Harvest Monday August 24, 2020

It’s time once again for Harvest Monday, where we celebrate all things harvest related. Weather permitting, these days I am working in the gardens a couple of hours every morning. There’s much to be done, weeding and mulching plus planting and sowing for the fall garden. I have radishes and turnips coming up, plus broccoli, cabbage, kale and collard greens transplanted out and growing. The harvests are still summer-like, and the sweet peppers are finally ripening. Jimmy Nardello was the first to turn, with Carmen and Sweetie Pie ripening next.

I’m still harvesting mostly the early Robe Mountain beans, but the others are starting to set on. We’ve been eating these fresh, though when more come on I will be freezing them for later use.

A second planting of black-eyed peas is starting to set pods. I got about a pound of shelled peas from two pickings, with more pods maturing on the plants.

The eggplants are producing, albeit slowly. I see a new flush of blooms that should be giving us fruit in a week or so. Farmer’s Long and Orient Express are two I got last week, and they are hanging out with a Lemme’s Italian sweet pepper in the below photo.

I got another round of paste tomatoes last week, a bit over four pounds this time. This was mostly a mix of Juliet and Granadero. These got cooked down into sauce for the freezer. I core the tomatoes, blend up in the blender skins and all, then cook down on the stove until thick.

Small fruited tomatoes are abundant, and we use them mostly for salads.  A few wound up in an Ikarian Taboili salad I made for lunch yesterday using flat leaf parsley from the garden.

A swallowtail caterpillar was munching on the parsley I harvested, so I carefully returned it to the plant before chopping the parsley for the tabouli. There is plenty of parsley to share, and I don’t do anything to discourage the caterpillars.

The slicing tomatoes are still struggling, but I got three of the Chef’s Choice Pink for sandwiches last week. The plants are potato-leaved, which tells me there is likely some heirloom parentage like Brandywine involved in the breeding. Regardless, they are one of my favorite slicers and are flavorful and meaty.

In the Wild Garden, late summer bloomers are attracting bees and butterflies daily. The Rudbeckia and Echinacea are winding down, while the Sedums are just getting started blooming. Picolette is a medium sized sedum with small bronze-purple leaves and clusters of pink flowers. The flowers are the attraction for the pollinators and butterflies.

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!