Harvest Monday September 22, 2025

Posted on September 22, 2025 by Dave @ HappyAcres

It’s time for Harvest Monday, where gardeners from all over celebrate all things harvest related. My wife and I just returned from a getaway to Maine, where we enjoyed the sights in Portland and fought the crowds in Bar Harbor. We ate a lot of good food (like clam chowder and lobster rolls), but it is nice to be home again for sure. We got a bit of rain while we were gone, and the vegetable garden stood up to the hot weather quite nicely. I got a big haul of peppers and a few eggplant when we returned home. I can see me making a batch of sheet pan ratatouille this week for sure.

eggplant and sweet peppers

hot peppers

The Hernandez hot peppers have done quite well for me this year. They are a Fresno type, like Flaming Flare which also does well for me here. I find they have about the same heat level as the jalapenos I grow, but with a tad more flavor perhaps. I’ll make hot sauce with these and the other hot ones I harvested.

Hernandez hot peppers

Before we left for our trip, I harvested some Cherokee lettuce from the greenhouse for our salads. This one colors up nicely for me in both greenhouse and outside plantings, and I have more growing in the beds behind our greenhouse that should be ready soon.

Cherokee lettuce

And I got a small but much appreciated harvest of pawpaws from our modest plantings. This native fruit has a flavor that is often described as tropical, like a mix of banana, mango and pineapple. The texture is soft, like a custard, and I like to to scoop it out with a spoon and eat it for a snack. I am guessing the racoons or opossums got a few of the fruits before I found these two.

pawpaws

And in non-harvest news, we saw several lighthouses while we were in Maine, including the much-photographed Portland Head Lighthouse. It was built in 1791, and is the oldest lighthouse in the state of Maine. I can see why it is so popular with photographers! We had great weather for our trip and enjoyed the cooler temperatures of coastal Maine while it was baking back home in Indiana.

Portland Head Lighthouse

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 September 15, 2025

Posted on September 15, 2025 by Dave @ HappyAcres

It’s time for Harvest Monday, where gardeners from all over celebrate all things harvest related. I managed to find a few more tomatoes last week to go along with the peppers and eggplant that are still producing well. The Cornito peppers have done well for me this year, and Sweetie Pie is another favorited that is producing. The Mad Hatter peppers are classed as a hot pepper, but I find if I remove the seeds and membrane they have no heat. Their flavor is sweet and they are juicy as well.

mid-September harvest

Mad Hatter pepper

I got another cutting of the lettuce I have growing in the greenhouse. This one is Muir, a summer crisp type that does well for me in warmer weather. We used some of the leaves in a wrap we made using flour tortillas as a wrapper.

leaf lettuce

wrap with lettuce

And I got the first pole beans of the season last week. It’s not going to be a good year for them, since I had trouble with seeds rotting in the waterlogged soil. I also got more of the Cornito Giallo sweet peppers, plus a mix of hot ones.

beans and peppers

And once again, ratatouille was on the menu. This time we served it up with some crispy baked fish fillets.

ratatouille with crispy fish

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 September 8, 2025

Posted on September 8, 2025 by Dave @ HappyAcres

It’s time for Harvest Monday, where gardeners from all over celebrate all things harvest related. We got some much needed rain last week, breaking our drought that had lasted for seven weeks. We got 1.5″ in total, and that should keep the vegetable garden going for a bit longer. In a first, I got the first of the fall lettuce from my greenhouse plantings.

lettuce and hot peppers

And in what will likely be a last, I got an assortment of tomatoes from our mostly dead plants. And I got the one and only Centercut squash I harvested this year. It has been a terrible year here for both tomatoes and the squashes, though I have brought in 51 pounds of the tomatoes. That is about half of what I got last year.

last of the tomatoes

The peppers and eggplant have done reasonably well this year, and I got more of each last week. I’ve been making hot sauce with the hot peppers, and we’ve been enjoying the sweet ones as they ripen.

peppers and eggplant

With eggplant, peppers and tomatoes from our garden and onion and zucchini from the farmer’s market, I made a batch of sheet-pan ratatouille last week. I added fresh basil at the end, and used a liberal amount of a good olive oil to coat the veggies.

sheet pan ratatouille

I’ve made several batches of hot sauce now, and have one more batch of peppers fermenting. We don’t add a lot of spiciness to our foods when cooking, so I like to use the hot sauces at the table when I want some heat. These medium hot sauces have a lot of flavor from the fermented peppers I use to make them. They also keep well in the refrigerator, for at least a year or more.

