Welcome to Harvest Monday, where we celebrate all things harvest related. Much of the U.S. is suffering from a heat wave, and HA is no exception. Yesterday afternoon my weather station recorded a dew point of 83°F and an actual temperature of 95°F, which gave us a feels-like heat index of 121°F. Despite all the heat and humidity I still love this time of year, when the garden starts giving me the long-awaited summer veggies. Tomatoes are a favorite here like they are in many backyard gardens, and the dependable hybrid slicers I’m growing like Better Boy, Celebrity and Jetsetter are starting to ripen now. I also got the first of the University of Florida bred Garden Treasure tomatoes, which is the big one in the below photo. It’s a tasty tomato, with the first one weighing in at just over 10 ounces, and I look forward to tasting more of them in the future.
hybrid slicers
I also got enough of the small fruited tomatoes to make a batch of Slow Roasted Tomatoes last week. That’s Juliet in my hand below, which is just now starting to ripen. When I have more of them I’ll be dehydrating some of them and using it for sauces too.
Juliet tomatoes
My pole beans are just getting started setting on, but I got enough last week for a couple of meals. The Gold Marie, Musica and Trionfo Violetto all came in first this year in the pole bean races. Rattlesnake wasn’t far behind and showed up in the basket a few days later, and Fortex is now setting on too. The vines are growing lush and it looks to be a good year so far, though the Japanese Beetles are enjoying the leaves. To help control them I take a cup of soapy water with me to the garden and encourage them to go swimming.
Musica, Trionfo Violetto and Gold Marie pole beans
I’ve been cleaning up and weighing the garlic as it is cured. That’s Xian in the below photo, a turban type that made a great showing last year and this year too. The early results look like it was a good year for garlic, even better than last year, so I am tickled for that. Now if I could just learn to grow onions that well!
Xian garlic
We’ve still got quite a few sweet potatoes in storage, and they are holding up rather well. A few are sprouting, but most are not, which is not bad after almost 10 months in our basement pantry area. I used one of the Purple variety to make a batch of Rancho Gordo’s Rio Zape and Sweet Potato Salad. There’s a lot of homegrown goodness in there, from the Manoa lettuce on the bottom to the sweet potato, fried sage leaves and the chopped chives.
Rio Zape Sweet Potato Salad
I also used our sweet potatoes to make some kale and sweet potato hash. For that I used one each of the orange Beauregard, the white Bonita and a Purple. It makes a tasty and colorful side dish, which I served along with some grilled salmon. To make it I cube the raw sweet potatoes and cook in olive oil with a few chopped onions until tender and browned, then add in blanched and chopped kale. The kale was Prizm, a hybrid curly kale that continues to impress me.
kale and sweet potato hash
Speaking of Manoa lettuce, most of the crisphead lettuce I planted last month is bolting and has been pulled. But Manoa, Sierra and Slogun have held up better than the others, and I harvested the last of them last week. None really made good heads, but there were lots of big tender leaves, and the ones in the below photo wound up on sandwiches a couple of times recently.
crisphead lettuce leaves
I got the first of the Tromba d’Albenga squash (aka Tromboncino). It’s hanging out with Shikou eggplant in the below photo. I grilled the eggplant for a side dish, one of my favorite ways to prepare eggplant.
Tromboncino and Shikou eggplant
I used the squash in a frittata I made one day for lunch. I julienned the Tromboncino, then sauteed with onions in a little olive oil. After adding in the eggs, I placed leaves of Corsican basil and slices of tomato on top before popping the skillet in the oven to finish it off.
frittata with Tromboncino, basil and tomatoes
The tomato I used is an Artisan Seeds variety called Marzano Fire. It’s my first time growing this one, which has San Marzano and Speckled Roman tomato in its ancestry. It’s more juicy than many of the Marzano types I’ve grown in the past, and so far not a single one has showed BER, which has been a problem with them here for me. The pointy end on the left one sure reminds me of a Marzano tomato!
Marzano Fire tomatoes
In other squash news, the Early Butternut squash is certainly living up to its name. I got the first three ripe butternut squash from it last week. They are hanging out with another Tromboncino in the below photo, one that was hid from me and got huge! It was still plenty edible though a bit bigger than I usually like to let them get. It’s my wife’s turn to cook next week so she will get to use that one!
