Harvest Monday August 15, 2022

Posted on August 15, 2022 by Dave @ HappyAcres

It’s time once again for Harvest Monday, where we celebrate all things harvest related. It continues to be rainy and hot here, though we got a bit less rain last week. We’re getting plenty of the summer veggies, and still coming up with different ways to use them in the kitchen. It has been a great year for eggplant, and I have brought in over 30 pounds of them so far. I also got the first ripe sweet peppers last week from Jimmy Nardello’s and Sweetie Pie. The first hot peppers to ripen here have been jalapenos. It was nice to add peppers to the menu, even if only in small quantities.

Friday’s harvest

eggplant and first ripe sweet peppers

I made two pans of Slow-Roasted tomatoes last week with cherry tomatoes, using a mix of Sunpeach, Sun Sugar and Cherry Bomb. I drizzled some olive oil over the tomatoes before roasting in a 250°F over for about 3 hours. That was the last thing I baked before the oven went out, which is not a good thing at all! Thankfully the broiler still works, as do the range top burners. We also have a gas grill outdoors which sees a lot of use this time of year.

tomatoes for slow-roasting

I got a half dozen Garden Treasure tomatoes last week. I’ve been growing this University of Florida bred variety for several years now, and it always performs for me here. It has resisted splitting better than many of the slicing types I’m growing, no doubt due to having a somewhat thicker skin than many other tomatoes. These six weighed just over three pounds total.

Garden Treasure tomatoes

We also did another tasting of the Chef’s Choice Striped and Damsel varieties. The season for slicing tomatoes is all too short here, and I like to eat them as often as possible. I am quite happy eating a good vine ripened tomato every day, and they only need a little salt to suit my tastes!

sliced Chef's Choice Striped and Damsel tomatoes

sliced Chef’s Choice Striped and Damsel tomatoes

One of my favorite eggplant uses when we have lots of them is Baba Ganoush. Since the oven was out I roasted these on the gas grill, which gives them a slight smoky taste. I didn’t skimp on the tahini or olive oil, and served it with some of my toasted whole wheat pita bread. We also enjoyed some sautéed eggplant one day for lunch, which accompanied a BLT we made from the ripe slicing tomatoes.

baba ganoush with whole wheat pita bread

sauteed eggplant with BLT sandwich

I roasted up one of the Thelma Sanders acorn squashes while the oven was still working. I like to cut it into wedges and bake in a cast iron skillet, which caramelizes the squash and brings out the sweet, nutty flavor of this variety.

roasted Thelma Sanders squash

I also made Whole Wheat Cinnamon rolls last week, using my still-in-development recipe for Whole Wheat Cinnamon Swirl Bread. After baking I topped the rolls with a donut-style glaze I made from milk and powdered sugar, leaving a few unglazed for comparison. My wife and I tasted both the glazed and unglazed ones, and decided they really needed the glaze since the basic dough is not very sweet to start with. I froze most of them to keep me from eating them all up, which tells me the recipe is likely a keeper.

Whole Wheat Cinnamon Rolls

Harvest Monday is a day to show off your harvests, how you are saving your harvest, or how you are using your harvest. If you have a harvest you want to share, add your name and blog link to Mr Linky below. And please take a minute and check out what everyone is harvesting!


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Harvest Monday August 8, 2022

Posted on August 8, 2022 by Dave @ HappyAcres

It’s time once again for Harvest Monday, where we celebrate all things harvest related. It was another rainy week here, with over two more inches falling on already soaked ground. It has rained 10 of the last 14 days, to help put it in perspective. I have been harvesting between showers, and weeding as best I can. The rains came just as the tomatoes were beginning to ripen, and as a result many of them are splitting and rotting. We are still getting plenty to eat fresh, but I am not sure how many we will have for cooking up and turning into sauce. Thankfully last year was a great year for them, and we have quite a bit of sauce and paste left in the freezer. Other than the tomatoes, all the other crops seem to be holding up well so far. And there has been no need for irrigating lately for sure!

early August harvest

Some of the tomatoes seem to be handling the rain better than others, and I am making note of those for future plantings. Damsel is one of them, and it’s a medium sized pink beefsteak tomato with good resistance to late blight disease. I think it has a great flavor that compares favorably to heirlooms that don’t usually do well for me here. I’ve grown it for several years now, and it has been a dependable performer. I’m growing Chef’s Choice Purple for the first time, and it is also holding up well. It’s in the below photo along with Chef’s Choice Yellow and Chef’s Choice Striped. It’s also my first time growing the 2022 AAS Winner Purple Zebra, and while some of those are splitting they are holding up pretty well too given the wet conditions.

another August harvest

Damsel tomatoes

We did a taste comparison of Damsel and Chef’s Choice Purple one day for lunch. My wife and I enjoyed both of them, and it would be hard for me to pick a favorite!