fermented hot sauces

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 September 1, 2025

Posted on September 1, 2025 by Dave @ HappyAcres

It’s time for Harvest Monday, where gardeners from all over celebrate all things harvest related. The harvests are still looking summer-like here, and things are hanging in there despite the fact it has been about six weeks since we had any real rain here. At least it has gotten cooler, and it is more enjoyable working out in the garden. I’m getting plenty of eggplant for us to eat, and lots of hot peppers for making hot sauce.

hot peppers and eggplant

One morning last week I got quite a few of the Chef’s Choice Red tomatoes and a mix of hot peppers. Sweetie Pie has been giving us sweet mini-bells too, which have a great flavor.

tomatoes and peppers

It’s my first time growing the Arriba jalapeno hot peppers. The fruits mature from pale yellow to orange and then red. My first tasting of these had me running for something to put the fire out, so I would rate them as being a bit hotter than the other jalapenos I grow. They wound up fermenting with other peppers for a batch of mixed hot sauce.

Arriba peppers

I had a question from a reader about how I make the hot sauce. Here’s a quick description of how I do it. I like to cut them in half and remove the seeds and membrane first, while wearing gloves. Then I weigh them and add 5% sea salt (by weight).  I mix the salt in with the peppers and let sit for a few hours before packing into a jar. I let them ferment for about a week before processing. I’ve been making these first ones into a thin Tabasco-style sauce. After fermenting I add white wine vinegar and a bit of the fermenting brine, then process in a blender. Next I press the blended mash into a fine mesh strainer to squeeze out as much of the juice as I can. Then I bottle and put in the refrigerator.

hot peppers for fermenting

pressing pepper mash to get all the juice out

I also got a few guajillo peppers one morning, along with some Chef’s Choice Orange tomatoes. I dry the peppers for grinding up and making chile powder.

tomatoes and guajillo peppers

With ripe tomatoes coming in, we had BLAT sandwiches (bacon, lettuce, avocado and tomato) for dinner one night. I mixed a bit of mayonnaise in with smashed up avocado and spread it on the toasted bread before assembling the sandwiches. We served them up with corn on the cob I got at the farmer’s market.

BLAT sandwich with corn on the cob

On another night I made Crispy Baked Eggplant Fries using some of our eggplants. I experimented with two different shapes, dipping the pieces into beaten egg and then rolling in seasoned bread crumbs. Baked on a rack in the oven, they got crispy and were quite tasty. My wife and I both gave them two thumbs up.

Crispy Baked Eggplant Fries

And last but not least, I made a batch of Moomie’s Burger Buns last week, which are one of my favorite breads. We try and have a variety of homemade breads in our freezer, and I bake more as needed. These make a good base for all kinds of sandwiches, and not just burgers.

burger buns

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 25, 2025

Posted on August 25, 2025 by Dave @ HappyAcres

It’s time for Harvest Monday, where gardeners from all over celebrate all things harvest related. The weather has cooled off to more seasonable temperatures, but we arestill lacking any rain. It has been over a month now since we’ve had more than a few drops, and I have started irrigating the vegetable garden with soaker hoses. The harvests look about the same, except the cucumbers are done for. I got tomatoes, eggplant, and hot peppers galore though, and we are surely enjoying them.

August Harvest

The Honey Bee and Queen Bee tomato plants are still producing, and have done quite well for me in their first outing this year.

morning harvest

I’m getting a mix of hot peppers, and fermenting them to go in hot sauce. Made like this, every batch has a different flavor and heat level, but all are tasty to me. I’ve bottled up two bottles and a partial one, and plan to start another batch fermenting today.

hot pepper mix

fermented hot sauces

It has been a good year for eggplant so far, and they are often on the menu here. I also got a few of the yellow Pick-N-Pop sweet peppers, which is a 2025 AAS Winner.

eggplant, sweet peppers and herbs

I bring in fresh herbs as needed, and we use lots of parsley and basil when we have them. I used a bit of both last week in a white bean salad I made for lunch, which also featured cherry tomatoes and some of the last cucumber. I served it up with some fermented kohlrabi and crispy pita bread.

white bean salad

And in non-harvest news, I baked up some Ligurian Focaccia bread last week. It’s my favorite focaccia, and I freeze leftovers so we always have a supply of it on hand.

Ligurian Focaccia bread

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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