The summer vegetables continue to slow down, as the drought continues. We’ve had a little cooler temps here of late, but still no rain. It’s very difficult to keep a garden producing on watering alone.
Still, we are managing to get harvests from the garden. I harvested about 1.5 pounds of chard this week. We have two varieties growing, Virgo with white stems and green leaves plus the multi colored Bright Lights.
The chard was used sauteed as a side dish, and it went into a frittata for lunch one day. We had a baked Delicata squash along with the frittata.
Chard Frittata and Delicata squash
I also harvested hot peppers last week, which I roasted on the grill, then peeled and chopped and froze for later use. There’s nothing like the smell of roasted peppers! I used a mix of Anaheim types, plus some green and red Anchos, and a few Jalapenos.
peppers on the grill
After grilling for about 8-10 minutes on a hot grill, the skins were all charred and blackened.
roasted peppers cooling
After the peppers cooled off, I put on rubber gloves and peeled and seeded them. Then I chopped them up a bit and divided into portions. My wife sealed the portions up with her FoodSaver and we put them in the freezer for later use. These taste so much better than canned chiles!
I also harvested enough tomatoes to roast a batch of them in the oven, make salsa, etc. Harvest total for the week was 9.3 pounds. For more garden harvests visit Daphne’s Dandelions, or better yet, add a link and show us your harvests!
I love the idea of roasting the peppers on the grill before freezing. I may have to try that when it comes to the end of the season.
What a beautiful variety of peppers you have, Villager! When you roast hot peppers, does the pepper heat mellow out at all?
I don’t think roasting affects the heat level, it just adds a nice flavor. The hot ones stay hot!
I agree. The smell of roasting peppers can’t be beat. I wish I had more to roast this year. Yum.
I love roasted peppers. We are not getting a very big pepper harvest this year so I probably won’t get to indulge myself with that taste treat – but I wish I could because the smokey flavor it imparts is really wonderful. Just the smell of the peppers roasting is heavenly itself!
The Frittata looks tasty!
I like your idea of mixing up the peppers when you roast and freeze them. Now, if I just had enough to freeze this year, unfortunately my peppers are pathetic. Yummy looking frittata, I love the versatility of frittata, it’s a great way to improve leftovers.
So, you might know the answer to this question…My mom just freezes her peppers right after washing them. But I have read that some need to be blanched, cooked, whatever before freezing. Do you think it matters? I have just been freezing mine like my mom does. Roasting sounds good though too!
I don’t remember if I ever blanched peppers before freezing or not. My Ball Blue Book says not to, and I usually trust it for advice.
oooh – I love baked delicata AND chard – that is a yummy meal you had there. Great idea charring the peppers on the grill like that.
Your grilled peppers look wonderful all roasted! I have the same growing here, Jalapeño , Ancho, and Anaheim, but our dastardly weather just didn’t cooperate this spring. There are a few green peppers hanging, static, on the vines…the question remains as to whether they’ll be ripe before summer’s sun disappears.
I love roasted peppers, but I have never tried to freeze them. Good idea! We usually roast them in the oven, but roasted on grill gives them stronger taste.
YUM! We eat many chard tarts etc all year long, that meal of your sounds ideal to me!
It’s interesting to me to read that it is difficult to keep a garden producing on watering alone. In summer in a Mediterranean climate without irrigation there is no productive garden. Rains stop some time in Spring or late winter and don’t come back until fall or early winter. This precipitation distribution makes it very hard to store enough rainwater to irrigate during the dry season. Some crops can be dry farmed if the conditions are appropriate and the gardener very knowledgeable. But generally our summer gardens use irrigation. I am jealous of your summer rain, even if it is not as much as you are used to.
Your harvest looks abundant even if your garden is slowing down. You are definitely doing something very right in your garden.
Angela, we’ve just not setup irrigation because usually we have enough rain in summer that we don’t need it. It’s also very expensive to irrigate here, unless you store rainwater, which we don’t do (yet). I should have said it’s hard to keep it going on ‘hand watering’ alone.
A beautiful food post with great photography! The roasted peppers in small “piles” are a work of art. Yes indeed, roasted peppers are much better than canned peppers — and where could you get such a colorful mix unless you did it yourself?
Here, the sweet Cuban and Sweet Italia peppers have been good producers this year, even with the intense heat and drought. In a normal year we would have had an overload of sweet peppers. Ah….there is next year, right?
I’m glad to see that your garden did provide for you despite the drought. Even though the yields were small, we all still ate fresh from the garden. I’m still waiting for most of the hot peppers to turn red and now we are getting cooler nights so this may be the year of green hot peppers! lol
I need to make a mental note to grow more chilies next year. They were some of my favorite things from the garden this year. Roasting them first is definitely the way to go!