Harvest Monday - 24 August 2015

Welcome to another Harvest Monday update from Eight Gate Farm.

We started the week with our first harvest of "Soloist" Chinese Cabbage. I transplanted 6 of these on July 11. They are such a pleasant crop to grow, now that I learned not try them in spring, as the root maggots really bother them. This is not a problem in summer.

This specimen weighed almost 2 1/2 pounds (~1 k.g.) with the outer leaves broken off. It yielded about 10 cups (~2.35 l.) of shredded cabbage.

The Kitchen Goddess used the entire amount to make one batch each of fillings for eggrolls (left) and dumplings. Now what to do with the other 5 cabbages quickly heading up?

A Tuesday picking. The outer row of tomatoes, from left, is Rutgers, Caspian Pink (largest here 12.8 oz.), Taxi, Sugar Plum, and Supersauce. The inner row is Incas and Roma. And note our last artichoke, sadly. We got 11 for the season, from 4 plants. We started with 6, but voles demolished two of them early in the season.

Here's one of the Supersauces on the scale, at 13.7 ounces. Respectable, but we've never gotten the two-pounders Burpee claimed you can grow. The other weighed 9.8 oz.

A Thursday picking. It has the last of the Espresso corn. There is also a head of "New Red Fire" spring lettuce, just starting to bolt but fortunately not bitter. And with this harvest of tomatoes adding to those inside, The Kitchen Goddess had enough to make the season's first batch of pasta sauce. What we don't eat right now will be kept in the fridge until there's sufficient to justify a canning.

We took all the pears from our two small Anjou pear trees. As I've written before, these trees get too much shade and are weak, but we still get some fruit most years. These will soften up indoors now, prior to canning. Bourbon pears...a treat!

A Friday picking, with our first eggplant ("Amadeo") and "Honey Select" corn. Of course, Daphne has been picking this corn variety for weeks. Strange how we are only 45 miles from her, but our climate is just different. Though we had to wait in envy, we are delighted to have our first taste this season. It was sown May 24.

Here's the corn, shucked:

Some of you grow Honey Select, and for good reason. Compared to the Espresso I grow, HS is a hands-down winner with tall, robust stalks and multiple ears. Espresso tastes great, but HS is dream-like. But there's a problem, depending on your views. Fedco plainly acknowledges (although I didn't notice when I bought it) that they source this seed from Syngenta or another multinational that manufactures neonicotinoids. Personally, that troubles me, so when I run out of this seed I will sadly have to find another variety. The question is, which?

On Saturday I harvested all the "Kenearly Yellow-eye" dry beans from our "survival" plot, where we grow foods that can be kept without refrigeration. Here they are spread out on wire mesh in the sunroom, where they will stay until the pods are dry and crispy. The black beans need another week or two in the field.

While I was doing that, TKG braided all our storage onions. These were hung up in the garage, where they will stay until it gets too cold out there.

The Braidy Bunch

Lastly, an update on the "Eight Gate Farm Crop Of Mystery." It's a plant that is not grown much now in New England, but at one point it was a very important cash crop in some areas.

Here's what it looked like back in June:

And this is now:

It has lovely flowers, but that's not why I'm growing it.

Some of you ventured a guess what it was, and they were clever. Anyone care to try now?

That's it for this week. Thanks for reading! And especially, thanks to Daphne's Dandelions for hosting Harvest Monday.