Monday, August 5, 2019

Harvest Monday - 5 August 2019

Greetings from Eight Gate Farm! We were busy harvesting this week, with the typical mix of first-of-the-season items, and continuing ones.

Starting with the new, here's the first Juliet tomatoes. I don't really know why I never before grew this extremely popular variety, but I'm glad I started! Some consider it a grape tomato, but the fruit is much larger than any grape-type I've seen. The flavor may not be the best I've tasted, but it's pretty darn good, coming in on the acid-side more than sweet, which is what I like.

Juliet
Here's the first Costoluto Genovese, with its interesting pumpkin shape.


And the first "Maule's Red Hot" cayenne. Why don't all the peppers get red at the same time??

Maule's Red Hot
I picked the first Anaheim peppers. I'm trying a hybrid variety this year, in addition to the open-pollinated type. The hybrid is Highlander F1, bred by the Chili Pepper Institute and marketed by Johnny's. It was developed to be a better performer in cooler climates. It's not any quicker, as you see both kinds were harvested at the same time. But the group on the left is from the traditional plants, three of them, and on the right is the output from the only Highlander. So it certainly wins in the productivity department.

Traditional Anaheim on left, and HIghlander
The first Yaya and Mokum carrots were sampled. They look alike, and I really don't remember which is which. This year I planted pelletized seeds for the first time. They had typical carrot germination problems, but they sure were easier to handle, and since you place them in the right spacing, no thinning is required. Mokum is supposed to be 8 days quicker, but not here I guess.


Two years ago I planted three small Walking Onion bulbs, and here is this year's result. They are so weird! We use them like shallots, though they are sharper-flavored.

"Egyptian" Walking Onions
And this strange picture is of dill seed heads cut for drying indoors. I haven't intentionally planted dill in years, as it volunteers all over the place, even in the lawn. If I cut them now, maybe I can get it under control.

Dill seed
Now for a sampling of continuing harvests. Here's snow and snap peas, yellow and green beans, yellow zucchini, Taxi tomatoes, Dar cucumbers, broccoli side-shoots, and salad greens.


Artichokes, yellow and green zucchini, and sadly the last Taxi tomato. The plant never thrived for some reason, and just gave up this week.


The last sugar snap peas, the nearly-last snow peas, the last kohlrabi, and oh-god-more-beans.


Soft fruits are still rolling in, with jostaberries, blueberries, and raspberries. I've been enjoying the blueberries on vanilla ice cream.


From the community garden plot shared by The Kitchen Goddess and her mother, comes this picture of plenty. She's especially proud of the tiny cucamelons, also known as mouse melons. I don't quite know what the fuss is all about.


And lastly, shishitos are continuing to give us an abundance.

Shishito peppers
That's why I found this recent cartoon from The New Yorker so amusing. Note: no permission received, so please don't report me.


That's all for this week, and again sorry for the long post. Thanks as always to Dave at HappyAcres.blog for hosting Harvest Monday.

8 comments:

  1. A wonderful harvest! My husband would love all those peppers! We did not grow any peppers this year, but we bought a jar of very good pepper sauce from an Amish community near us.
    Have a great week!

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    1. Thank you Lea! I really love growing different types of peppers. They really don't take up too much space.

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  2. My peppers ripen sporadically too. Not always bad for the eating kinds, but I wind up drying the paprika and chili powder types all summer long. Highlander didn't seem to like our hot summers so hopefully your climate suits it better. I wish I had dill volunteering like that!

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    1. Interesting about Highlander...guess it can't be super in all environments.

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  3. My recollection of New England gardening is that everything grows really fast, including the weeds, knowing that the season is short. Such abundance this week for you.

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    1. Thank you Sue. Things do seem to grow fast once they get going. Ripening is another matter, however!

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  4. Anaheim peppers are a favourite of mine - Highlander looks like a winner. And get dill under control? It's looking at you laughing right now ;)

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  5. They were super out of control this year, but I cut them down yesterday hopefully before major seed distribution. We love Anaheims too.

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