Harvest Monday September 18, 2023

It’s time once again for Harvest Monday, where we celebrate all things harvest related. Harvests here are slowing down, and the lack of rain is partly to blame. I’ve been watering the sweet potatoes and the fall greens, but everything else is on its own at this point late in the season.  Despite dry conditions, I got a good haul of the Turkey Craw pole beans last week, right at three pounds of them.

Turkey Craw beans are triple purpose beans, useful as snap beans, fresh shell beans and as dried beans. Many of these I picked were at the shelling stage, since I had purposely left them on to mature for that purpose. I froze quite a few of these for later use. They make a tasty and nutritional addition to winter soups, or for cooking on their own as a side dish for that matter.

Despite the dry conditions, the tomatoes aren’t completely done for yet, and last week I got a nice selection of paste types and slicers plus a few of the small fruited ones. I also continue to get modest amounts of hot peppers, enough to make another couple of batches of hot sauce and to pickle a few.

I got a few more of the Aji Rico peppers last week. This F1 hybrid variety is a 2017 AAS Winner and has quickly become one of my favorite peppers. I will use them for a mixed Aji hot sauce that will include Sugar Rush Peach and some Rainforest peppers that were a freebie gift from one of my seed company orders.  I’ve also pickled some of the Aji Rico peppers from earlier harvests, along with the shy-producing Peppadew variety.

I’ve been making hot sauces as the peppers are available. I make most all of my sauces with ripe peppers, so I have to accumulate enough peppers to make a batch. I also ferment most of the peppers first, which I think adds a lot of flavor plus it helps the sauces keep for a longer period of time. Last week I experimented with a pineapple hot sauce, using mostly fresh Sugar Rush Peach peppers plus a small red jalapeno pepper. I bought a pineapple hot sauce at a farmers market on Maui earlier this year, and I am basing my recipe on their ingredients, which used habanero peppers and onion along with the pineapple. Theirs was a bit hot for my tastes, but I will need to do more experimenting to get the taste and consistency just right for my own version. I also made a chunky chili garlic sauce last week, using my No-Rooster Chili Garlic Sauce recipe.

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!