Harvest Monday October 21, 2024

It’s time once again for Harvest Monday, where we celebrate all things harvest related. With frost in the forecast, I dug all the sweet potatoes last week, and as I feared they did not do well at all this year. After a wet spring, we had drought conditions for much of the summer and I didn’t do a great job of keeping the plants irrigated. The ones in the photo are Korean Purple, a white fleshed one that yielded 6.5 pounds total. Beauregard is an orange fleshed one that normally does quite well for me. This year the five hills only yielded less than five pounds total, with two of the hills having no roots at all. Last year the five hills of Beauregard yielded 13 pounds, so it’s easy to see that this year was a disappointment. I’ll share the other sweet potato harvests in a future post.

late October harvest

Hot peppers are still doing well though. We had our first frost(s) last week as forecasted, and I picked as many of the peppers as I could find beforehand. Aji Rico is one of my favorites of the C. baccatum types. Mad Hatter is another one I like, though it has been a shy yielder this year.

Aji Rico and Mad Hatter peppers

I picked a few more of the hot peppers, including a few big San Joaquin jalapenos. San Joaquin is a 2023 AAS Winner and was loaded with peppers this summer.

San Joaquin jalapenos

I made a big cutting of parsley to go in a tabouli salad I made last week. Parsley is one of my favorite herbs, and I try and have some of it growing here year round. In the winter months the greenhouse planting keeps us supplied.

flat leaf parsley

And speaking of the greenhouse, the door fell apart last week. I had ordered a replacement last year, but managed to keep the old one together for a year with a repair job. This time I replaced the bottom half of the two part door, and we’ll see how long the old top half stays together!

new greenhouse door

I did harvest two more of the Centercut squashes last week. These mature ones will keep us supplied for pies as well as pumpkin bread and muffins.

mature Centercut squashes

And last but not least, I made a big cutting of Topper turnip greens I cooked up for dinner one night. As the name suggests, Topper makes lots of leaves but no edible roots, and the leaves are smooth and milder tasting than many other varieties.

Topper turnip greens

The persimmon tree is loaded this year, and I used some of last year’s puree I had frozen to make a batch of Grandma’s Persimmon Cookies They are soft and moist, and the consistency is really a cross between a cookie and cake. I also have a recipe for persimmon bread I want to try soon. I also use the frozen puree in my breakfast smoothies, where it adds a rich flavor to the other fruits.

persimmon cookies

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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