Harvest Monday - 18 September 2023

As this past week progressed, we got more and more warnings about the potential for Hurricane Lee to possibly strike us. Toward the end of the week, it became more clear that the storm would veer east of us, and that's what happened, hitting coastal Maine and the Canadian Maritimes as a tropical storm. So on Saturday we just got showers and gusty winds. That's good, because no one needs a hurricane!

Some more "first harvests" rolled in this week, and that's where I'll start. The fiery hot Habanero peppers made their first appearance on Monday. This is a hybrid version called "Helios" from the Johnny's Selected Seeds breeding program, and it's earlier and more productive than the open-pollinated parent.

Helios (F1) Habanero peppers

 Looking very similar, but with a much different flavor, is "Habanada." A friend gave me a plant last year and I saved seeds. It has all the floral characteristics of Habanero, but with no heat. As such, it's a good "seasoning pepper" for such things as bean dishes. Have to make sure not to mix them up with the hot version!

Habanada (OP)

The bullhorn-style hybrid sweet pepper "Escamillo," also from Johnny's, came in this week.

Escamillo (F1) sweet pepper

This year I tried an experiment, planting a small crop of short-maturing sweet corn late in the season. I unfortunately don't remember exactly when I  planted it, but it was definitely late June or early July. The variety is "Early SunGlow," with a maturity of 60-65 days, which is really quick by my other standards. It is a "normal sugary" (su) type, and as such, it is not as sweet as my others. Now that I'm used to really sweet corn, SunGlow, although well-formed and crisp, was disappointing after trying it several times this week. I'll go through and pick the rest of the crop, boiling the ears and cutting off the kernels, which will be fine in other dishes.

Early SunGlow (hybrid)

Last year a mystery squash grew out of my compost pile, and produced small white pumpkins. It must have come from a fall decoration composted the year before. I saved some seeds, and planted it this year. I think this variety is called Baby Boo, and I have to chuckle when I see them selling at the farm stands for $2 each.

Baby Boo

The combination of severe February weather, and a hard frost in mid-May, destroyed much of the fruit crop potential in this area. For us, we've gotten no peaches, apples, grapes, or blueberries. So it's a surprise that we got pears. This is the entire crop, and they're small and lumpy, but they always are, as the trees were planted in a too-shady spot (not by me). Still, it's nice to have them.

Anjou pears

Turning to general harvests, this was Monday's.

Monday general harvest

That day The Kitchen Goddess did the first large picking of the fall raspberries, nearly two pounds.

Fall raspberries

Wednesday's harvest was very colorful!

Wednesday harvest

Here's Friday's general harvest. I believe we're up to five pounds of raspberries just this week.

Friday harvest

A really nice harvest was taken at the community garden plot shared by TKG and her mother.

Community garden harvest

Late this week, TKG appropriated all my cayenne and Habanero peppers, and made mashes for what she calls "fermentation" but I call "science projects."

Fermenting Habanero and cayenne pepper mashes

That's all for this week. Thanks for reading, and I hope your harvests are coming in nicely. Thanks also to Dave at HappyAcres.blog for hosting Harvest Monday.