Hello again from Eight Gate Farm. Sunday (yesterday) dawned with temperatures very close to freezing. As soon as I could, I went out to the planting areas to check. No apparent damage fortunately. The 10 day forecast predicts that this was the coldest we'll see. So no need to panic harvest, for awhile at least.
I managed one new harvest this week, the result of an experiment I tried this year. I started several varieties of determinate tomatoes on June 9 and transplanted them on July 15. The goal was to see if doing so would escape the diseases that always take down the determinates in midsummer. I chose varieties that were quick-maturing, 55 days or less. The thought was I could get a good harvest starting in September that would last until first frost.
I would not say this was a success. Some of the plants failed to get big, and the first harvest was a month later than promised, and will really amount to nothing. The first ripe fruits came from the "Glacier" variety, something I've grown in the past and whose taste was unimpressive. Same thing this year. But here they are:
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| 'Glacier' det. tomatoes |
I did one last picking of hot peppers, and removed most of the plants. We really have enough of everything; in fact I gave away the Anaheims and poblanos.
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| Final hot pepper harvest |
The Hot Lemon peppers will give me enough for maybe one more bottle of hot sauce.
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| Hot Lemon peppers |
I'm keeping the sweet pepper plants for now, in case the fruits put on any more growth. Sweet peppers can be used in any stage of maturity. I'll probably cut the
aubergine plants this coming week as we've had enough of them too.
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| Final eggplant harvest plus sweet peppers |
The Kitchen Goddess is still picking raspberries, but the harvests are much smaller.
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| Raspberries |
TKG and her mom went to the community garden and got a nice harvest. As usual Mom was delighted.
I did a little more hot sauce making. These are fiery!
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| Habanero and Sugar Rush Peach sauces |
We also made some chile powder. This used primarily Guajillo peppers, with a few Habanero, Habanada, and paprika peppers. The concoction is wonderfully fragrant, and I only sneezed three times when grinding.
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| Chile powder |
TKG had a fun idea that we should make a spooky lighted Halloween ghost and hang it in our woods along the road. So she did it, and we placed it on Saturday evening. We took pictures from the road. I think people will enjoy it, and who knows, they may even slow down a little. That would be nice!
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| Booooooo! |
That's all for this week. Thanks for reading, and thanks a million to Dave at
HappyAcres.blog for hosting the Harvest Monday forum.
I always sneeze when I grind up hot peppers too! Too bad the tomato experiment didn't work out as you hoped. You never know unless you try though. I think I will grow the Hot Lemon peppers next year and skip the SR Peach. I've grown the Hot Lemon before, and while a bit hotter than I prefer they always did well. I can always mix them with a wimpier variety if I need too!
ReplyDeleteOur frost didn't seem to hurt anything, and like you the forecast calls for favorable growing weather. I'll hold off digging sweet potatoes for a bit in hope they size up more.
I also had disappointing results with my July 15 planting of tomatoes. Hope the frost holds off another week or two. Oh those raspberries. We only had them for the month of July when we lived in MA.
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