Harvest Monday - 29 September 2025 - Blue Ribbon Edition #9

 Established in 1876, The Deerfield Fair has become our area's largest agricultural exhibition. For nine years now, I've been entering and displaying my best vegetables in the competition. While I had little confidence I would repeat last year's personal "triumph" in winning Best of Show, I still wanted to do well, and get a clean sweep of first prizes or something in the Top Ten in Show.

Fair prize ribbons

Alas, that was not to be. Here are my results (crop, quantity needed for display, and placing):

Raspberries (one pint) - First

"Trident" poblano hot green peppers (5) - First

"Escamillo" sweet orange peppers (5) - First

"Red Mushroom" hot red peppers (5) - First

"Jacob's Cattle" dry beans (1/2 pint) - First

"Sophy" zucchini (2) - First

"Marconi" sweet red peppers (5) - Second 

"Lincoln" leeks (5) - Second

"Juliet" tomatoes (10) - Second 

So I was a little disappointed, but The Kitchen Goddess reminded me that at least I didn't get any third places.

I was hoping the Red Mushroom peppers would be interesting and attractive enough to get in the Top Ten. But nope!

Red Mushroom hot peppers

Here was Monday's harvest, mostly of things I wanted to sort through for the fair. That's the first harvest of leeks.

Monday harvest

TKG also picked and sorted raspberries for a very attractive fair entry. By rights the award should go to her.

Raspberries

On Saturday, the day after we went to the fair to see how we did, I had another harvest.

Saturday harvest

I wanted to show off a couple of things from this harvest. The California Wonder bell peppers are really large. I only had four of similar size and shape, and needed five for the fair. I bet it would have been a winning entry. We had stuffed peppers that night with them, really delicious, but we couldn't even finish one.

California Wonder bell pepper

I wasn't sure real Tabasco peppers would do well in my northern climate, but I have been surprised. The plant itself is tiny, but loaded with fruit.

Tabasco pepper plant

I've never been pleased with my attempts to ferment peppers to make hot sauce, so I traditionally use a simple method of just cooking them in vinegar and salt, blending, and straining into bottles. But since I had authentic Tabasco peppers, I decided to give fermenting another go with them. I followed the instructions our Harvest Monday host, Dave, published on September 1. That is to cut them up, mix with 5% salt by weight, and allow to ferment for a week. On Saturday I started the process.

Tabasco peppers with salt for fermentation

Of course, TKG had to chime in, and tell me that I should have cut the peppers smaller and added water before fermenting. I told her that was not in the recipe. We'll see who's right in a week (sure hope it's me!). As of Monday, only a little liquid has been drawn out of the batch.

I always like to gaze in wonder at the giant pumpkin display. This year there were only three entries. Maybe it was just too tough a year to grow them. The winner, at 2170 pounds, is a couple of hundred pounds lighter than last year's winner. Also note the longest squash (type unspecified, maybe a Trombocino?) in the top of the picture (136").

Largest pumpkin and longest squash

That's all for this week. Thanks for reading and putting up with my showing off. Again I encourage you to find a local fair, learn the rules, and enter your crops. It's really fun.

And a special note...Dave at HappyAcres.blog has decided to discontinue the Harvest Monday forum. I've learned a lot from his posts and others who have linked to it, and it's been fun all the while. Thank you so much, Dave, for your hard work over the last ten years. As for me, I'll continue to post when I have something interesting to say, but it probably won't be on a weekly basis.

 

Harvest Monday - 22 September 2025

 No post last Monday, as we were enjoying another three-night getaway to a cabin at the nearby lakeside nature preserve. So here's what's come in over the past two weeks.

I cut all the butternut squash available. This is Waltham Butternut, smaller than expected, with the biggest one just about 3 pounds.

Waltham Butternut (OP)

And this is Butterbush. As the name implies, it's a bush or short vine hybrid, producing what they call "single-serving" fruits. The largest is just over 2 pounds.

