Harvest Monday - 16 August 2021

A cocktail napkin sums up my view of the heat and humidity this past week:

It was good for harvesting, however. Here are the "first harvests" of the season, starting with tomatoes. This is Burpee's Early Pick, which is a hybrid indeterminate with good sized fruit. The taste is quite good, too. We rated it 7.5 out of 10.

Burpee's Early Pick

Here's "Ascension Island." Though I love the story of how it was originally collected by the son of a fellow Master Gardener, I can't say it's really a unique variety. No matter, it's really tasty, and we give it 9 out of 10.

Ascension Island

This is Vilms, an OP indeterminate sauce tomato. Fedco recommended it for its disease resistance.

Vilms

And this is the old workhorse, Roma:

Roma

By the way, you may be thinking I pick many tomatoes when they aren't completely ripe. This is true. It actually doesn't make a difference, as once the fruit reaches the "breaker" stage (half green and pink) the plant seals them off. So it's much safer to let them ripen indoors. Here's a link to a university article on this subject: https://www.johnson.k-state.edu/lawn-garden/agent-articles/vegetables/harvest-ripen-tomatoes.html

A number of peppers made their first appearance this week. Here is Cubanelle, a mild frying pepper.

Cubanelle

Here are two different mildly spicy Poblano peppers. On the left is the original OP version, on the right is an "improved" hybrid called Rellenos Best. There really isn't much difference between them to be honest. We typically stuff and smoke these for a real treat.

Poblano, Rellenos Best

And here are original OP Anaheims, and the "improved" hybrid Highlander. Again, not much difference. These are also mildly spicy, and we typically turn them into chiles rellenos.

Anaheim, Highlander

I liked the experience of growing Alma Paprika last year, and drying it for the spice. So I started 4 plants this year. Three of them got destroyed. I bought "Hungarian Cheese" plants as a replacement. These are traditionally stuffing peppers, but I'm hoping to dry them instead. Not sure if it will work. One of the plants gave its first ripe fruit this week.

Hungarian Cheese pepper

I'm growing both Nadia and Midnight Queen eggplants this year, which are very similar in appearance. Midnight Queen is supposed to be earlier, and it was, but not by much, as Nadia will be right behind it.

Midnight Queen

To me, one of the most challenging tasks is figuring out when sweet corn is prime for picking. You look for clues, such as silks drying, ears filling out, and the number of days since sowing, but it's never exact. This year, my first batch seemed to go slowly, and the stalks (and corresponding ears), didn't grow like before. But they were way overdue from a date perspective. So I picked four ears to try.

Illusion hybrid sweet corn

The result? Two were definitely immature and lacked intense sweetness and flavor. Two were pretty good, but not completely what I expect from this variety. I'll just have to keep trying!

Four years ago I planted a peach tree. It's had some setbacks, and gave us nothing last year, but this year it's loaded, more than the tree can handle, as the main branch snapped off. So I thought it best to pick the tree clean. Here's the result. The peaches are small, more like apricot size, but sweet and fragrant. 

Reliance peaches

For continuing harvests, here is Monday's:

Here's Wednesday's

And Friday's

Also on Friday was this nice basket of collards. I continue to be amazed at this crop.

Top Bunch 2.0 collard greens

I planted the artichokes into the two steel stock tank beds this year. As the planting looked skimpy at first, I also sowed zinnia seeds. Guess the zinnias got a little aggressive!

Can you spot the artichoke?

That's the situation this week. Apologies for going long. Thanks for reading, and thanks as always to Dave at HappyAcres.blog for hosting Harvest Monday.

Harvest Monday - 9 August 2021

Hello again from Eight Gate Farm. The tomatoes are still taking their sweet time ripening, but we did get several "first harvests" this week.

This is Pink Berkeley Tie-Dye, an open-pollinated indeterminate beefsteak type.

Pink Berkeley Tie-Dye

As with most non-standard-color tomatoes, I find it hard to know when they are ripe. I looked at reviews of this tomato, and the consensus was to pick them when they first start to show a blush of pink. So that's what I did. Inside for a few days, they turned to the beautiful color you see above. Inside, just as lovely.

