Once again it’s time for Harvest Monday, where we celebrate all things harvest related. I’m still getting a decent amount of tomatoes here, at least the ones for processing. There’s about 12 pounds in the below photo, which I turned into sauce, dehydrated tomatoes and frozen whole tomatoes. It’s not been the great year for tomatoes here but we are getting enough to restock our supplies.
tomatoes for processing
dehydrating Juliet tomatoes
It does look to be a good year for squashes though. I’m bringing in quite a few of the winter types now including Naked Bear, Scarchuks Supreme, Tetra delicata, Cream of the Crop and Celebration. The Tromba d’Albenga and Centercut are still coming on strong too, We got our first taste of the Scarchuks Supreme and it was outstanding, so I look forward to eating more of them.
Naked Bear, Scarchuks Supreme and Tetra squash
Cream of the Crop, Celebration and Tetra squash
Tromba d’Albenga, Centercut and Scarchuks Supreme squash along with Bride eggplant
Centercut is truly the squash that keeps on giving, and has kept us well supplied. We’ve shared it with friends and everyone wants more of it! We’ve been eating it quite often here, and I decided to try freezing a bit for later use in soups.
Centercut squash
It’s been a great year for the pole beans too. We’ve been eating them as often as we like, and putting the rest in the freezer.
Robe Mountain and Bertie Best Greasy beans
Musica beans
Peppers continue to ripen. We got the first of the Jimmy Nardello peppers this year, a big flush of them at one. This is one of my favorite sweet peppers, with a taste that never disappoints me. I grilled a couple of these along with the first Lemme’s Italian pepper (no pic).
Jimmy Nardello peppers
And Carmen and Cornito Rosso peppers are ripening, They’re hanging out with a cucumber and another Centercut squash in the below photo.
Corinto cucumber, Cornito Rosso and Carmen peppers, Centercut squash
I also got a few hot peppers to do a taste test. These are all AAS Winners, including Chili Pie, Red Ember, Emerald Fire and Flaming Flare. Most of these got juiced along with a cucumber to be used in flavoring homemade kombucha. The rest wound up in a salsa I made.
Chili Pie, Red Ember, Emerald Fire and Flaming Flare peppers
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!
I’ve just bought some of the Centercut squash seeds and had them delivered to my brother, so I should be growing it next year 🙂
Our squashes haven’t done well this year The beans have been.battered by the winds and half the tomatoes suffered from the contaminated compost issue. Happy gardening eh?
Really envious of your tomato harvests, Dave. You are getting processable quantities while we only have onesy-twosy pickings so far. Nice that you also got a quantity of Jimmy peppers. Odd how some are straight and others really curved. I’ve noticed that in my (unripe) ones too. I guess maybe you forgot to post the results of your hot pepper tastings? Or is that for another day?
There wasn’t a whole lot to say about the hot peppers! All were medium heat, plenty hot for my tastes. When I get more I hope to make hot sauce, but it may be September before that happens.
I’ll have to look at the Centercut squash. Looks like it’s been a good year for squash crops. Still anticipating my delicata.
Nice tomatoes. My Juliets are doing the best, some sungolds and not a lot of bigger ones in NNE. Our pole beans are just coming in this year, quite late. Do you blanch yours? I tend to do about 2-3 minutes, take them out to a towel to cool and then chill and freeze, sometimes cutting them in pieces. They retain flavor well if not texture. I will try drying tomatoes. I dry apple slices soon with delicious results, no resemblance to commercial ones. Lots of costata romanesco squash, thinking of drying some a la Carol Deppe.
I string the beans if necessary, break into pieces and blanch for 3 minutes. They do get soft but we still like them on their own or in soups. I have dried the romanesco squash (inspired by Carol Deppe), and it worked well and tasted good. I’ve also dried other summer squash with similar results.
Love your selection of squashes. I have never been successful in growing them, so have given up on them a long time ago so I am admiring your selection. You really are getting lots of tomatoes, i am getting them too, but not as many as you.
Your squash selection looks amazing. I wish I had some to share too… mine are pretty disastrous this year. And I always enjoying seeing your tomato varieties too!
So many lovely squash! It will be a short tomato season for us this year, with all the rain we had in June and July. Disease has taken hold and it’s a rush to harvest as much as we can before the plants succumb – I’ll definitely be pulling them up sooner rather than later this year.