Butterbush (F1)

Dry shelling bush beans were picked and shelled. On the left is Monos Negros, a black bean that I've grown for a couple of years. It seems to have a fair number that are more purple than black. On the right is Jacob's Cattle, which is very attractive to me.

Monos Negros and Jacob's Cattle

I cut the last of the Autumn Frost squash. This brings our total to 17 squashes of all types. This should be plenty to get us through the winter. The fact that they are on the small side is not a problem for us. Those 18 pounder crooknecks I grew last year were a lot of fun, but it's way too much for us to use at one time. We actually still have one in storage, looking fine.

Autumn Frost (F1)

The Kitchen Goddess picked the first large quantity of raspberries.

Fall raspberries

And there was only one "general harvest."

Mid-September harvest

I had accumulated two dozen paprika peppers.

Leutschauer paprika (OP)

I smoked them for an hour and a half, dehydrated them, and ground into smoked paprika, a spice I'm very fond of. I discovered this variety of paprika pepper has actually a bit of a kick to it, which is fine.

Smoked paprika

A couple of wildlife notes: the Northern Walkingstick is not rare, but you never see them unless they're out of their element and their camouflage has become a liability. I found this one on Saturday.

Northern (Common) Walkingstick

We had an outdoor fire one evening, and an immature Red-tailed hawk landed on a post very nearby.

It looked at us for awhile, then flew off.

So we had a great time at the lake. The nights and especially the early mornings were quite cool, and we were glad we brought jackets. But the days were warm and sunny. I even went swimming a couple of times. Sitting around a fire in the evening was very pleasant.

And here's a picture from a very calm morning.

Serenity on a chilly morning

That's all for now. Thanks for reading, and thanks as always to Dave at HappyAcres.blog for hosting Harvest Monday.

Harvest Monday - 8 September 2025

 Hello again from Eight Gate Farm! We received a solid inch of rain Saturday into Sunday, which is welcome, but not enough to get us out of the summer-long drought. Quite a few first-of-the-season harvests were made this week, along with two general harvests.

The Serrano pepper plant I bought gave us two ripe fruits. As these come in, they will supplement the cayennes I am growing, probably for chile powder.

Serrano (OP)

I grew a "Mountain Spirit" tomato plant for the first time this year. The staff at Fedco Seeds raved about it, and they aren't usually given to hype. Well, I was disappointed. Not only is it tardy (98 days as opposed to the predicted 77), but it is not productive nor very resistant to disease. So somehow I was prepared to be underwhelmed by the taste.

Mountain Spirit (OP)

Boy, was I wrong. I loved it. We both did. The flavor is very sweet and fruity (like apricot says The Kitchen Goddess). So now the question for next year is if the flavor is enough to justify its flaws.

Every year one or more volunteer tomato plants pop up in summer around the compost area. Often they give us fruit. It's always amusing to me, and rarely am I able to identify what type of tomato it is. Here is this year's Mystery Tomato.

Volunteer mystery tomato

The taste is pretty good! Much more on the acidic side, which we like.

It was time to dig the main crop of potatoes. Overall, a good crop from a 12-foot row. No prizewinners, but decent enough size.

Kennebec potatoes

It was also time to cut the first winter squash. This is "Autumn Frost," a hybrid butternut-type. We've grown it for years and love its deep orange flesh and rich flavor. Again, no prizewinners in this lot, but useful nonetheless.

Autumn Frost squash (F1)

For general harvests, Monday's needed two photos.

Peppers: spicy on the top, sweet on the bottom!

Everything else in the first harvest of September

Saturday's general harvest needs only one photo.

Saturday harvest

As I'm growing only four tomato plants, we did not expect to have to do any canning this year. But they were starting to accumulate, so TKG made thick sauce, and had enough to can three quarts.

