ex gardens

It’s time for Harvest Monday, where gardeners from all over celebrate all things harvest related. I got another nice haul of peppers last week, and I started fermenting another jar of the hot ones to make into hot sauce. We have been enjoying the sweet ones as well. late September harvest Pick-n-Pop peppers are a ‘snack sized’ pepper and a 2025 AAS Winner. It has done quite well for me this year, and I can see why it was popular with the AAS judges. Pick-N-Pop peppers I hasn’t been a great year for the pole beans, but I did get enough to cook up as a side dish plus a few extras for the freezer. heirloom pole beans I cut the first of the fall lettuce plantings, a small head of Tehama, to use for our salads. I set out about 30 plants that are sizing up now and should keep us supplied for a bit. Tehama lettuce My last harvest of the week was the first of the persimmons. The tree has quite a few on it, though I think the critters are stealing a few of them. they are leaving...

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, ...

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 Cor...

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 f...