Harvest Halloween Monday

Sized up for winter.

Not many photos these week
The garden remains productive. I noticed that many of the broccoli seems to have another round of side growth of good size. I definitely will be growing more Fiesta next year. The Chard is superb this year. It tastes like Spinach, which I hadn't noticed before. Maybe I just wish I had more Spinach in the ground.

Carrots
The late plantings of carrots seem to have grown out to a good size. I hope that these are good representatives. We have about 15' of carrots. Also in that bed are beets, chard, and leeks. Many of the beets are of picking size also. I'm not expecting a lot more growth of of any of these this year.

Sweet Potatoes
We also dug the sweet potatoes. The yield was underwhelming to be generous. Many of the tubers did not fill out. They were the right length, but remained thin. Shari peeled, steamed and froze what we got. Next year I'll put them under plastic for the entire season. The undersized tubers may have a use. I am going to try to ave and sprout them in the spring.

Happy Halloween

Harvesting purple broccoli seed

We love our Purple Sprouting Broccoli. It is easy to grow, early to produce and tasty to graze on. It is a great bridge vegetable, delivering a fresh vegetable when most others are just going into the ground. I also love the plant. It is super stout, going into the ground near the end of the summer and then shouldering whatever winter throws at it. Around here (Tacoma WA) winter doesn't throw much at us. The Territorial catalog tells you that purple broccoli is hardy below 10°F. We are unfortunate if we get below 20°F, a far cry from the sub-zero temperatures I imagine elsewhere. The broccoli plant itself is pretty amazing in how it copes with freezing temperatures. As the temperatures get closer to freezing, the plant introduces more sugar into its system. This lowers the fluids freezing point, natural anti-freeze. The plant also draw moisture away from its leaves, so expansion during a freeze isn't as likely to burst its cells. This behavior isn't unique to the purple broccoli plant, of course, but it is the one that we plant, watch slump against the ground during a freeze and bounce back when the temperatures rise again, pretty amazing.

Seed Harvesting

I harvested seeds from a couple purple plants that I let go this spring. There was nothing to it except to give them time to complete their cycle. The seed pods come on super thick, eventually drying and cracking down their mid-line. Each pod has about twenty seeds divided into two rows. The seeds pop easily from the pod once it is dry. Some shaking and scuffing of the pods within the confines of a bucket was all I needed to do to extract nearly every seed. I gathered just over two ounces of seed in no time at all. I am very confident that they'll grow. What I don't know is what they will grow into. Broccoli will cross pollinate with any other brassica, however I may be out of the woods. I didn't have any other brassica growing during the time that the purple broccoli were flowering. I'll have to wait another year to find out.  The purple broccoli for Spring 2012 is already in and ready for the winter. This year's seed harvest quality won't be proven until the Spring of 2013. 

If you want to try some of this seed yourself, let me know. I have enough to grow what we need for ten years in these couple ounces. I'd be happy to send you some.

Resources - more information on seed saving via seedsave.org

The final product, 2oz of seed,

  

Jalapeno remains

Remains of the jalapenos, the parts that were not canned. After taking this, it occurred to me that this would make a great brine for pickles. 

The other parts, the solids, were extracted with the food mill and canned as puree.

Harvest monday, night

The last eggplant, super tasty.

The last eggplant is on the left of the board, snuggled up with the broccoli. A handful of chard are on top, their stems below. The eggplant was sauteed with the chard stems, tomato and some green onion. It was then tossed with a red sauce and some penne. The chard leaves were lightly steamed. The broccoli was for Luke. I was inspired by Diary of a Tomato. While not following it exactly, I ended up with a very tasty dinner last night and lunch today.

The season of broccoli

We continue to go to our backyard store prior to dinner these days. There are green onions to pull; broccoli, chard and cauliflower to cut; and what can only be called gobs of tomatoes to graze on. Some things have been picked clean. I cooked up the last of the green beans tonight, finished picking over the front bed of canning tomatoes this week, harvested the jalapenos and the last couple eggplant. On the maintenance front, we had a nice weekend. I was able to take advantage of it, cleaning and prepping beds for garlic and winter. 

It's a long way up, but he'll make it.

It is a nice time of year. The garden is more relaxed, less demanding this time of year. It is still growing, be is slowly, but still providing plentifully. 

Our broccoli has is the clear over-achiever these days. Our dozen plants have been producing consistently for a few weeks now. The second variety, Fiesta, has put out huge heads. The one here is 4lbs. I don't think we'll get much more out of these, but the other variety, Packman, are still full of side shoots. We should get another couple weeks of of those. Many have started to go to seed, but that hasn't deterred me. I can say that broccoli flowers are just as tasty as their non-flowering siblings. Eaten raw or in stir-fry, they are just as good. Don't let a little flower deter you.