Thick tomato sauce

We were running low on garlic powder. TKG took some of last year's chopped garlic out of the freezer, thawed it, dehydrated, and ground it into a small mountain of powder. I wasn't sure frozen garlic would dry easily, but it did. Even though she did the dehydrating and grinding out on the screened porch, the kitchen still was "fragrant." She took some of it and added ground rosemary and thyme, to follow something someone was selling at the garlic festival. It makes a very aromatic seasoning. That vendor also had smoked pepper garlic powder, and I'd like to smoke some of my poblano peppers and try to make that.

Plain garlic powder

Not a bad week for the time of the season. Thanks for reading, and thanks once again to Dave at HappyAcres.blog for hosting Harvest Monday. 

Harvest Monday - 1 September 2025

 Today is Labor Day in the US, a holiday that traditionally marks the end of summer here, even though the true calendar start to Autumn is still three weeks away. As if to prove it, the weather has been thoroughly fall-like, with pleasant days and chilly mornings. A little rain, but only enough to "settle the dust" as they say. We got back from the garlic festival yesterday (more on that below).

I got only one "first of the season" harvest this past week, and that is Chinese cabbage. I planted six in early summer, three for us and three for The Kitchen Goddess's mother. I grew them completely under fleece to deter the caterpillars, and it worked well, producing very dense heads.

Minuet Chinese cabbage (F1)

Besides continuously cutting zucchini, I got just one "general harvest," but it was large enough to require two photos.

General harvest (sweet and hot peppers)

General harvest (tomatoes and zucchini)

I don't think I've talked about it before, but TKG's mom is using the in-ground portion of our fenced garden, and is growing lots of things she is pleased with. Here's a harvest she went home with. Note the Tromboncino squash she wanted to grow.

Mom's harvest

For "using the harvest," I pickled all the Trapadeira Werner hot cherry peppers I had harvested so far. I sampled one the next day and "pow!" It was much hotter than I was expecting.

Pickled hot cherry peppers

I also dehydrated all the other hot peppers I had accumulated. When I was done, they looked like this.

Dehydrated hot peppers

TKG took that and put it through a sieve. This resulted in two useful things, chile powder and red pepper flakes.

In non-harvest notes, I've always been fond of hollyhocks but never grew them for some reason. This year I bought a packet of seeds from the Botanical Interests company. They call it the "Outhouse Flower." This intrigued me, so I looked it up. According to the legend, hollyhocks were planted both to screen and identify the privy, so shy, genteel people wouldn't have to ask where it was. 

"Outhouse Flower" (hollyhock)

The garlic festival, now called "Garlic Town USA," is held in the town of Bennington, Vermont (2.5 hours west of us) on the Saturday of the Labor Day weekend. We spent two lovely nights in the area. The festival sadly seems to be shrinking in size, why I don't know. But one nice thing they did this year was to put the garlic growers' booths in one area, instead of scattering among all the other types of vendors at the fair. This made comparison shopping much easier.

Mountains of garlic

We ended up not buying from this vendor, but instead found one who was selling cloves by the pound in addition to whole bulbs. We now have all our seed garlic, for our own garden and the two education gardens we volunteer at.

So, we feel like we are already in Autumn. I've noticed that the pepper plants, while still loaded with ripening fruit, don't seem to be setting any new ones. That's sad.

Thanks for reading, and thanks to Dave at HappyAcres.blog for hosting Harvest Monday.

Harvest Monday - 25 August 2025

 Hello again from Eight Gate Farm. We've had a stretch of mostly pleasant weather, but the lack of rainfall is disconcerting. We are officially in a Moderate Drought condition, but it feels worse than that.

Harvests this week were on the light side, reflecting my way-scaled-down growing this year. Some new pepper varieties were picked this week.

This is "Trepadeira Werner." Looking for a hot cherry type, I found this at the Baker Creek store in Petaluma, California last November. It's in the C. baccatum group, and is supposed to have a heat level of 5 - 15k Scoville Units, making them mildly hot. The small plant has produced a huge number of fruits, but they take a long time to go from cream-colored to ripe-red. I haven't tasted them yet, hoping to accumulate enough to pickle whole.

