Harvest Monday August 28, 2023

Posted on August 28, 2023 by Dave @ HappyAcres

It’s time once again for Harvest Monday, where we celebrate all things harvest related. The tomatoes are still dominating the harvests here, and I got a good haul (over 25 pounds) of the paste types last week. From left to right in the top row of the below photo we have Andiamo, Garden Ruby and Granadero. From left to right in the bottom row we have Health Kick, La Roma III and Zenzei. Garden Ruby is not a paste type, but rather a slicing tomato from the UofFL tomato breeding program.

tomato harvest

I am trialing three paste tomatoes here this year, and I have now harvested enough of them to form an opinion as to how they performed for me. I’ve been growing Granadero for five years now, and it is my current favorite for an indeterminate vining type paste tomato. The meaty tomatoes average 4-5 ounces each, and the vines have been very productive here.

Granadero tomatoes

Andiamo is one I’m growing for the first time. While the tomatoes themselves are big, it’s been the least productive of the vining types this year. I don’t think I will be growing it next year.

Andiamo tomatoes

Zenzei is a 2023 AAS Winner, and it has done very well for me this year. The fruits are a bit bigger than Granadero, and I have had no issues with blossom end rot on it or any other of the tomatoes this year for that matter. I will plan on growing it again next year.

Zenzei tomatoes

Health Kick is my standard for a short-vine (determinate) paste tomato, and I’ve been growing it for about 15 years now. It was bred to have 50% more lycopene than most other tomatoes, and my determinate vines are usually loaded with the 4-5 ounce fruits. They tend to set on over a fairly short period of time, which makes them great for processing into sauces and ketchup.

Health Kick tomatoes

La Roma III is a determinate paste tomato I’m trialing this year, and I am impressed with the results so far. The fruits are big, meaty and have good color. It should make a good addition to next year’s lineup of paste tomatoes here.

La Roma III tomatoes

With all those tomatoes coming in, I made another batch of of pizza sauce. I blended up the tomatoes then cooked them down to an extra thick sauce we use for pizza. We keep these jars in the freezer, and it makes a tasty base for a homemade pizza which is on our menu often, as it was last week.

pizza sauce

pizza with fresh homemade tomato sauce

I also cooked down another batch of the tomatoes to make tomato paste. For this, I cook down the tomatoes to about 25% of their original volume, then spread on a dehydrator sheet and dry for a few hours until the desired thickness. I usually freeze the paste in ice cube trays, and the cubes are handy whenever we want to add a bit of concentrated tomato flavor to a dish.

dehydrating tomato paste

It’s not all about the tomatoes though, and I also harvested eggplant, pole beans, hot peppers and a few of the last summer squashes.

morning harvest

I’m growing the Goose bean for the first time. While the pods were big and tender, both my wife and I thought the taste was pretty bland when compared to most of the other Appalachian heirloom beans I grow.

Goose beans

The hot peppers I harvested were anything but bland though. I got a few each last week of Hernandez, Aji Colorado, Aji Delight, Aji Rico, Pot-a-peno, Emerald Fire and Sugar Rush Peach. I’m fermenting these now to turn into hot sauce, except for the Aji Colorado which I dehydrated for making chile powder.

hot peppers

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!


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Harvest Monday August 21, 2023

Posted on August 21, 2023 by Dave @ HappyAcres

It’s time once again for Harvest Monday, where we celebrate all things harvest related. Last week’s harvests were pretty much all about tomatoes. I brought in paste tomatoes, slicing tomatoes, and smaller tomatoes from the garden on several morning harvest sessions. That has kept me busy processing them, and has also put them on the menu often.

big haul of tomatoes

Juliet is a 1999 AAS Winner and a long time favorite of mine. It never fails to produces lots of red ripe mini-Roma type tomatoes. I typical use most of them for processing into sauce, and for dehydrating and slow-roasting. Last week’s harvest of them weighed a bit over six pounds, and I used them in a batch of Homemade Tomato Ketchup I cooked up last week.

Juliet tomatoes

Improved Garden Gem  is a cultivar from the University of Florida tomato breeding program. It makes 2-3 ounce tomatoes that are good for cooking or fresh use. These joined up with the Juliets for making ketchup.

Garden Gem tomatoes

I think making ketchup is truly a labor of love, since it takes me around five hours from start to finish. I do think the end result is worth it though, and this batch yielded eight half-pint jars of thick, sweet ketchup.

cooking down the tomatoes for ketchup

finished jars of ketchup

I also harvested a few eggplant last week along with the tomatoes. There was enough of it to make a batch of Eggplant Parm Rice casserole.

tomatoes and eggplant

The casserole is a lot like a risotto with tomatoes, layered with roasted eggplant, mozzarella, and romano cheese, then baked until bubbly. I used the rice cooker to cook carnaroli rice, then added chopped tomatoes and a bit of fresh basil when the rice was done. Meanwhile I roasted slices of eggplant in the oven until browned. Then I assembled the casserole, layering the rice mix with roasted eggplant and a combination of mozzarella and pecorino romano cheeses.

Eggplant Parm Rice casserole

We served the casserole with baked fish, and it made for a filling and tasty meal. IT’s hard to tell, but there’s a pound of eggplant in the casserole, along with about a cup of chopped tomatoes.

casserole with fish

I’ll close with a photo of some of the recent activity at our bird feeders. One day we had a Red-Bellied Woodpecker and a House Finch dining on two of the feeders. In the past I stopped feeding the birds in summer, but this year we have had so many visitors I have kept the feeders filled.

birds at feeders

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!

