Thankfully, our heat wave broke toward the latter part of the week, ushering in some very pleasant conditions. Got some rain, too, though not enough to make up for the deficit.
A number of "first harvests" were recorded this week, starting with jalapeno peppers. This is a hybrid called "Goliath," and while that's hype, they are larger than the standard type.
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| Goliath (F1) jalapenos |
I cut the first Swiss Chard (silverbeet). This is a hybrid called Oriole.
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| Oriole (F1) chard |
Pole green beans also made their first appearance. This variety, Fortex, has been blessing my garden for many years with its productivity and excellent taste.
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| Fortex pole beans |
We also pulled a few beets to see how they're doing. This is "Touchstone Gold." Doing all right!
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| Touchstone Gold beets |
I also picked the first cucumbers (finally!). This is a pickling variety (which I prefer even for slicing) called Little Leaf. I only intended to take the two small ones in the photo below, but as I was doing so, I saw the larger one hiding out. It may be "Little Leaf," but the leaves are dense!
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| Little Leaf pickling cukes, with tomatoes and zucchini |
But by far the stand-out crop was garlic. Once again I planted 48 cloves of hardnecks in the autumn, 16 each of Music, German White, and Russian Red. The Music variety did not grow as well, only producing 9 plants, but they and all the others produced astonishingly large bulbs. I also planted 8 Elephant Garlic cloves, and got 6. Elephant is more closely related to leeks, and you can tell from the leaf structure. I'm interested to find out what they taste like (supposedly more mild) when they cure.
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| Garlic Harvest: German White, Music, Russian Red, Elephant |
From a distance, they aren't impressive, but up close, a different matter! They are now drying on racks in the garage, which is fragrant to say the least.
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| German White garlic |
For continuing harvest, here is a large haul from Wednesday. The purple "Kolibri" kohlrabi weighed nearly a pound and a half. Also shown are zucchini, green onions, artichokes, and "42 Day" tomatoes.
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| Wednesday general harvest |
We cut so much lettuce, it had to have its own picture. I'm amazed that just a four foot row of this salad mix can produce so much for so long. We gave half away and still had plenty. I also started another row this week.
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| "Summer Lettuce Blend" |
The Kitchen Goddess halved, cored, and stuffed the jalapenos with cheese and spicy Italian sausage. Then they were wrapped in bacon. I put them on the smoker for about an hour and a half, and the result was quite good...spicy, of course, but not overpowering.
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| Smoked stuffed jalapenos plus additional sausage |
Here's a neat, delicious way to use some of your zucchini glut, which TKG found and adapted. Slice zucchini paper thin with your mandoline (watch fingers!), sprinkle with salt until they bubble, squeeze out excess water through a tea towel, then add fresh mint (you know you have plenty of that!), lemon juice, olive oil, and crumbled feta cheese. Viola! Zucchini salad.
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| Zucchini Salad |
So, a very nice week! Hope yours was good too. Thanks for reading, and thanks to Dave at HappyAcres.blog for continuing to host Harvest Monday.
I can almost smell the garlic curing all the way here! It looks like a great haul. That's a tasty idea for the zucchini salad, I'll have to give it a try. And after a friend wound up in the E.R., I always wear my cut-proof gloves when using a mandoline.
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