Luke's vegetable sculpture. 

Just over 4lbs of peppers - jalapeno & Big Bomb,
neither really much more spicy than a bell,
unfortunately.

Harvest Monday

Relegated to hang out with the recycling and garbage cans.
Thankfully, this isn't from this year. This technique (or is
it a trick?) did work. Most of these tomatoes found
their way into canning jars. 

Back to the present, here's an interesting mix of summer
and winter pickings. There are still a few eggplant
after this one. This butternut was on the small side, but
went very well with the potatoes, broccoli and beets
that shared my dinner plate.

Each of these beets was a pound. I was afraid
that the may have turned tough, but
was happily disappointed. They were excellent.

The last of the beans were tasty, along with mounds of
broccoli, chard, and tomatoes and jalapenos in last night's stir fry for
today's lunch.

The chard is plentiful and sweet all the
way to the end of the stalk.

Head over to Daphne's Dandelions for more Harvest Monday folks.

A walk around the beds today

We have 3 San Marzano. They are loaded, but always late.

A handful of beans is all that remains from our plants. The
plants have been mostly relocated to the compost pile.

Behind the beans are a few tomatillo plants. We'll get a
few from these.  Tomatillos grow great around here,
producing nicely until is freezes.

The broccoli continues is proliferation. This is a central
head from a Thompson. We have a few of these and
many Packman. The Packman continue to produce load
of side shoots.

The Brussels Sprouts are beginning to form. Will they
make sprouts by the time winter really sets in?

An outstanding head of cauliflower.

..and one that has started to bolt. I'll steam it up just
to make sure it is bitter and horrible.

The cabbage, Danish Ballhead, are really
starting to form heads.

This little Sunshine Kabocha is just a little too late. It
is cute, but won't amount to much.

That little Sunshine, above, came from this bed. It was home
to squash, lettuce, and potatoes this year.

After taking out the squash, I added fertilizer and put
some Broccoli in. I'm curious to see if anything comes o
 something planted out this late. I have another ten plants or so. 

"Sun" dried tomatoes

These tomatoes are sun dried, in as much as the sun is the source of all life in our solar system. With respect to our local frame of reference, we continue to use our oven's drying mode effectively. It takes about eight hours at 145 to turn these Amish Salad tomatoes from their plump selves into their shriveled counterparts. The results are good. I really like the texture and sweetness of a dried tomato. We use them on pizza, in tacos, and really anywhere we'd ut a tomato.

If you have the means to dry, it is a great way of preserving and saving space.

Harvest Monday, October 3rd

If you haven't been to Daphne's Dandelions yet, you should check it out (http://daphnesdandelions.blogspot.com/). She has a nice set-up and a nice set of links contributed each Monday. I linked back here this morning, though I don't have many new photos to add for the past week, regarding what we harvested. We did process another 40 pounds of tomatoes last night. They are in the pot, ready to be reduced and canned. Our harvest Monday this week is really regarding the stored potential of the garden as we enter the Fall. The garden is in pretty good shape now and hopefully will continue to contribute into the winter. The post below contains a walk-through of our various beds and me rambling about what's there.

Harvest potential - the Fall & Winter garden

We don't have a root cellar or some space that is great storage for vegetables over the winter, though we do keep wishing for one. On our side, however, is our locale. Tacoma, Western Washington really, is generally very mild mannered when it comes to winter weather. Our freezes are not deep or long lasting. Consequently, we are able to keep many things in the ground. Last year was my first attempt to keep full garden beds. They were not fully by any means, but we did have carrots, onions (green), beets, chard, kale, collards and leeks far enough along to pull & cut them for quite awhile. It worked pretty well. The chard died a quick death during an early, surprising, freeze. The beet tops died along with it, but their roots were just fine below ground and I continued to dig them out as needed. The leeks, kale and collards withstand anything our weather will throw at them.

This year, I managed to get more variety in and much of it grown to a good size. New additions for this year are more brassicas: Brussels sprouts, cabbage, and broccoli. I still didn't get as much in as I thought I originally had. There should be more carrots and beets, at least.

Below is me walking around the garden beds, talking to nobody in particular. I didn't know how Blair Witch-like the camera work was until I watched it once.

Squash, round 1

We finally gave up on the squash plants. Their dried up leaves are done with the sun and their stalks are withered. Their job is done.

These are the first squash taken.

Weights and measures of tomatoes

We picked the ripe tomatoes from the garden this evening and processed them through the, now thoroughly loved, food mill. I did weigh them before processing. I came up with around 30lbs, a couple pounds short I'm pretty sure. That means that the last batch we processed was around 25lbs. There are a few more pickings, assuming they ripen, to be had before we are picked out.