Pink Berkeley Tie-Dye

Another first harvest was this Brandy Boy tomato. It's a hybrid, with Brandywine parentage. This one resembled the trait you see with many heirlooms, catfacing. This is commonly caused when several fruits in a cluster merge together. It makes it difficult to slice and avoid the corky parts, so I carve them like a turkey!

Brandy Boy

With these two beefsteaks, we had to have a blind tasting.

Ready for a blind tasting

I ever-so-slightly favored PBTD, and The Kitchen Goddess slightly preferred Brandy Boy. Both were wonderful, and we gave them a 9 out of 10.

This is "Taxi," an open-pollinated determinate slicer I've grown for years. If you like tomatoes on the sweet side, this is a good choice. Although we prefer more acidic ones, this was a nice contrast, and we gave it a 7 out of 10. The plant does have a short productivity window, even by determinate standards.

Taxi

In "saladette" tomato first harvests, I picked a number of Burpee's Early Treat, a hybrid indeterminate. We liked this one too, giving it a 7 out of 10.

Burpee's Early Treat

Another first saladette of the year was Juliet. This tomato is one of our workhorses in the canning department, though it does not taste as rich for fresh eating as we like.

Juliet

Another first harvest was a Diva cucumber. This is TKG's favorite, though I wish I'd picked it a few days earlier. Just didn't see it.

Diva

Another first was a Ping Tung Long eggplant. This variety typically does quite well for me, last year being an exception (no eggplants did well).

Ping Tung Long

For continuing harvests, we continue to take a few artichokes, which we adore.

Tavor artichokes

And the shishito peppers are coming on strong.

Mellow Star shishito

Here was Monday's harvest:

And here was Friday's:

And on Saturday, TKG and her mom brought back this impressive haul from their community garden plot:

This week TKG cleaned and trimmed the garlic I pulled a couple of weeks ago. On the left is Katterman, which I think is a selection from German White. In the middle is Russian Red, a disappointment as I said before. And on the right, Georgian Crystal. These are all hardnecks, by the way. I'm looking forward to using each of these.

Garlic: it cleans up nice!

That's all for this week. Thanks for reading, and thanks once again to Dave at HappyAcres.blog for hosting Harvest Monday.

Harvest Monday - 2 August 2021

Time for another Harvest Monday update from Eight Gate Farm. We had two days this past week where the air quality was unhealthful, courtesy of the severe western fires. Otherwise it was on the cool side, with frequent rain. A lot of good harvests were made, however, and I'll lead off with the "first harvests" of the season.

This is Romanesco. Is it a broccoli? A cauliflower? A sea creature?

Puntoverde (F1) Romanesco

I've always admired its beautiful fractal patterns, so I tried to grow one plant this year. This variety, sold by Johnny's, is a hybrid, and differs from others in that it can successfully be grown in the summer; in other words, I could spring plant it along with the other brassicas. The plant got huge! The seed was expensive, even by Johnny's standards, but worth it! Even the taste is different...like a cross between broccoli and cauliflower (but not sea creature). We really enjoyed it.

A more conventional brassica first harvest is Flame Star cauliflower. I cut three in all this week. The Kitchen Goddess riced them, which is apparently the rage in healthy eating these days. Rage or not, we like it and use it quite frequently, and it's nice to not have to buy it.

Flame Star (F1) cauliflower

The solanacea are tardy this summer, but some are starting to ripen. This is Glacier, a early, determinant, open-pollinated, saladette tomato. I tried it last year, but the seeds never sprouted. This year they did, but the plant is weak and will not give us many more. And the taste is just average. So, weak plant, average taste, what's not to like? I doubt it will make the cut next year.

Glacier tomato

I had a lot of trouble in the pepper beds at the start of the season. Something, a vole probably, destroyed a lot of the plants I had started. So I was forced to buy some plants at the garden center. This is Jalapeno M, which I was unfamiliar with and looked up. Turns out "M" is the most widely grown commercial Jalapeno. By the end of the week there were enough to make a nice batch of poppers, which I smoked. They tasted great but were strangely mild. I'm guessing this has to do with the weather.

Jalapeno M

This is National Pickling, an old-fashioned cucumber variety I like. 

