It’s time once again for Harvest Monday, where we celebrate all things harvest related. I’m feeling much better now, though still at less than 100%, and recovering nicely from my recent bout of pneumonia. I even managed to get a little weeding done in the garden last week in the early morning hours when it was cool. There’s a lot more weeding to be done, and my wife is going to help me to get things cleaned up a bit. Meanwhile, it’s still tomato time here, with a few squashes coming in. It looks to be a great year here for both of them, though time will tell.
morning harvest
I’m also still getting cucumbers from the blazing hot greenhouse, and the first of the sweet peppers ripened last week. The yellow Escamillo pepper joined up with eggplant, zucchini and tomatoes from the garden along with onion from the farmers market for a batch of ratatouille I cooked up last week. We served it over fregola sarda pasta, and the marriage of French and Italian made for a tasty side dish for our crispy oven-baked panko chicken tenders.
another harvest
ratatouille served over fregola sarda
Chef’s Choice Yellow & Garden Treasure are two long-time favorite slicing tomatoes. I can generally depend on them to give us big slicers for our sandwiches and to enjoy as a side dish. Our season for big tomatoes is not all that long, so I enjoy them often in every way I can.
Chef’s Choice Yellow tomato
Garden Treasure tomatoes
Cherry tomatoes are coming in hot and heavy now, and I am harvesting every few days to try and keep up with them. Many are getting preserved for later use, and I have dehydrated and slow-roasted quite a few.
assorted cherry tomatoes
Cherry Bomb tomatoes
The Purple Zebra tomatoes are another favorite here, and while they are small to medium sized they are very big on flavor.
Purple Zebra tomatoes
The container eggplant is slowing down now, but has kept us well supplied with early harvests. Gretel, Fairy Tale and Icicle all do quite well in containers, and once planted they only need to be kept watered.
eggplant trio
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 check out what everyone is harvesting!
We’re still awaiting ripe tomatoes. We need summer to arrive.
I wish I could send you some of our warm weather, since we have had plenty of it.
It doesn’t look to me like your eggplants are slowing down! The slicers look really great, and what a haul of cherry tomatoes! I love Escamillo peppers, but ours are nowhere near ready. I’d like to make that ratatouille dish.
Will, I usually make the sheet-pan version of the ratatouille. I line the sheet pan with foil, and stir a few times when baking.
Love reading your blog. Lisa
Thanks Lisa!
I got a really late start on my garden this year. All I have to harvest are Golden Fate Romano beans. I have one butternut squash that is almost ready to harvest, and many things planted and growing nicely, even in August. Your garden is amazing, as always. You are a real inspiration, Dave!
Thanks for your kind words Lou!
Such a variety of tomatoes. Nice to grow old favorites and try some new ones. Wow, cukes in the blazing hot greenhouse. Might be able to dry some peppers in there. A number of years ago, during a heat wave in the part of San Diego where I worked, I dried some small hot peppers In my car on racks and cookie sheets. Temperatures were over 100 and by 3 p.m., they were ready to store.
The temps are regularly over 100 in the greenhouse, but also with high humidity. It makes it difficult to grow much in there in summer.