 


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Harvest Monday August 14, 2023

Posted on August 14, 2023 by Dave @ HappyAcres

It’s time once again for Harvest Monday, where we celebrate all things harvest related. Tomato season is still going strong here, and last week I hauled in 16 pounds of them one day alone! We’re getting lots of slicing tomatoes for fresh use, and Chef’s Choice Red is a tasty one that always does well for me here. Purple Zebra is keeping us well-supplied too, and it is still one of my favorite tasting tomatoes.

big haul of tomatoes

Chef’s Choice Red tomato

It’s still eggplant season too, and I got several big ones from the garden last week.

morning harvest

I also got a few hot peppers last week from the container grown plants. It’s a mix of Aji Rico, Sugar Rush Peach and Thai peppers. Not quite enough for making hot sauce, but more than enough for fresh use. I generally dry the super hot Thai peppers for later use.

assorted hot peppers

The paste tomatoes were planted a bit later than the rest, and are now starting to ripen too. I got a modest harvest of Juliet, Verona, Garden Ruby and the 2023 AAS Winner Zenzei. So far Zenzei is living up to its promise of being early-maturing, coming in before Granadero, which is a long time favorite here. Overall we’ve gotten over 60 pounds of tomatoes already, and that has me making sauces for the freezer to preserve them for later use. I cooked down these paste tomatoes into an extra thick sauce we use for pizzas. There’s only one ingredient, and that’s lots of ripe tomatoes!

paste tomatoes and yellow squash

Zenzei tomato

pizza sauce ready for freezer

It’s my second year growing Verona, which one seed company claims is an “exciting improvement on the Juliet tomato”.  It is supposed to be tastier than Juliet, though so far I have to say I can’t see a lot of difference. Last year Verona wasn’t quite as productive as the high-yielding and dependable Juliet, so I am anxious to see if it does any better this year.

Juliet(L) and Verona(R) tomatoes

I used our cucumber and cherry tomatoes to make a batch of a Mediterranean-style tuna salad last week. Served with some of last year’s fermented curtido and crispy pita bread, it made for a light and cool lunch.

Mediterranean Tuna Salad

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!


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Harvest Monday August 7, 2023

Posted on August 7, 2023 by Dave @ HappyAcres

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!


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Harvest Monday July 31, 2023

Posted on July 31, 2023 by Dave @ HappyAcres

It’s time once again for Harvest Monday, where we celebrate all things harvest related. I’m still recovering from a case of pneumonia, which has severely limited my gardening activities. The weeds will just have to grow for a bit until I get back closer to 100%. I am keeping up with the harvests though, and doing that early in the morning during our current dangerous heat wave. The ‘feels like’ temperatures were around 110°F most days, and we had poor air quality as well. This has been a summer to remember here, but one I would truly rather forget!

dangerous heat

It is tomato season though, and that is a reason for happiness. Purple Zebra was the taste sensation from last year’s garden, and this 2022 AAS Winner tastes just as good this year!

Purple Zebra tomatoes

The squash is slowing down, which is not a bad thing. And I pulled the last of the spring planted cabbage last week. This head was the Quick Start variety, and weighed a bit over three pounds. That’s not bad for an ‘early’ cabbage, and the heads are nicely dense and solid too.

morning harvest

We’re getting quite an assortment of slicing tomatoes too. I see Chef’s Choice Purple, Chef’s Choice Striped, Chef’s Choice Yellow and Pink Delicious in the below photo. Pink Delicious is another 2022 AAS Winner, and the one I am holding in my hand weighed just over one pound. It has a sweet flavor, and is one of the best pink tomatoes I have tasted in a while.

selection of slicing tomatoes

Pink Delicious tomato

The greenhouse cucumbers are struggling with the heat wave, but we’re getting enough to eat. Nokya is a long green type that is doing quite well, while Excelsior is my favorite pickling type. The Pot-a-peno peppers I have growing in a container outside don’t seem to mind the heat, and keep pumping out the ripe peppers which have a medium heat level.

cucumbers and jalapenos

The cherry tomatoes are coming on strong, and harvesting them definitely takes a bit of time. I’ve got Sparky, Cherry Bomb, Sunpeach and Sun Sugar in the below photo, hanging out with a couple of big Benevento slicers and two small Defiant tomatoes.

assorted tomatoes

My wife and I like to do taste-testing of the tomatoes as often as possible, which helps me decide what to grow in the coming year. I’m growing Prairie Fire and Raspberry Drop for the first time, and we compared them to Purple Zebra one day for lunch. All three varieties are from the tomato breeding program at Cream of the Crop Tomato/A.P. Whaley. We loved the flavor of all three, and it was hard to pick a favorite based on taste alone. I guess more tasting will be required!

tomato tasting

I used some of the cherry tomatoes plus our cucumber and parsley to make a batch of Fregola Tabbouleh for lunch one day. It made a tasty companion to my wife’s Curried Chicken Salad. I’ve just discovered Fregola Sarda, which is a beautiful, tasty Sardinian pasta made from hard durum wheat flour. It’s rolled into small irregular shaped pieces and toasted to a mix of shades of yellow, gold, and brown. I love the chewy texture and nutty taste, and it worked well in tabbouleh instead of the usual bulgur wheat. The pasta soaked up the dressing of lemon juice and olive oil, yet retained that firm texture without getting soggy. I used Cherry Bomb tomatoes, and their sweetness complemented the other ingredients quite well. Another keeper of a recipe to add to the summer collection!

Fregola Tabbouleh

I also used quite a few of the cherry tomatoes to make a pan of Slow Roasted Tomatoes. Like dehydrating, slow roasting concentrates the flavors of the tomatoes. After roasting I freeze them for later use.

slow roasting tomatoes

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!


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