It’s time once again for Harvest Monday, where gardeners from all over celebrate all things harvest related. With frosty weather in the forecast for the coming week, I’ve been busy getting the garden ready and harvesting tender vegetables and herbs. It’s about that time, and actually a tad later than the first frosts came last year. I also made the first cutting of collard greens last week. I think the flavor improves after a few frosts, but these were still tasty enough now.
harvest of collard greens and peppers
Yellow Cabbage Collard leaf
Sweet potatoes are a big crop for us, and they definitely don’t like the freezing temperatures. I saw one good sized one peeking up out of the soil, which was a good sign it was time to dig them. I grow the sweet potatoes in a raised ridge, which lets the roots form more easily in loose soil. It also makes for easier digging, and I was able to root around with my hands and pull out most of them. For the rest I used my trusty digging fork! I am happy to report no one got speared, though one did break in two as I pulled it out. These need to be cured in a warm place for several weeks before eating.
sweet potato poking up from hill
Last year the yields were disappointing, which I put down to a lack of rain while the roots were sizing up. This year they made up for it, and I got 90 pounds of them from 25 hills. That was double last year’s haul, and from the same varieties no less. Beauregard is a variety with moist orange flesh that generally makes big potatoes for me, and it didn’t disappoint this year. I got 18 pounds from 5 hills, and the one in my hand weighed 2.5 pounds. I’ll do a review of the rest of them later.
Beauregard sweet potatoes
My wife and I both love greens of all kinds, with the exception of chard and beet greens. Turnbroc is a green that resulted from a cross between turnips and broccoli. It has smooth leaves that look more like turnips than broccoli, and had a mild flavor when I cooked them up. Frost should improve its flavor too, and I have more growing. I got the seeds from Kitazawa Seed Company.
Turnbroc greens
I have several hot peppers growing in containers. One I’m growing for the first time is Early Thai from Adaptive Seeds. It has done well in its first showing for me, though I haven’t tasted the peppers yet to determine their heat level. I sometimes put one of the dried peppers in my homemade kombucha to give it a little kick, as well as using them in cooking. These small Thai peppers are usually quite hot, so I am guessing these will keep me supplied for a while!
Early Thai pepper plant
Early Thai peppers
There’s no heat in the Aji Delight peppers though. It is a baccatum pepper with a sweet, fruity taste and crunchy flesh. We use most of these fresh, though I do sometime pickle a few.
Aji Delight peppers
That’s all the harvests I have for the week. 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!
Following your example I’ve managed to source a few collards this year, I sowed them a bit late, but I’m hoping for a spring harvest before they run to seed. Sweet potatoes are my only true gardening failure, 3 attempts over the years, but they get established too late in the year for us here, as August is often rainy and September is cooling off. Your’s look amazing!
Lots of impressive things, starting with the amazing 90 lbs of sweet potatoes. The one in your hand truly is a monsta! I like the look of the Early Thai peppers; the contrast between the dark green stems and bright red fruit is very attractive. Your collards also are very lovely.
I’d love to be able to grow sweet potatoes but like Steve all attempts have failed.
Oh how nice to have room for 25 hills of sweet potatoes. And 90# is an impressive haul. Enjoy the nice effects that a few frosts have on some of the fall crops.