It’s time for Harvest Monday, where gardeners from all over celebrate all things harvest related. It’s still hot and dry here, but the garden continues to keep us supplied with goodies for eating. Last week I got what will be the last of the greenhouse cucumbers. We’ve had a good run of them, but I will surely miss the ones I grow. I also got more of the Aji Colorado pepper that I dry and make into chile powder, plus some Fairy Tale and Gretel eggplants.
August harvest
It won’t be a good year for tomatoes however, but I did get more slicers and enough of the paste types to make another small batch of tomato sauce for the freezer. We’ve gotten 36 pounds so far this year, while we got 100 pounds last year and a whopping 185 pounds in 2023.
tomato harvest
Beefy Purple is a new variety of tomato I’m trialing this year. It comes from the same breeders (A.P. Whaley Seed Company and Frogsleap Farm) that bred AAS Winners like Purple Zebra, Sparky and Sunset Torch. It and Purple Zebra are in the below photo, along with Chef’s Choice Orange and a Nadia eggplant.
more tomatoes and an eggplant
Beefy Purple tomato
I did a tasting of one of the Beefy Purple tomatoes one day for lunch, served up with a bean and cheese quesadilla. The tomato had a good flavor, though maybe not quite so good as Purple Zebra. More tasting will help me decide whether it’s a good addition to my growing list. That said, it’s not been a good year for the quality of our tomatoes and I will take that into consideration.
Beefy Purple tomatoes with quesadilla
I did get more hot peppers to go in a batch of hot sauce, and these are now fermenting for a week before I make the sauce with them. This lot included Hernandez, Sugar Rush Peach, Flaming Flare and Aji De Dedo Moca Yellow.
hot peppers for sauce
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!
Our harvests are going to be poor this year.
Gee, that is a big reduction in your tomato production. You just have to try harder! We are growing Beefy Purple (and Beefy Red) at the Demonstration Vegetable Garden which is my Master Gardener volunteer project. All the food we grow is brought to a homeless shelter, and we don’t sample it. So I’m interested in how you judge Beefy Purple over time, as it looks to be quite productive here and is a determinant to boot.
Wow! 185 pounds of tomatoes in 2023. How do you keep up with the watering with the heat? Any rain? I spend an immense amount of time watering even in our mild climate.
We use soaker hoses when needed. No rain for about a month now.