It’s time once again for Harvest Monday, where we celebrate all things harvest related. With a frost and possible freeze predicted for Friday morning, I spent much of the week harvesting tender vegetables. That included digging the sweet potatoes, which I broke up into two sessions on consecutive days. I planted less slips than last year since we had more than we could eat in 2019. I still wound up with over 40 pounds of them. Most were in good shape though a few had vole damage. I’ll let them cure in our warm-ish basement, which is the best place we have for the task. I don’t generally clean them up before using, since the skins are fragile right after digging and I find they keep better this way.
Beauregard sweet potatoes
One of my favorite sweet potatoes is called Purple, which has purple skin and a dry purple flesh. I first got my slips from Norma (Garden to Wok). I think of her generosity every time I eat one of them. The dry flesh is perfect for sweet potato hash, sweet potato fries, and a salad I make with roasted sweet potatoes and beans. It was also the most productive of the ones I grew this year, and I wound up with over 10 pounds of them alone.
Purple sweet potatoes
I also pulled as many peppers as I could, including ones for drying, smoking, pickling and fermenting. It’s been a good year here for hot peppers, though only so-so for sweet ones. I’ve been running the dehydrator around the clock trying to get them all dried. Our humid climate makes it difficult to dry them any other way.
Kimchi and Amazing 2 peppers
guajillo peppers
assorted hot peppers
Aji Golden peppers
I did finally get a good haul of sweet peppers for fresh eating. These are mostly Italian types like Cornito Giallo, Cornito Rosso, Carmen, Jimmy Nardello and Dolce di Minervino.
sweet peppers
Aji Delight is a baccatum type pepper with large fruit that is sweet and crunchy. It has no heat whatsoever, and I usually use it like a sweet pepper.
Aji Delight peppers
I pickled some of the hot peppers in a sweet brine, including a mix of the Peppadews, Tangerine Dream and Honeypeno. These all have a mild heat level, and will be useful in many dishes in the kitchen.
pickled peppers
It has been a great year for eggplant, and we have been well supplied since early summer. Eggplant rollatini and baba ganoush are on the menu in the coming week.
eggplant harvest
I pulled all the neck pumpkins that were ripe, almost 60 pounds of them. That will keep us well supplied this winter! One vine made the usual pumpkins with long necks, while the other vine made more blocky fruits.
Turkeyneck squash
Turnips are certainly frost hardy, but I pulled the first of the fall planting so we could enjoy the roots and greens. These are Hakurei salad turnips, and I plan on roasting some of the roots this week.
Hakurei turnips
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 harvested the last of our sweet peppers last week Dave, the chillies that I transplanted are still doing well in the polytunnel though. My feeble sweet potato harvest was all root and few tubers, but they chopped up nicely and made quite a few soups and curries. I’m always blown away by the number of varieties you grow! I’m moving in that direction now though as I’m getting lots of free seeds sent to me. After a few years of looking I’ve also discovered Hakurei turnips in the UK, they’re called Tokyo Cross and we love them! : All the best – Steve
The white turnips have become my favorite. I’m looking forward to roasting them.
They work so well as an inter plant too
I am always amazed at how many peppers you grow. You could open up a shop! We can only find seewt potatoes with orange flesh here, Do the purple ones retain their colour after cooking?
The purple ones do indeed keep their color after cooking Sue. And they are good keepers as well.
What a beautiful, abundant harvest of peppers! The Aji Delight looks like a winner. And the sweet potato harvest is no slouch either! You will truly have no shortage of winter squash to get you through until next year. Odd that the Turkeyneck made such different fruits. Was it seed you saved?
The Turkeyneck was from seed I bought, and it’s a hybrid no less!
I will have to keep the Aji Delight in mind for next year, I love a good sweet Aji! 60 pounds of squash is impressive, you will be eating well this winter with those squash and the bounty of sweet potatoes.
That is an amazing late season chilli harvest Dave! I love turnips too…they do make a good curry with red kidney beans, if you fancy something different
Wonderful squash harvest! Nice harvest of purple sweet potatoes too.
In awe of your sweet potatoes. I have to grow them in the polytunnel here in the UK and they are alright but sometimes we don’t get a very good crop. Your chillies look great.
I am in awe at all you are able to grow. And such pretty pictures. I am still gardening, but havent gotten around to blogging in forever,
Hi Dave, you kindly sent me kimchi pepper seeds a couple of years ago and I’m happy to say they have done very well in my allotment. I’ve harvested about 200 peppers from 4 plants!
Now sharing the seeds with other gardeners.
Anne, I am so happy to hear that! It is still one of my favorite peppers too, and it tickles me to know you have shared seed with others.