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.

Harvest Monday - 11 August 2025

 Hello again from Eight Gate Farm! After a stretch of very pleasant (if dry) weather, the Heat Dome which has affected much of the US is starting to roll over us. Forecasts are for near 100 for 3 or more days. Oddly, it is supposed to cool off each night, which should make it more bearable, and gardening chores can be done in the early morning without too much discomfort. Any rain is a long way off.

We are very happy that it is now tomato time! Three of my four slicing-size tomatoes came in this week. Leading off is "Genuwine," a cross between the heirlooms Costoluto Genovese and Brandywine, with advantages over both parents. The taste is only slightly less excellent than Brandywine, our favorite, but which doesn't produce much here.

Genuwine (F1)

The Chef's Choice series of hybrid tomatoes now numbers more than six, and most are AAS winners, but I've only grown the "Orange" version. In taste, it's a little more sweet than acidic, but very delicious.

Chef's Choice Orange (F1)

And then there's Large Barred Boar. This is one of the open-pollinated tomatoes bred by Wild Boar Farms. I've grown their "Pink Berkeley Tie-Dye" for a number of years, but decided to try this one instead. 

Large Barred Boar (OP)

All I can say is "wow!" This one knocked it out of the park in the flavor department. It is giving Brandywine a run for its money, and that's saying a lot.

This was our first tomato dinner...The Kitchen Goddess made crostini, which is simple but super-delicious. I like the fresh oregano leaves she put on it.

Crostini

In other "first harvests" of the season, I pulled all the onions. This is much earlier than in seasons past, but the tops had all flopped over and were browning. I'm disappointed with the sizes this year. No Deerfield Fair prizes lurking in this lot.

Here's the white onion "Alisa Craig Exhibition" and the yellow onion "Talon."

Alisa Craig (OP) and Talon (F1)

And here's the red onion "Barolo" and the shallot "Ambition."

Barolo (F1) and Ambition (F1)

I planted a long row of potatoes in the field garden, but had some seed tubers left over, so I planted two short rows in the raised bed garden. They showed signs of being ready (dying back) well before the field crop for some reason. I dug them up this week. They are mostly Red Bliss with a few Kennebec. Sizes are small.

First potato harvest

General harvests were light. Here was Monday's.

General harvest #1

Here was Wednesday's.

General harvest #2

That's the last fennel; like its siblings it had its roots gnawed by voles.

And here was Saturday's. You can see that the "Sophy" zucchini are producing well, and I'm trying to keep picking them before they get too large.

General harvest #3

That's all for this week. Thanks for reading, and thanks once again to Dave at HappyAcres.blog for hosting Harvest Monday. Stay cool!

Harvest Monday - 4 August 2025

 No post last Monday, as we had a 3 night getaway back to the lakeside nature preserve we have come to love. While the folks back home were sweltering in the heat and humidity, we were cool as can be floating on the lake. This report highlights things that came in over the preceding two weeks, starting with the first-of-the-season harvests.

I took the first poblano peppers. This is Trident, a hybrid, and I really like their glossy dark green color. We will use them for chiles rellenos.

Trident poblano peppers (F1)

I'm fond of the hybrid jalapeno pepper called Goliath, as the fruits are productive and large. But my seeds didn't germinate this year, so I had to rush to the farm store to find something as a replacement. I ended up buying two open-pollinated varieties, Early Jalapeno and Jalapeno Gigantica.

Well, relatively speaking, Gigantica (top row) wasn't gigantic, and Early wasn't early. Regardless, it looks like we will get a good crop this year.

Jalapeno Gigantica and Early Jalapeno (OP)

I'm trying out a new paprika pepper this year. We love paprika, and use it constantly. This one is an heirloom called "Leutschauer Paprika," and I bought it at the Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds store in Petaluma, CA last November. It looks promising, with thin walls which will make for speedier drying.

Leutschauer Paprika (OP)

I took the first cute little "Lunchbox Red" sweet peppers.

Lunchbox Red (F1)

I took the first "Red Mushroom" hot peppers. These were just bought on a whim out of the Territorial Seed catalog. They are supposed to be quite hot, up to 50k Scoville units.

Red Mushroom (OP)

I cut the first "Black King" eggplant.

Black King (F1)

I also had the first fennel harvest, a little ahead of the expected date, since voles discovered the plants and are gradually eating away at the roots underground.

Orazio fennel (F1)

I've grown the hybrid "Kolibri" kohlrabi for years and never had a problem. This year, not only did most of the plants fail to survive, but the one that did turned out to be kale instead! Or at least, it never formed a bulb. Well, kale is useful too.