National Pickling cucumber

I harvested a larger one later in the week and made a batch of my Asian-style refrigerator pickle, using rice wine vinegar, tamari, and a dash of sesame oil. In just a couple of hours it's ready.

I also judged the red-skinned potatoes to be ready, given that the vines were quite dead. I usually grow a small amount of Red Norland for an early potato, but the garden center did not have them and had substituted Adirondack Red. This not only has red skin, but also pink flesh. It's quite tasty. The main-season white potatoes need a few more weeks, I think.

Adirondack Red potatoes

For continuing harvests, artichokes are rolling in.

Tavor artichokes

And here's a good representative harvest of other crops.

Monday home harvest

Not to be outdone, TKG shared this photo of the harvest from the community garden plot on the same day. All went home with her mother, who was thrilled.

Community garden harvest

Saturday found us processing vegetables for the freezer. I like to look back on photos like this to remind myself how lucky we are to have the space and physical ability to get so many nice things from the garden.

Ready for freezer

Lastly, as you can tell from her nickname, The Kitchen Goddess is a wonderful cook. She is also a very talented artist. Here's a project she did this week, painting a rock with a mouse emerging from a hole. It's super-cute, and startlingly 3D! It's serving as an eye-catching doorstop.

That's all for this week. Thanks for reading, and thanks once again to Dave at HappyAcres.blog for hosting Harvest Monday.

Harvest Monday - 26 July 2021

Here's another Harvest Monday update from Eight Gate Farm. We've had on and off rain the whole week. We've exceeded the July rainfall record, and the month is not over yet. Tuesday was supposed to be full-sun, but smoke from the massive, scary Western fires had drifted over in the high atmosphere, turning the sky hazy and the sun red.

For "first harvests," we were so glad to get artichokes, truly a Star of the Garden for us. They are very petite compared to the ones that are brought in from California, but oh-so-fresh, and we love them.

'Tavor' artichokes

Even though the ground was not as dry as I normally like, I felt it was time to pull all the garlic. I grew three varieties this year. This is "Katterman," which I think is a version of German White/German Extra Hardy, selected for size. Only one grower produces this, I think. I'm trying the vertical method of drying this year, as everybody seems to be doing it.

'Katterman' garlic

Next we have Georgian Crystal and Russian Red. Georgian Crystal is supposed to be like Georgian Fire, which we like, but a little less bite. Georgian Fire was not available when I ordered. In the background is the meager harvest of Russian Red, too small to hang through the slots. I don't think there's anything wrong about this type, just that the 'seed' garlic was not up to standards so they never grew well.

Georgian Crystal and Russian Red

Once they're fully dried and cleaned I'll talk more about the varieties.

Another first harvest was yellow wax bush beans.

'Carson' wax beans

For continuing harvests, I got some more shishito peppers.

'Mellow Star' shishitos

More haricots-vert. The Kitchen Goddess bundled them in groups of 7 or 8, and wrapped them in bacon, to make...wait for it..."Bacon Bean Bundles"; an original concept as far as I know. I cooked them on the charcoal grill. Really delicious!

'Calima' filet bush beans

More pea pods. These have really shut down, and I will be pulling the vines this week. Sorry to see them go.

Pea pods

A few more zucchini.

Yellowfin and Cocozelle di Napoli

More salad greens. The plants are finally bolting, so instead of just picking leaves I'm pulling up the whole plants and taking what looks good.

Salad greens

Another large fennel bulb.

'Orazio' fennel

I cut the last head of Imperial broccoli, and got more side shoots at the same time.

Imperial broccoli plus side shoots

Raspberries are producing lightly. We're using them up as we get them, and not stocking the freezer yet.

Raspberries

And finally a Thursday harvest of collards, chard, beans, and a few more pea pods. Collards look to be a crop that will give an amazing quantity of food value, and I'm grateful to our Harvest Monday host Dave at Our Happy Acres for inspiring me to try them. I just hope they don't start going to seed soon!

All in all, a pretty good week, giving us lots of meal choices and stuff for the freezer. Thanks for reading, and please join me in checking out the other Harvest Monday posts at HappyAcres.blog.