Once again it’s time for Harvest Monday, where we celebrate all things harvest related. Where has August gone? It’s hard to believe, but a change in the weather last week made things positively autumnal. The harvests are still summer like though, and I got enough ripe hot peppers last week to start a batch fermenting for hot sauce. I made this first batch with red-ripe Czech Black, Honeypeno and Red Ember peppers. All have a mild to medium heat level and a lovely flavor, and should make an interesting hot sauce. I’ll ferment them for about two weeks before turning into hot sauce. I might make a chunky chili garlic sauce with some of them after fermenting. If you’re interested, here’s the basic process I use to ferment the peppers: Fermented Pepper Mash, which also includes a few of the recipes to turn them into hot sauce.
Honeypeno and Czech Black peppers
Red Ember peppers
mixing peppers with 5% salt to make fermented peppers mash
fermenting peppers
In other harvest news, the squashes continue to roll in. I’m cutting quite a few of the winter types now, as well the the tromboncinos. In the below photo it’s Tromba d’Albenga, Centercut, Festival, Gill’s Golden Pippin and Baked Potatoes. We’ve started eating the acorn and sweet dumpling types, and both Celebration and Baked Potatoes are quite tasty. Celebration looks a lot like Festival though I only got two fruits from it. The Festival Acorn squash has been super productive, and I look forward to getting a taste of it soon.
tromboncino, Festival, Centercut, Gill’s Golden Pippin and Baked Potatoes squashes
Festival Acorn squash
Celebration squash
Another sweet dumpling/acorn type we’ve enjoyed eating is called Scarchuk’s Supreme. I got the seeds for it from the Sand Hill Preservation Center, and it’s a keeper for sure. I sliced it and roasted it in the oven and it had a rich, sweet flavor.
Scarchuk’s Supreme squash
And in the smallest squash department, I got the first of the experimental 898 butternut squash from Row 7 Seed Company. The listing says they fit in palm of your hand, and they weren’t kidding! This squash was bred to taste good as well as to be small, and I can’t wait to taste it after it cures for a while. Neither my wife nor I are real big fans of butternuts, and I am hoping this will be the one that changes my mind about them!
898 squashes
898 squash
The pole beans are keeping me busy harvesting and freezing for later use. We’re eating them as often as we want, and it’s truly looks like it will be a bumper year for them. The ample rainfall is no doubt helping them, along with relatively moderate weather. We’ve yet to have an extended heat wave, though we’ve had our normal hot and humid weather. I didn’t get pics of all the beans I harvested, but one noteworthy one is called Buenos Aires Roja. These make giant, stringless pods with a great flavor, and can also be grown for shell or dry beans. I got the seeds for this one from Secret Seed Cartel.
Buenos Aires Roja beans
In the future harvests department, we’ve planted several pawpaw trees here in the last few years but have yet to get our first taste of them. Last year some critter made off with ours just as they ripened. This native tree has fruit with a tropical taste reminiscent of bananas and with a custard like texture. A friend shared a couple of her fruits a few years back, and they had a wonderful flavor. There are about 7 fruits on this one small tree this year, so I put bird netting around the tree and constructed Fort Pawpaw. I’ve also sprinkled hot cayenne pepper powder around the base of the tree, and I will set a few snap traps for good measure. I would like to get a taste of these fruits before I am too old to enjoy them!
Fort Pawpaw
Shenendoah pawpaw fruit
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!