Kale or failed kohlrabi, who knows?

Last of the first harvests is this solitary Diva cucumber, a little larger than I would like.

Diva (F1)

The Summer Blend lettuce mix is done for the season with this last gleaning. It performed very well this year despite the heat, living up to its name I guess.

Summer Blend lettuce

I'm at the point in the season where "group pictures" can be shown, as I've already discussed the members individually. This is the harvest just before we went away. 

General harvest #1

And this was last Friday's.

General harvest #2

As for "using the harvest," I needed to make some room in the fridge, so I took this...

...and made this:

Paprika

It's a blend of all the sweet and hot red peppers I had, so it's kind of an "enhanced" paprika. It smells wonderful. It's an all-day process using our 20 year old dehydrator

Sorry about another long post. Thanks for reading. Thanks also to Dave at HappyAcres.blog for hosting Harvest Monday.

Harvest Monday - 21 July 2025

 Up until this weekend, it's been oppressively hot and humid. Scant rainfall, too. But certain crops seem to be loving this, in particular the winter squash, whose vines just decided to start running. A lot of new crops came in this week.

I picked the first tomatoes. This is the "42 Day" variety that I tried last year. Once again, the first fruit didn't ripen in 42 days, but 49 days is still pretty good. They are a little bigger than cherry tomatoes, and have good flavor. Unfortunately the plant is struggling.

"42 Day" tomatoes (OP)

I also got the first cucumber. This is "Little Leaf," a pickling type. Last year the cucumber beetles were fierce, and the plants suffered, with very little production. This year, I'm growing them under a row cover. I planted only parthenocarpic types (Little Leaf and Diva), so I don't have to worry about pollination.

"Little Leaf" cucumber (OP)

I'm growing only 3 eggplants this year, one plant each of these hybrids: the Asian style Violet Delight (showed 2 weeks ago), the blocky Italian style Black King, and this, the teardrop-shaped Epic. This is a new one for me.

Epic eggplant (F1)

I also pulled the rest of the garlic. This is "Chesnok" on the left, and "Katterman" on the right. All garlic is now curing in the garage.

Garlic harvest

Last year I grew Elephant Garlic (more closely related to leeks), and must have left one unharvested, because it regrew. It sent up an absurdly tall flower stalk, crowned with a true allium flower, unlike regular garlic.

Elephant garlic

The Kitchen Goddess picked the first raspberries and blueberries. We haven't had any blueberries in two years. The first year, a late hard frost killed the buds, and last year chipmunks (probably) found a way to tunnel under the bird netting and stole the entire crop.

Raspberries and blueberries

For continuing harvests, I took the last curly endive. This has been a good crop for us; I'm glad I tried it this year.

"Rhodos" curly endive

I also took more cuttings from the "Summer Blend" lettuce rows. Living up to the name, it's holding up in the heat.

Summer Blend lettuce

As I expected, "mangetout" put on a new flush. I'm picking them every couple of days.

Super Sugar Snap pea and Sweet Horizon snow pea

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

Harvest Monday - 14 July 2025

 Hello again from Eight Gate Farm. It was not a week of large harvests, but I did get some new crops as well as continuing harvests.

I took the first set of garlic this week. This is "Vietnamese Purple-Striped."

Vietnamese Purple-Striped Garlic

The bulbs are much smaller than what I usually grow. This is partially intentional. In past years I only selected the largest cloves to plant, to make the largest bulbs. Part of this is for bragging rights. But we've discovered that large cloves are somewhat hard to use in the kitchen--more than we need for a certain dish. So last fall I decided to plant some small cloves. It worked, I guess. These bulbs are basically marble-sized. Oops! I think this year I'll try to source cloves that aren't huge, but still of size.

I took the first fully-ripe cayenne pepper. As with the solitary eggplant, this is an outlier. All the rest are far from turning red.

Red Ember hybrid cayenne

I also cut the first zucchini. This is "Sophy," a hybrid Cocozelle-type. It is Johnny's new offering, replacing Pantheon which I've grown for years and liked. I never know why varieties are discontinued. Regardless, it does have the nice nutty taste that I like.

Sophy (F1)

I also took the first cuttings from the lettuce mix I planted back in spring.

'Summer Blend' lettuce mix

For continuing harvests, I took the last, smallest Red Iceberg lettuce head. Sad to see this crop go.

Red Iceberg

Peas are slowing down, which is understandable considering how far into summer we are. Although, we may get a last final flush. The "Sweet Horizon" snow peas seem to be outperforming the "Super Sugar Snaps."

Super Sugar Snap peas and Sweet Horizon snow peas

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