Nine Eggplants a'roasting

One exploded prior to me pricking them to release the steam.
Or, I should say that one exploded, reminding me that I should
prick them to release the pressure of roasting.

This is the last big haul from the plants and is on it's way to some variant of baba ghanoush. There are a few eggplant still on the single remaining plant. I noticed that it even has a new blossom. I think it is a little late for that, my little green friend.

Pickles, success!

I sampled the first of the fermented pickles yesterday. It was a little crunchy, a little spicy, and hasn't made me sick yet. They have been in the jar for 17 days. The recipe advised 3-5 weeks. Give that, I should expect them to take on more flavor in the coming weeks? I'll find out. so far, so good.

Cans of our labors

Shari canned the tomatoes yesterday, first reducing them a bit more and adding spices.

Tomato Prep

A little water bath to get things started.

The house is filled with the aroma and moisture of reducing tomatoes. This year won't be a repeat of last year's disaster, where we didn't can a single tomato. This year, the weather was seemingly worse, but our preparations seemingly better. Whatever the combination, it worked and is working. Tonight we are putting away our second round of tomatoes. I probably should have weighed them, but I didn't. I'm happy that we'll have enough to see us through the year by the time it is all done.

Two of these heaping were run through tonight.

We bought a food mill a couple weeks ago. I've been eyeing them for a couple years, but couldn't bring myself to buy. It works wonders and has saved us good amounts of time so far. Luke loves it, also, and that makes it worthwhile right there. He and I spent the evening washing, quartering and running them through our new little machine. He tired himself out quite nicely, cranking through what must have been around 20lbs of tomatoes. I didn't weigh the tomatoes, but I did weigh the skins and seeds after we were done, about 3lbs.

Luke dropped the shirt half way through his duties.

The initial product prior to reducing.

Pickles - now & then

It has been 14 days since the jar on the right looked like the jar on the left. The fresh green color faded by week two. Both of these are fermenting in our kitchen. The brine in the right jar is made from water, salt and vinegar. The brine for today's batch doesn't have vinegar. Its brine is two tablespoons of salt per quart of water. The key for fermentation, be it pickles or beer is to prevent bacterial growth. With beer, you boil the wort long enough to kill everything and then use and airlock to keep any airborne bugs from getting in. With  pickles, the key is to keep the cucumbers below the brine's level. I've never done this before, but I suspect I'll survive. I'll given them a try sometime next week. The recipe called out 3-5 weeks.

Fermenting dills. Started 9/17 & 9/3

Pickles, leather, pickles

Today was a good day for preserving.  We put away four pounds of pickles and a bit of squash. We don't eat a lot of pickles, so four pounds is pretty good for us. I put two pounds into a jar to ferment and canned the other two. Shari made some bread & butter pickles the other week. Basically, we are playing the pickle field for now. I'm glad to say that I still like squash-leather. It is going to let me free up some much needed space in the freezer. That space is probably going to go to beans and to a fall crop of broccoli that is coming on much earlier than I anticipated. 

Fermenting pickles

2 Cups of Squash comes to this

Dinner

Some, but not all of this, was dinner last night. It ended up stir-fried and next to some rice. Most of the remaining beans will find themselves blanched today; a couple of the eggplant will go to work with me to give away; and the remaining tomatoes will go into the freezer where they'll wait for the rest of the canning tomatoes to get ripe.

I'm also posting this link to Daphne's Harvest Monday entry.  I ran across her through Laura's Modern Victory Garden blog. Both are consistent, high quality posters.

Spuds

This is 12 pounds of potatoes. Luke and I dug these from a single hill yesterday. This is in stark contrast to what we've been getting in the few hills we've dug prior to this. There are two notable differences with this hill. First, I planted it in one of the new garden beds, meaning the soil (Tagro potting soil) was freshly brought in. Second, I paid more attention to this one. The others were planted in an ad-hoc fashion wherever there was a bit of room and didn't get properly hilled or watered. This hill was in a bed with our sweet potatoes and some lettuce. The entire bed received more attention.

The potatoes in this hill weren't perfect, however. Some had small white, hardened speckles across their face and some were sporting a red hue around their eyes. Doing some looking around, I found a nice potato disease page. That lead me to:

Swollen Lenticels

White dots can often be seen on the skins of potatoes that have been left in very damp soil for a long time; they are swollen lenticels.

Pink Eye

Pink eye is a disease characterized by a pink discolouration of the skin around the eyes. During storage, or in the field before harvest, it causes a superficial rot (1) that closely resembles the first signs of infection with late blight. Infected tubers do not keep well. The cause of the disease is not known, but it is always found in tubers of crops affected by Verticillium wilt.

Pink Eye and Swollen Lenticels

The swollen lenticels won't be a problem. The Pink Eye looks like it means that I need to find a way to use them sooner than later.