Trepadeira Werner (OP)

I lost one of my cayenne plants when it snapped in a wind gust in late June. Not enough time to start seeds, but outside a grocery store they were offering a BOGO deal on all their plants. Can't pass that up! I chose a Serrano pepper (yet to produce), and a Tabasco pepper plant, which started coming in this week. It's one of the few in the C. frutescens group. I've never grown them before, and the plant, though very small, has an amazing amount of fruit. Maybe I'll make a sauce to compete with the well-known brand of the same name!

Tabasco (OP)

"Arroz Con Pollo" is described as a "seasoning" pepper, meaning it's added to other dishes to add a unique flavor. I grew it some time ago, and was very impressed with its aroma. But my seeds lost their viability. I bought it again at the Baker Creek store. Having had more experience since my first time with it, I've discovered that Habanero peppers have that same aroma, and thus ACP is really a heatless Habanero like others (e.g. Habanada). Although, one source places it in C. annuum, not C. chinense.

Arroz Con Pollo (OP)

After two years of no peaches, this year looked very promising. In fact, the branches of the wispy tree were so loaded they were in danger of breaking. We culled fruit several times, trying to keep 4 inches between what was left. I noticed some were disappearing, which suggested squirrel foul play. So I picked the tree clean. The peaches were hard, but softened up in a few days inside, suggesting that enough ethylene had been produced in the fruit to fully ripen them. They are small, but so delicious and juicy!

Entire crop of Reliance peaches

Other than what I've showed above, I'm continuing to cut zucchini every other day, and there were two general harvests this week. This was Tuesday's:

General Harvest #1

And this was Thursday's:

General Harvest #2

This coming weekend we are off to Vermont for the garlic festival, where we buy seed garlic right from the growers, and in general have fun at the fair. Thanks for reading, and thanks as always to Dave at HappyAcres.blog for hosting Harvest Monday.

Harvest Monday - 18 August 2025

 A fairly quiet week here, but full-size sweet peppers made their first appearance, which is always a cause for celebration for us. 

For years I struggled to grow big blocky bells, until I tried "Ace," a hybrid bred for cooler climates. This year, only one plant came up and I was out of seeds, so I ran to the garden center and looked for a replacement. The only one I found was "California Wonder," a very old variety. Both gave me their first ripe fruits this week. Cal Wonder is doing very well, and the seeds are much cheaper!

California Wonder (OP) and Ace (F1)

I'm a big fan of the yellow bullhorn-style sweet pepper called "Escamillo," bred by Johnny's Selected Seeds in nearby Maine. It is very sweet and juicy. These were the first this year, and are somewhat smaller than usual.

Escamillo (F1)

Just like with Ace, only one Escamillo seed germinated and I was out. Wanting another bullhorn-style, I bought the old variety "Marconi," and I am pleased with it so far.

Marconi (OP)

 

I guess the upshot is while I prefer modern hybrids in most cases, the tried-and-true varieties can be equally good.

I had only two "general harvests" this week.

Monday harvest

Friday harvest

In [unwelcome] Wildlife Notes, I found the first hornworm of the season on one of my tomato plants. Though commonly called Tomato Hornworm, the vast majority found here are the closely related Tobacco Hornworm, which is odd in itself since this is not a tobacco-growing region. If you don't have them in your area, this caterpillar of a moth grows scarily big, and will decimate a tomato plant, fruit and all. Yet they can be very hard to detect; you just can see the damage done and the droppings left. Luckily, gardeners have a tiny friend...a parasitic wasp whose larvae stop the hornworm from eating and growing. In this picture, the one I found had already been parasitized, and the white egg-like things are the cocoons made by the larvae.

Parasitized Tobacco Hornworm

That's all for this week. Thanks for reading, and thanks as always to Dave at HappyAcres.blog for hosting Harvest Monday.