Monday, July 27, 2020

Harvest Monday - 27 July 2020

Hello again from Eight Gate Farm. We had several exciting first harvests this week, so I'll get right to them.

We picked the first Yellow Pear tomatoes. It's my first time growing them, having sampled them in someone's garden last year. When it comes to "heirlooms" this variety probably takes the crown, having first been documented in the early 1800s. What's strange is we got the first fruits 61 days after transplanting, and it's supposed to take 75. Which puts to shame the "early" varieties I'm growing, that are nowhere near ripe.

Yellow Pear tomatoes
Another first was jalapeno peppers. The two on the left are "Early Jalapeno," and the others are a new one for us, Jalapeno Gigantia (a hybrid). Well, they aren't really gigantic (yet), but at this size they're just as early as Early Jalapeno, and more productive too.

Early Jalapeno and Jalapeno Gigantia
We just had to have some stuffed jalapenos! So The Kitchen Goddess stuffed some with cheese (making Jalapeno Poppers) and some with sausage (Atomic Buffalo T*rds). All wrapped with bacon and placed in the smoker. We smoked some lean boneless pork chops at the same time. All were amazing!

Smoky treats
Another first harvest was some Anaheim peppers.

Anaheim and Highlander (hybrid Anaheim)
These were perfect for chiles rellenos.


For a sampling of continuing harvests, we got more shishito peppers

Mellow Star shishitos
More artichokes, seven in all this week.

Tavor artichokes
More snow and snap peas. I'll be pulling the vines out this week.


More Arcadia broccoli. I've now learned that photographing on a black background makes the subject look yellow.

Arcadia

And more Imperial broccoli.

Imperial
And more National Pickling cucumbers.

National Pickling
Other harvests included zucchini, green onions, salad mixes, green beans, carrots, blueberries, and raspberries. Speaking of zucchini, TKG made something nice to reduce the glut: zucchini hummus. It is delicious.

Zucchini hummus
It was the last weekend of the month; time to update my project of photographing the gardens from my drone. If you're interested, previous shots can be found here and here.

The Field Garden. This plot has been one big disappointment this year. Animals have destroyed a lot. So my fantasy of a wall of sunflowers is just that.

The Field Garden
The Stock Tank Garden (cucumbers, summer squash, and melons).

Stock Tank Garden
And the main Fenced Garden. The rambling winter squash vines steal the show.

Fenced Garden
That's all for this week. Thanks for reading, and a big thank you to Dave at HappyAcres.blog for giving us the opportunity to share our posts on Harvest Monday.

4 comments:

  1. I love the aerial view of your gardens! Your peppers are way ahead of mine. I don't even have green ones yet, much less ripe ones. Your smoked ones sound yummy. I used to use the yellow pear tomatoes to make a preserve, but it's been a few years since I grew them. They were quite prolific as I recall.

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  2. Thanks, Dave. I'm surprised about the tardiness of your peppers.

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  3. I'm with Dave, how fun to see an aerial view of your gardens. I've grown Craig's Grande jalapeƱos in the past and they lived up to their name getting to at least 4 inches long or more and they were quite tasty. This year I opted to grow just sweet peppers.

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  4. Whoa, the stuffed peppers and chiles rellenos look amazing. I have to wonder if there's lots of different cultivars of Yellow Pear tomatoes floating around. How does yours taste?

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