It’s time once again for Harvest Monday, where we celebrate all things harvest related. We’re celebrating Labor Day here in the U.S. today, and it should be a quiet day here at Happy Acres. I’ve been busy harvesting and preserving lately, and a quiet day is not a bad thing at all! Our harvests are typical for late summer, with beans, eggplant and tomatoes keeping us supplied.
early September harvest
I tried a new heirloom pole bean this year called Rose and it is starting to set on now. The pods are large and meaty, and like many of the Appalachian beans they have strings. It’s named after the Rose Family in Panola, Madison County, Kentucky, and the dried seeds are speckled with blue. It’s a selection from the Sustainable Mountain Agriculture Center, and they an amazing collection of heirloom bean seeds. I cooked these in the slow cooker, and they had a rich full flavor.
Rose beans
Rose beans closeup
The Juliet tomatoes are slowing down and not setting many new ones, but I still managed to get over three pounds of them one day last week. I cooked these down into sauce.
Juliet tomatoes
I felt like Peter Piper last week when I picked an assortment of hot peppers one morning. I’m including the Mellow Star shishito pepper here which actually has no heat. I pickled most of those. Other peppers in this batch included Hernandez, Early Flame, Chili Pie and Honeypeno. I’ve got most of them fermenting for a batch of hot sauce.
assortment of peppers
I also get the first ripe Dustbowl guajillo peppers. I call these “Dustbowl” because I originally got the seeds in 2015 from a company called Dustbowl Seed which is now out of business. I’ve been growing them ever since, and saving the seeds for replanting. The guajillo is my favorite pepper for drying and turning into chile powder. I’m also growing the hybrid Minero and El Eden guajillos, but the Dustbowl was the first to ripen for me here in 2022.
Dustbowl Guajillo peppers
It has truly been a great year for eggplant. We’ve enjoyed an assortment of size and shapes from the small-fruited types like Fairy Tale and Gretel and the larger Asian and Italian varieties.
eggplant harvest
One of of our favorite treatments is to slice the eggplant thin on a mandoline slicer, then brush with olive oil and roast on a sheet pan in a 400°F oven. When the eggplant is soft we top with grated Parmagiano Reggiano cheese and let that melt on the hot eggplant. We served this for dinner one night with fish and a roasted Starry Night acorn squash.
roasted eggplant with Starry Night acorn squash
It has also been a great year for the hardy hibiscus, and we have been enjoying the flowers on a daily basis this summer. This is only the second year growing for most of them, and the plants (and the flowers) should just keep getting better every year.
hardy hibiscus
Fireball hibiscus
Cranberry Crush hibiscus
Starry Starry Night hibiscus
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 please take a minute and check out what everyone is harvesting!
Our runner beans which I think are the same as your pole beans have been a complete flop this year despite all our watering,
I was preparing peppers for freezing yesterday – seeds were everywhere.
I find seeds for days when I process peppers Sue.
How odd that the guajillo seeds you gave me had my first harvest the same week as yours! Is my climate getting more like Indiana?? (not sure I want that). I never thought of pickling the shishito peppers, but that would be a good use, since we are inundated with them. Actually we pickled pepperoncini peppers last year, and they look a lot like shishitos. The hibiscus are beautiful!
I have one shishito plant Will, and it is loaded. I want to give the pickled peppers a few more days before tasting. And I doubt you want your weather to resemble ours!
We are experiencing a monster heat wave in southern California (coastal Huntington Beach). It has pretty much fried my garden. Your harvests look fabulous, as always.
Thanks Lou! Sorry to hear about your garden.
Beautiful harvest! I’ve had a very good tomato year( for us in NNE), lots of hot peppers for sriracha– which is gone in the stores–, pretty good pole beans, kale. But our first poor zucchini year! I didn’t know that was even possible. I think the drought is to blame.
Thanks Lane! It wasn’t the best year for zucchini here but we did get plenty before the plants get hit by the squash beetles.
That acorn squash looks so good. Reminds me how much I like them. Their availability is limited out here. Wondering if their growing needs are similar to butternut squash which grow well for me. Have you grown Honey Bear? The hardy hibiscus are lovely. Glad you’ve had such good success.
I grew Honey Bear this year and my one plant didn’t do well. It has done well in the past though. the Goldilocks and Starry Night plants were loaded with fruit though.