It’s time once again for Harvest Monday, where we celebrate all things harvest related. My harvests this week are small in number, as we had lots of veggies to use up from last week’s harvest and we are transitioning from big summer harvests to more modest ones in fall. I made a small cutting of kale to go in a frittata, using leaves of the Tuscan Baby Leaf and Mars Landing I have growing in containers in the greenhouse.
kale for frittata
I also found a few hot peppers, this time Red Ember and Early Flame. I wound up smoking these, along with some mild Senorita jalapenos.
Red Ember and Early Flame peppers
After smoking, I turned this batch of peppers into hot sauce. This is my first time making hot sauce with smoked peppers, so I did some experimenting and made sriracha style sauce plus a chili garlic sauce. I used some of the smoked peppers straight from the grill, and fermented the rest for 4 days. I will do tasting in the days to come to see which of the versions I prefer. The general flavor profile is smoky and sweet, so I suspect there will be a lot to like in all of them!
making smoked hot sauces
finished hot sauces
I don’t usually even mention small harvests of herbs like parsley and basil or green onions, though I do try and have as many fresh herbs as possible growing here in all seasons. The basil will be done for soon with the first freeze, but with any luck we should have onions and parsley all winter from the greenhouse plantings. I’itoi is a perennial multiplier onion I’ve been growing for several years now. It may not get real big, but it is prolific and hardy. I have sage, savory, mint, chives and oregano growing in containers that I will move into the greenhouse for the winter.
onions and parsley
Italian basil
There is no shortage of collard greens right now. Last week I cut just over a pound of the Yellow Cabbage collards which I cooked up, and we ate on them for two meals. The leaves of this heirloom from the Carolinas are quite big compared to modern hybrids, and are listed in the Slow Food USA Ark of Taste.
Yellow Cabbage Collards
closeup of Yellow Cabbage Collards leaf
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!
We eat as much in winter as summer, so we try to keep our harvests running at roughly the same rate, although a few more of those ‘harvests’ are from the store room!
I’m the same and tend to ignore the herbs which is a shame as they make all the difference
I really should investigate growing collards here. They seem so productive for you. That’s a very interesting Sriracha experiment you’ve got going on, and I am eager to learn which method you find the best.
Your kale looks nice. Tuscan baby leaf kale is a winner. I’ll be planting mine this week now that everything else is in the ground.
Oh, I love this idea of smoking the chillies before turning them into a chilli sauce. No after effects as part of the smoking process, as sometimes can happen when dehydrating chillies?
My Yellow Cabbage collards get to be huge also. I haven’t grown other varieties of collards before so I have nothing to compare the Yellow Cabbage to, but I find them to be quite mild flavored even when the leaves get to be large and the smaller (still large) ones are mild tasting enough to blend into smoothies.
I have several of the so-called ‘cabbage’ collard growing and they all seem to have mild tasting and large leaves. I never thought about putting them in a smoothie – I’ll have to try that!