers from the 2017 plants. One Ethiopian Brown pepper decided to join the harvest but the plant remains in the garden and still has peppers that are ripening. The Aji Angelo plant still had a lot of green peppers left on it but after harvesting 10 pounds of ripe Aji Angelos this year I declared that enough is enough and removed the plant.

Craig's Grande Jalapeño, Aji Golden,
Ethiopian Brown, Aji Angelo

I cleared out the last of the sweet pepper plants from Fort Pepper and harvested more of the late ripening baccatum peppers.

Joe's Giant Aji Amarillo, Aji Cacho de Cabra,
Florina, Odessa Market, Topepo Giallo, Gogosar

That's the latest from my garden, head on over to Dave's blog Our Happy Acres to see what other garden bloggers have been harvesting lately.