We took a single ear of Honey Select sweet corn as an experiment. It was exactly 80 days since seeding, the "expected" harvest date. For me, the expected dates rarely match my results. This ear was beautiful and well-filled out, but the kernels were not as deep yellow as riper ones. It was sweet, but is just a promise of things to [hopefully] come.
A heirloom Japanese "Mitoya" eggplant, and two generic hot chile peppers. The Mitoya looks a lot like Black Beauty except its calyx is purple rather than green.
Two Rutgers tomatoes (right) and two Costoluto Genovese on the left. All except one of the Rutgers are way undersized, but were ripe.
Now for continuing harvests, and first, a last. This is all remaining carrots. I didn't plant that many this year.
More "Espresso" corn. It has finally reached its potential, but still can't compare to Honey Select.
Artichokes, Diva cucumbers, and Yellowfin and Cocozella Di Napoli zucchinis.
Hot chile, hot cherry, Hungarian Wax, and shishito peppers, and Ping Tung Long eggplants.
The lettuce which had been ravaged by the woodchuck has recovered enough for us to start eating salads again. Also there are more Divas, zucchini, and Espresso corn.
Yet more Divas, zucchini, and some beets. I would never have believed it, but we are actually giving Divas away.
I promised myself no more photos of our pickling cucumber glut, but the contrast in this picking amused me. On the left, normal-sized picklers, in the middle, our new technique of picking them very young for cornichons, and on the right, The One That Almost Got Away.
I wrote last week about the failure of Dorinny Sweet corn. This week I took all the pathetic remaining ears. They remind me of Ancestral Puebloan maize. These are destined for corn chowder, so they won't go to waste.
An end-of-week picking of artichokes, zucchini, Divas, yellow wax beans (starting their second flush), a few seedless raspberries the birds somehow missed, and a Honey Select corn along with three Espressos. The Honey Select is so much larger.
And lastly, chard. What a great year for this cut-and-come-again crop!
Now a bit about using the harvest. Right off I have to say how lucky we feel to be able to have meals with our own artichokes and corn together. This is what gardening is all about.
Speaking of cornichons, The Kitchen Goddess made and canned what we had at the time.
A delicious meal of grilled shishito peppers and tomatoes with fresh mozzarella, to accompany grilled TriTips. Yes, California readers, you can find TriTip in New Hampshire, but you really have to luck into it. For those who haven't had it, see if you can find it. It is the best tasting beef in my opinion. The shishitos were brushed with olive oil, flash-grilled, and sprinkled with sea salt. Yum, what a treat! And for those who have asked, so far we have not had a hot one yet.
That's it for this week. Thanks for reading! Make sure to read all the lovely posts on Harvest Monday, graciously hosted by Dave at Our Happy Acres.
Nice job on the corn. The stuff I'm buying here is similar, long ears but very light colored and sweet. And both tritips and artichokes in NH, what next? I know what tritip is but have never seen it offered around here.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Dave. Yes, it's like we have a bit of California here.
DeleteBetter too early than too late on the corn. Honey Select looks like it makes some beautiful big ears. What runty little things those Dorinny ears are, it looks like all of them together don't equal one Honey Select. Nice to see the lettuce recovering, I'm glad I don't have to deal with woodchucks. Tritip, huh, it's so common here that I thought it had to be everywhere.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Michelle. Honey Select si, Dorinny no.
DeleteSome wonderful harvests you have there...the variety is awesome.
ReplyDeleteHoly - I'm wondering what on earth happened to that Dorinny corn! The two ears of mine that the corn muncher didn't get looked ok, but were way past their due date. As Michelle said, better too early than too late when it comes to corn. I'm giving them another go next year...third times the charm, isn't it??
What you've done with those shishito peppers is what I had expected to do with the Padrons I've grown - but the Padrons are HOT so we are using them to spice up dishes rather than as side dish on their own.
Thanks, Margaret. Yes, I'm surprised we had such different results with Dorinny. No second time for me. Sorry your Padrons are not what you expected. The shishito variety I grew is "Mellow Star" from Territorial.
DeleteI've not had the legendary Tritip. This tends to be bbq pork or mutton territory, and beef is usually consumed as steaks or burgers. The climate must have a lot to do with shishito and padron peppers as all of mine have been hot. Which isn't all bad, as long as you are expecting it. I'm amazed that anything would recover from a woodchuck attack!
ReplyDeleteMutton, huh? Not sure about that. Lamb, yes. Maybe it is my climate, as several people have not had their expected results from shishitos.
DeleteYour Shishitos sound like they did fantastic this year. Ours were spicy and so off tasting I didn't try them again this year. That's incredible that you're still getting lettuce.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Phuong. Sorry about your shishito results. As I commented back to Margaret, the variety I grew is "Mellow Star."
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