Damsel and Chef’s Choice Purple tomatoes

On another day, we sampled Damsel along with Purple Zebra and Chef’s Choice Striped. The Purple Zebra and Damsel had a good mix of tangy sweet flavors, while the Chef’s Choice Striped leaned towards the sweet side to my taste buds. They all went well with a ham and kraut sandwich we enjoyed for lunch one day, made using my homemade rye bread and kohlrabi kraut.

Purple Zebra, Damsel and Chef’s Choice Striped tomatoes

tomatoes with kraut sandwich

It’s not all about tomatoes though. We’re still getting a lot of eggplant, even as we wait for the sweet peppers to ripen. I got two of the large Italian eggplants last week, Nadia and Galine.

Nadia and Galine eggplant

Roasting the eggplants is one of our favorite ways to cook them. Sometimes we just brush with a little olive oil and sprinkle with salt.

roasted eggplant

Another way we like to prepare them is to add a little grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese on top after the eggplant is roasted.

roasted eggplant with parmesan cheese

In other news, our mowing service got an early start on the front lawn one morning. Too bad we can’t get them to only eat the grass and leave the flowers and veggies alone! I’m not a real fan of the deer ticks they leave for us either since they often carry Lyme disease.

deer in front lawn

Despite all the other breads I bake I hadn’t made pita bread in a couple of years, and last week I cooked up a batch of them. I used half white whole wheat flour and half all-purpose flour, using my Whole Wheat Pita Bread recipe. I baked them on a hot pizza stone, and they puffed up nicely. We use them more often as a flatbread, instead of a pocket bread, so the ‘puff’ isn’t really required for that use. They also make a tasty crust for homemade pizza.

whole wheat pita bread

I’m still tweaking my recipe for whole wheat cinnamon swirl bread. Last week I baked it in a 9x4x4 Pullman Pan, and made an effort to roll up the dough a bit more tightly. I am happy with how loaf that turned out, and next time I want to try bumping up the filling a bit. I will share the recipe here on the blog once I get it finalized.

Whole Wheat Cinnamon Swirl bread

Harvest Monday is a day to show off your harvests, how you are saving your harvest, or how you are using your harvest. If you have a harvest you want to share, add your name and blog link to Mr Linky below. And please take a minute and check out what everyone is harvesting!


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Photo Friday: August Flowers

Posted on August 5, 2022 by Dave @ HappyAcres

Today I want to show some of the things we have blooming here in early August. The pollinator garden (aka Wild Garden) is loaded with blooms right now. Everything there was planted to provide some sort of appeal to pollinators, butterflies and birds. We don’t deadhead blooms when they set seeds, since those are eaten by finches and other small birds. Recent rains have everything growing lush lately too.

Wild Garden in August

Butterflies are frequent visitors to our garden, and I have seen swallowtails visiting the bee balm and Joe Pye Weed recently. They also like the petunias, which we have blooming in several places.

Swallowtail butterfly

The native Brown-Eyed Susan (Rudbeckia triloba) is covered in blooms now. It’s a tall plant, with small daisy-like blooms. It also tends to reseed itself, which makes it a good candidate for naturalizing. I try and pluck out seedlings that pop up in unwanted areas to keep it from taking over.

Brown-Eyed Susan

Rudbeckia Henry Eilers has rayed blooms that resemble asterisks! It’s another tall plant, and the flowers are sweetly perfumed with vanilla and anise scents.

Rudbeckia Henry Eilers

Joe Pye Weed (Eutrochium maculatum) is a tall plant native to North America. It towers up above most of the other perennials, and the purple-pink flowers are absolutely a magnet for butterflies.

Joe Pye Weed

closeup of Joe Pye Weed

Swallowtail butterfly on Joe Pye Weed

The bee balm is about done for here, but the swallowtail butterflies are still visiting it for nectar too.

swallowtail butterfly on bee balm

The Scarlet Hibiscus (Hibiscus coccineus) is another native plant, found in swampy areas of the southern U.S. We got seeds for this back in 2009 from two sisters who were on our Master Gardener Garden Walk, and have been growing it ever since. It’s winter hardy in our area, and can easily be started by seed. It gets up to six feet tall, and it is a hummingbird and butterfly magnet! Like other hardy hibiscus plants, the blooms only last for one day. This plant pretty much goes straight up, so we have several of them planted fairly close together.

