Harvest Monday - 30 September 2024 - Blue Ribbon Edition #8

The last weekend in September means time once again for The Deerfield Fair, now in its 147th year. And once again I entered some of my vegetables in the competition.

I always wanted to, while never believing I would, but I did! I won "Best of Show," for my big Neck Pumpkins (PA Dutch Crookneck squash). Proud? You bet!

Best of Show award

 Not only that, but my extra long leeks also made it into the Top Ten in Show. I guess size matters after all.

In the Top Ten

Including the above, I won 6 blue, 3 red, and one white ribbons. A little disappointed in that, but not very much! I won't show them all, but I do want to call out the first prize I got for guajillo peppers, because the seeds were given to me by our Harvest Monday host, Dave. Thanks Dave!

Guajillo peppers

Okay, this is the "Harvest Monday" fiesta, not "Shameless Bragging Monday." Here were the harvests for the week, starting with "first harvests."

I took the first leeks, which went to the Fair. It's the first time I'm growing this variety, called "Lincoln," so I don't know if they always get this tall.

Lincoln leeks

I also took the first of the rare tomato variety called "Compost Bin." It always amuses me when tomatoes volunteer out of the compost area. You can never really tell what they are supposed to be. I'll try them once they've fully ripened indoors, and decide if I should just rip out the plant.

Volunteer tomatoes

The Kitchen Goddess asked me to go pick a carrot, so here's what I came back with. More than enough.

Newhall carrot

For general harvests, here was Monday's. The jalapenos, guajillos, and cheese peppers were sorted through and went to the Fair on Tuesday,

Monday general harvest

And here's Saturday's harvest.

Saturday general harvest

TKG continues to pick large quantities of raspberries. This one was about 2.5 pounds.

Fall raspberries

Now for "Using the Harvest." TKG made two quarts of raspberry liqueur, using cheap wine, cheap whiskey, and cheap (for us, anyway) raspberries. This should be ready in a week or so. Also, she followed a (simple) recipe to make Fermented Hot honey using our jalapenos and cayennes, which should be delicious as a glaze for meats. As the peppers ferment, they make the honey thin out, which is perfect.

Raspberry liqueur and hot honey

It was time to try using the ultrahot peppers I grew. I made 5+ bottles of a pineapple-based hot sauce using one Scorpion Pepper, and TKG made 4+ bottles of a carrot-based sauce using one Carolina Reaper pepper. They both taste really good, but were not as hot as we were expecting. Next time we'll up it to two peppers per batch, or more if we dare.

Left: Scorpion-Pineapple, right: Reaper-Carrot sauces

No trip to the Fair is complete without gazing in bewilderment at the giant pumpkin competition. Here's this year's winner, at 2,457 pounds (~1114.5 kg). Part of me thinks this entire process is silly, but the thousands of dollars in prize money is definitely not silly.

2024 Giant Pumpkin winner

That's all for this week. Thanks for reading. Once again I heartily encourage you to grow stuff for your local fair. It is so much fun. Thanks also to Dave at HappyAcres.blog for hosting Harvest Monday.