Harvest Monday - 31 July 2023

Here's another Harvest Monday update from Eight Gate Farm in southern New Hampshire. On Sunday (yesterday) the relentless humidity finally broke, and it looks like we are in for an extended stretch of pleasant weather. We are finally seeing some classic summer vegetable harvests, if only on a very small scale.

I took the first jalapeno peppers. This variety is a hybrid called "Goliath," and while the name may be a bit of an exaggeration, it does produce fruit that are larger than standard jalapenos, and are nice looking without any of the netting you see on the regular ones.

Golath (F1) jalapenos

What to do with just a few green hot peppers? I made ceviche with two of them, using fresh sea scallops from Whole Foods ($27 per pound, ouch!), plus the last of our shallots from 2022. I also added some first-of-the-season cilantro. They marinated in lime juice for most of the day, and we served with blue corn tortilla chips. The jalapenos added just the right amount of heat without being overpowering.

Scallop ceviche

Not to be outdone, the first tomatoes made their appearance. I've always enjoyed Sungold when sampling them from other gardens, but never grew them before.

Sungold tomatoes

The zucchini are finally showing some growth. I picked a few this week. Here's one, along with some scallions that are also sizing up. 

Panetheon zucchini and Nabechan scallions, both hybrids

But the dreaded Squash Vine Borer has made an appearance! I've already had to discard two zucchini plants. There is really no remedy for the SVB. On a positive note, the Squash Bugs that were so numerous last year are not being as much of a problem.

I pulled the last, and largest, fennel bulb. Now I have a small empty bed, in which I will probably plant spinach to overwinter.

Orazio hybrid fennel

Loose leaf lettuce is still producing nicely.

Fresh homegrown lettuce for summer salads

I only used half of the scallops in the ceviche, so I thought I'd give smoking them a try. The Kitchen Goddess dusted them with her special spicy dry rub, and did the same to some chicken breasts. Smoked for about 2 hours, the result was quite good.

Smoked sea scallops and chicken

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