Scarlet Hibiscus

Scarlet Hibiscus

We also have several other hardy hibiscus that have been flowering since early summer.

Hibiscus Starry Starry Night

Hibiscus Cranberry Crush

The Sun Garden is home to my wife’s growing collection of iris, plus other perennials and shrubs like oakleaf hydrangea and viburnum. The Shasta daisy Becky is a reliable bloomer, and has long-lasting white blooms. We have a small metal table and chairs with pots of annuals sitting on them to give a little more color to the area.

Sun Garden

We do have shorter perennials planted, especially around the edges of our garden. The Millenium Allium is blooming now, and we have it in several places. The chive-like foliage is topped with rosy-purple flowers. Unlike many of the flowering alliums, this one seldom self-sows. It can easily be propagated by division, and that is one reason we have several of them now! The blooms are popular with our bees.

Allium Millenium

Another shorter plant blooming here now is the Daybreak threadleaf coreopsis. I see smaller pollinators on it sometimes, and the cheerful yellow flowers have orange-red centers that light up the border.

Daybreak Coreopsis

I hope you have enjoyed this look at some of the things we have blooming here in early August. I will be back soon with more happenings from Happy Acres!

 

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Harvest Monday August 1, 2022

Posted on August 1, 2022 by Dave @ HappyAcres

It’s time once again for Harvest Monday, where we celebrate all things harvest related. Last week we got lots of rain- over three inches worth, and it now seems we have gone from too dry to overly wet conditions. The rain came just as tomatoes were ripening, which led to some  many of them splitting. I still managed to bring in quite a few of the smaller fruited kinds though plus a few of the larger slicing tomatoes. The eggplant doesn’t really seem to mind the rain, and those plants continue to keep us well-supplied. I’ve harvested over 20 pounds of it so far, and it has kept my wife and I looking for new ways to use it. Any and all ideas would be welcomed too!

late July harvest

So far the star of the 2022 tomato harvest is Purple Zebra, which is a 2022 AAS Winner. The billiard ball sized fruits are striped on the outside and deep purple on the inside. The flesh is rich and full-flavored, with a good blend of acid and sweet tastes. My wife and I have been enjoying these at every opportunity!

Purple Zebra tomato

sliced Purple Zebra tomato

I also got the first of the Chef’s Choice Purple tomatoes last week. This is one entry of the Chef’s Choice series I hadn’t tried before now. The first one to ripen was a whopper, weighing well over a pound. The flesh was meaty and sweet, and reminiscent of the heirloom Cherokee Purple tomato which is likely somewhere in the parentage. I got two more later in the week that were a bit smaller at 10-11 ounces, which is still a respectable size. We used some of this one to make open-faced eggplant sandwiches one day for lunch, on a base of my homemade sourdough bread.

Chef’s Choice Purple tomato

sliced Chef’s Choice Purple tomato

eggplant and tomato sandwich

The Mellow Star peppers gave us another taste last week. These hybrid shishito peppers have no heat, and are a tasty treat when ‘blistered’ in a skillet of hot oil.

Mellow Star peppers

The container eggplant is slowing down, which is not a bad thing as the in-ground plantings are coming on strong. Icicle, Gretel and Fairy Tale (all AAS Winners) are performing about equally well for me in containers.

Icicle, Gretel and Fairy Tale eggplant

I’m getting Centercut and Korean avocado squashes as well as an occasional Tromboncino now that the true summer squashes are done for. And did I mention lots of eggplant? I have the light purple Asian Delite and Charming planted along with the striped Annina and dark purple Millionaire and Orient Express. The white ones in the below photo are from an in-ground planting of Icicle.

another harvest

One dish we made with the eggplant last week was Parmesan Eggplant Pasta. For that we roasted eggplant, then topped with parmesan cheese. We heated spinach with cooked farro fusilli pasta until the spinach wilted, then added cherry tomatoes and fresh basil from the garden. Served with more parmesan cheese and a few toasted pine nuts on top, it made a filling dinner meal for us one night. We will be making this one again! We decided next time to chop up the roasted eggplant and mix it in with everything else.

