Harvest Monday - 7 October 2024

The autumn leaves are cascading down, the nights are growing chillier (and longer!), and the harvests have slowed. But they're not finished yet. Here's a look at what went on this past week. 

 I got a first harvest of the hybrid C. moschata squash called "Autumn Frost." It's a favorite of ours for its intensely orange flesh and sweetness. But it's also a last harvest, as there aren't any more. They're shown here in front of two big neck pumpkins I also brought in.

Autumn Frost and neck pumpkins

I did two general harvests this week. Here's Tuesday's.

Tuesday general harvest

And here's Saturday's. The leek at the top went right into Cock-A-Leekie soup, with all vegetables from the garden and homemade chicken stock. It's really good. The two smaller things that look like leeks are actually green onions, which I've allowed to grow since planting in spring. On the left is a good haul of summer-sown lettuce. On the right is the very last zucchini.

Saturday general harvest.

The Kitchen Goddess reports that raspberries are slowing down, but still in quantity, as you can see.

Fall raspberries

I had accumulated a large amount of cayenne peppers, so it was time to make some chile powder.

Red Ember cayennes pre-drying

After drying and grinding (wore a KN95 mask this time, so no sneezing).

Cayenne powder

Similarly, I had a lot of guajillo and Hungarian Cheese peppers, the latter of which serve as paprika.

Guajillo and Hungarian Cheese peppers pre-drying

The drying process was complicated by our oven deciding to go on the blink, so all drying was done in our entry-level dehydrator--a long process, especially since the cheese peppers have very thick walls.

Guajillo (left) and two packets of paprika

It's startling to think how much of our produce is mostly water, and pounds of fresh peppers, for example, become only a few ounces of powder.

That's pretty much it for the week. Thanks for reading, and thanks once again to Dave at HappyAcres.blog for hosting Harvest Monday.