Once again it’s time for Harvest Monday, where we celebrate all things harvest related. And I’ll get straight to the harvests. Peppers are continuing to ripen here, especially the hot ones. I got enough of them to start another batch of fermented hot sauce last week. This batch included three AAS Winners in the below photo, Emerald Fire, Chili Pie and Aji Rico.
Emerald Fire, Chili Pie and Aji Rico peppers
I also found a few Czech Black, Honeypeno and Senorita jalapenos plus a couple of the Sugar Rush peach and a lone Aji Angelo. All of these went into the hot sauce as well.
assortment of hot peppers
One hot pepper I didn’t ferment is the little Catarina. I got the seed for this one as a bonus from a Farmacie Isolde order. I dried these, and ground up into flakes for seasoning. It has a good flavor with medium heat, and the plant is big and loaded with green fruits. Most small peppers like this are super hot, but I would call Catarina mild. I have seen it listed as having around 500 Scoville Heat Units, milder than a hot banana pepper. I am going to try pickling a few of them too. For those more patient than I, the seeds could be scooped out and then stuffed with cheese to make mini poppers. I hope to experiment more as they ripen.
Catarina peppers
I made another cutting of collard greens, this time from the hybrid Tiger. We’ve been enjoying these sturdy greens, and since the plants are getting big I look forward to them keeping us supplied for several months.
Tiger collard greens
The pole beans are still keeping us supplied too. Turkey Craw makes big fat pods with a great tasting bean inside. I got enough of these to freeze as well as enjoy fresh.
Turkey Craw beans
And I continue to bring in more of the winter squashes and tromboncinos. It’s going to be a good year for squash overall, and I’ve brought in over 150 pounds of them total so far.
assortment of squashes
Inspired by a loaf I saw in one of the online baking groups I frequent, I baked a loaf of No-Knead Spelt Rye Sourdough bread last week. It had 20% spelt flour, 11% rye flour along with the unbleached bread flour and made for a very tasty, crusty bread. I used my usual Breadtopia recipe and subbed the spelt and rye flour for the whole wheat flour I usually use.
No Knead Spelt Rye Sourdough Bread
crumb shot
I had a companion in the garden one morning recently. I spotted this Five-lined skink (aka blue-tailed skink) while on my hands and knees picking pole beans. I softly asked it to please stay put while I went back to the house and got the camera. It obliged, and then scampered off over a squash vine after I got the pic. We do have a lot of these here, and I believe a family of them hatched in the compost pile earlier this year. I still see a blue tail (or two) scamper away once in a while when I dump something in the bin.
Blue Tailed Skink
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!
Those tiger collard greens are hefty and would be fantastic filled with grains and made into parcels. Those pole beans are def. fat. Some of my beans have gone like that over my week holiday and i was wondering whether or not to harvest them, as i worried they have gone a bit too over. How cool to see a skink in the garden, i wish for a hedgehog!
Beautiful peppers! Catarina does look like an interesting variety. It would to nice to have something on the hot side without being a killer; it could be very versatile. And impressive bean and squash harvests; 150 pounds for the year is quite something. I’m growing Sugar Rush Peach this year, and while the plant is loaded, the peppers seem stuck at halfway ripened. They have a strange pale translucent appearance. Is this normal? It’s always fun to find garden residents like your skink. I “harvested” a big toad while digging potatoes. He hopped away rather grumpily.
Quite the opposite regarding squash here – ours are pathetic. Love the skink.
Imagine, 150 lbs. of squash! Bread looks delish.