Parmesan Eggplant Pasta

In other news, I baked up a loaf of sourdough focaccia bread using a recipe from Elaine Boddy’s Whole Grain Sourdough at Home. It featured a mix of bread flour and whole grain rye flour, and was leavened with my 10+ year old sourdough starter. I sprinkled course salt over the top and a bit of fresh rosemary on one end. It went well with the frittata we had for lunch yesterday.

sourdough focaccia bread

The pollinator garden is full of summer blooms now, and the bees and butterflies are daily visitors. I hope to do an update on our perennial gardens soon, while so many things are flowering.

Wild Garden in late afternoon

Harvest Monday is a day to show off your harvests, how you are saving your harvest, or how you are using your harvest. If you have a harvest you want to share, add your name and blog link to Mr Linky below. And please take a minute and check out what everyone is harvesting!


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July Garden Update

Posted on July 27, 2022 by Dave @ HappyAcres

It’s time for another virtual tour of our vegetable garden here in late July. The early  spring planted crops are gone now, and the summer vegetables are coming in. We had a colder than usual wet spring, followed by a hot dry spell, but lately we have gotten much needed rain and things are growing nicely. Overall the garden is 45 x 45 feet in size, surrounded by fencing to keep the deer and other critters out. This year I am trying several new things in the garden, including one no-dig no-till bed. I’ve also reduced the number of planting beds, and made walkways between the beds. And I’m using weed barrier fabric on several of the beds, something I started testing in last year’s garden.

view of the garden through the door

Early results from the no-dig no-till bed are very encouraging. I planted broccoli, cabbage and kohlrabi at one end of the bed in late April. In May I planted ten bush squashes to fill out the rest of that bed. All of these crops did very well, and I am happy with the results. Of course one year doesn’t make a trend, but I am planning to try another similar bed or two next year.

early brassica plants in May

I plan to set out fall collards and kale in the bed where the spring brassicas were. I usually rotate plant families to different beds, but I have found that greens make a good fall crop planted following other brassicas, as well as after beans and squashes. After pulling all the spring crops, I lifted the weed barrier fabric carefully so I can reuse it next spring. Then I applied a nigh nitrogen organic fertilizer (Happy Frog Tomato & Vegetable), scattering it over the bed on top of the soil. Since I plant collards farther apart than broccoli and cabbage, I put down new fabric and I will cut the holes at the wider spacing.

new weed barrier in place

The rest of the garden should be set for a while. In a couple of weeks I will pull the bush beans, and sow turnips and turnip greens in that spot.

vegetable garden in late July

Every year I plant several hot peppers that I started the previous year and overwintered indoors. These baccatum type peppers get quite big in their second year, and are usually quite loaded with peppers. Those plants are now about three feet tall, and beginning to blossom. Other peppers are setting fruit now as well.

baccatum peppers

This year I planted the indeterminate tomatoes in a bed next to the trellised pole beans. Both have grown tall now, and I have a narrow path between the beds to allow me to harvest both.

path between pole beans and tomatoes

The tomatoes are ripening now, and vines are spilling over and sometimes out of the cages. We had a great year for them in 2021 (almost 200 pounds harvested), and this year they are certainly off to a good start. We process a lot of them into sauce and ketchup, and I also dehydrate quite a few.

indeterminate caged tomatoes

I set out 16 eggplants this year, and they have begun fruiting for us. Yes, that is a lot of eggplant, but we love it and eat it often! I have these planted in the weed barrier fabric, and it certainly helps keeps the weeds down. I am using folding cages to support these plants, which I also use to support the peppers.

eggplants

The pole beans have reached the top of the trellis now, and some are vining up the poles as well. They have begun blooming, so it won’t be long before I will be harvesting them. I typically harvest them from early August until the first frost, and they keep us supplied for fresh eating as well as stocking the freezer for later use.

trellised pole beans

One other new thing I tried this year is planting a few flowers in the vegetable garden. My hope was to attract pollinators, as well as add a bit of color. I set out petunias and several different colors of Profusion zinnias, and they are all blooming nicely. I also set out a couple of perennial plants (catmint, bee balm) that should provide blooms in years to come.

profusion zinnias

Harvesting is keeping me fairly busy now, and when more tomatoes start ripening I will be busy processing them. I love this time of year though, and so far I am pleased with the 2022 version of the vegetable garden. I hope you have enjoyed this tour of the garden here in July, and I’ll be back soon with more happenings from Happy Acres!

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