I probably say this every year, but I really enjoy the slower pace of the garden when fall arrives. By then I’m ready for a break from the heavy-duty chores of spring and summer, but not quite ready for the hibernation of winter! It’s a different mix of veggies that are showing up in the harvest basket lately. Like the Seminole winter squash in the below photo. The two big ones each weighed a bit over three pounds, while the smaller one weighed a little over one pound. This is my second year growing this C. moschata cultivar. It’s a rampant grower that has vined all over the fencing around the main garden area.
Seminole winter squash
I’ll let the Seminole squash sit for a while before we start eating them, since I think the taste of most moschata varieties improves with storage. The Bush Delicata I harvested back in August is more than ready to eat though. Saturday I cut a couple of them into slices, tossed with olive oil, salt and homemade paprika, then roasted until tender and starting to get browned. That is my favorite way to eat the Delicatas, and since they typically aren’t the best keepers they are usually the first winter squash we eat every year, skin and all.
roasted Delicata squash
In other news, lots of peppers are getting ripe now. That’s the first of the Corno di Toro Rosso peppers in the below photo, and they wound up on the grill, including the one on the right which had BER. I’ve grown this one in the past and it was a shy producer, so I am hoping the one plant will ripen up a few more peppers before the end of the season. They were almost as sweet as the Jimmy Nardello peppers after grilling, and considerably larger, though not nearly as early to ripen.
Corno di Toro Rosso peppers
I shelled out the first of the Sacaton Brown tepary beans. It looks like they won’t produce quite as much as the Blue Speckled variety, but they are doing well enough I will give them a try next year. Planting tepary beans was really a last-minute decision this year. Next year they will be in the plan and I won’t have to be scrambling to find a place to plant them.
Sacaton Brown tepary beans
After getting more than average rainfall earlier this year, we haven’t had a significant rain here in over a month now. So I’ve been irrigating the garden with weeper/soaker hoses. The fall brassicas have responded with lush growth. I set out plants in two adjacent beds, so it’s an area about 8×30 feet in size. I planted a little bit of broccoli, cabbage and kohlrabi and a whole lot of kale.
fall planting of brassicas
That’s Coalition Mix kale in the below photo. It’s ready to harvest whenever we want some of it. The big flat leaves look a bit like collards, but the taste is all kale. I set out 16 plants so there should be plenty to eat!
Coalition Mix kale
And the Kossak kohlrabi are starting to bulb up already. We love kohlrabi here so I am looking forward to future harvests in about a month or so.
Kossak kohlrabi
That’s a look at a bit of what’s happening here. To see what other gardeners are harvesting and cooking up, visit Daphne’s Dandelions where Daphne hosts Harvest Mondays. I’ll be back soon with more happenings from HA.