Early Butternut and tromboncino squash
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 be sure and check out what everyone is harvesting!
The Tromboncino squashes are very impressive! Do you eat the whole thing, or just the swollen bit at the end? They must be difficult to prepare… You have certainly been eating some colourful meals recently. The Purple Sweet Potato is very dramatic in a dish. Do you ever grow purple “ordinary” potatoes too? I grew some once but thought them a bit disappointing – good looks, but little taste and poor texture.
All of the Tromboncino is edible. The long neck is solid flesh, while the swollen end is where the seeds are. It’s a C. moschata squash, usually eaten while young but they can be left to mature like a butternut.
The sweet potato salad and frittata look dekicious. We did try growing sweet potato once but never got very far with them.
I just love fried sage leaves, that dish looks delicious! And your garlic looks perfect. I had a so-so harvest this year. And it definitely seems early for butternut, but I can’t always tell with other gardening zones.
Hurrah for tomatoes! I can’t wait until I get more than a trickle when I can really do something with them.
A wonderful and varied harvest and good eats. Can’t believe you still have sweet potatoes from last year’s harvest. With the heat wave we are having I am sure you are in for an even better SP harvest. I too am growing lovely garlic but unable to grow decent size onion, hope you find the reason.
It’s nice to see beans being harvested, and all my favorite pole bean varieties. My Helda beans have a few tiny beans on them, so maybe in a week or two I will have a few. I haven’t cleaned up my garlic yet but it does look like it was a good garlic year.
I would certainly wilt in the heat that you are experiencing, it sounds awful to me. What a lovely colorful week of harvests and eating. The kale and sweet potato hash looks delicious and beautiful. The tomatoes, oh the tomatoes, I couldn’t wait any longer and had to buy some at the farmer’s market. They are tasty, but not mine…
You certainly grow a variety of squash, which we are considering next year. We always stay with the yellow crockneck variety for our immediate use and canning, and I’ve already pulled the plants out. We do OK on garlic size but our onions turned out good for us this year. Good handful in size. Nothing like supermarket ones but this is a first for me.
Awesome harvests…can’t wait until our tomatoes really start to get going. Those sweet potato dishes sound delicious too – I haven’t fried up sage leaves in ages – yum!
And I can’t believe that you are harvesting butternut squash already – early is right! Mine haven’t even started to flower yet.
I’m impressed that your sweet potatoes stored for ten months! Mine barely made it five months. Both of your sweet potato dishes look delicious. I’ve started getting winter squash here too. Sadly my first butternut wilted and died early on, but the second round of butternut I planted are doing well and are ripening. Those Fire Marzano tomatoes sure are pretty! Enjoy all your summer harvests!
How do you know when butternut squash is ready to be harvested?
Thanks
I use my thumbnail to test the rind. If it can’t penetrate, then it should be ready. The color also changes to a uniform tan/orange on most butternut types. Before eating I will let mine cure for several weeks to let them sweeten up.
The trombocino are brilliant! And I can’t believe you have butternut squash already, amazing. It’s a really tasty-looking variety of harvests this week (as usual).
It’s wonderful when the tomatoes really start coming in and you garlic looks so good. It’s amazing you still have sweet potatoes and are already harvesting winter squash. So strange to think that August is almost here and fall is just around the corner.
Those tromboncino squash are really impressive. I’ve been trying to grow one for a ‘longest squash’ competition being hosted by one of the seed suppliers here in the UK, but mine are nothing like as elongated. How do you get that sort of length on them? Are they grown undercover? Fed daily? Watered constantly..? Any tips gratefully received 🙂
Mine haven’t gotten any special treatment. I put a big handful of compost in the planting hole, then mix in a half cup of organic fertilizer. We have had ample rains so I haven’t had to water much.
Your Harvest Monday posts always make me hungry. You have a lot of great ideas for eating from the garden. I’m jealous of your pole. I replanted after the rabbit ate most of mine, but it’ll be awhile yet before I get fresh green beans.
The garlic bulbs are so handsome. sorry for not joining in the past few weeks, I just haven’t been organised enough, hope to join in this Monday though with the first of the courgettes