It has been a pretty nice summer so far, more of a “typical” New England summer, with warm (but not hot) days, cool evenings, low humidity and a little breeze blowing most of the time. Great weather for those at the beach or the mountains. Unfortunately, I’m here, not at the beach. We had a lot of partially cloudy days with predictions of showers, but little actual rain. So that means a trip to the garden every day to water the raised beds, which tend to dry out faster. Still, the garden is being amazingly productive. I used the warm, dry weather to harvest my shallots and the rest of the onions, the Rossa Lunga di Tropea.
The seed shallots above are Saffron, an F-1 hybrid from Johnny’s. I started seed in February and transplanted these in early May (should have been April), just like onions. These are gold or brown or copper skinned shallots (depending on your perspective) and are considered to have a good storage life. Seed shallots don’t divide, so you get one bulb per seedling (but you can see two of them did twin and produce two bulbs). I was impressed by the size of the bulbs.
I have been pulling the Rossa Lungas above as needed for fresh onions. They are starting to get diseased, as you can see from the white specks on the foliage, so I decided to pull them. One of these went into a batch of salsa and I plan to use them and not try to store them. I also found a couple of shallots I missed to add to the pile of drying shallots.
The rest of the harvest gets a little monotonous. Beans, tomatoes and squash.
A huge pile of Gold Marie and Musica beans above, larger than it appears here. I froze a lot of these and a large bag was donated to the local food pantry. These beans are very tasty and amazingly productive. I have been proselytizing my fellow gardeners by giving them handfuls to try. I think I have won a few converts for next year who may abandon their Kentucky Wonders, the only pole bean they have ever known. Sad but true.
Finally got some beets (Boldor golden beet and Boro red beet). I have replanted these so I hope I get a few more.
And finally some peppers. Two Carmen sweet peppers, and some Shishito peppers. One of the Carmen peppers wound up in a salsa. I also picked some of the Blue Beech paste tomatoes you see above. The largest one weighed 12 ounces. The Blue Beech has a variety of shapes, including the block shape of the three tomatoes upper right, and the long, skinny tomato just below them. I have no idea what influences the variation in shape, appearing on the same plant in the same cluster.
I have not cut chard for a while. The pile above is just a sampling of the harvest. I froze two thirds of the chard and the rest was used for dinner last night, since there is no room in the refrigerator.
More tomatoes and squash. The food pantry did get a generous bag of squash to dispense this week.
I allocated 2 squares for Trionfo Violetto pole beans on a shared trellis but didn’t check the seed packet., so I didn’t have enough to plant the 2 squares. I also had some losses after germination and from some errant bunny nibbling on the stems at the base of the plants. Nonetheless I am still getting a nice harvest and these beans were frozen to enjoy this winter.
That’s what happened here in Bolton, Massachusetts. To see what other gardeners around the world are harvesting, head over to Daphne’s Dandelions, our host for Harvest Monday.
I was really impressed by the seed grown shallots as well - yours look amazing. My first year gardening I also grew Kentucky Wonder because that's what I found at the local store - there really is no going back once you try all the other wonderful varieties. Those Blue Beech paste tomatoes look great - they are huge for a paste.
ReplyDeleteThat's what happens, people buy seed packets at the garden center. Blogging and the community garden are great for ideas because you can see what others are growing. I learned about Musica and Gold Marie beans from fellow bloggers and Juliet and Black Cherry tomatoes from fellow gardeners.
DeleteInteresting about the variety of tomato shapes on the Blue Beech. I don't think I've ever seen that in a single plant, other than the occasional odd shaped one. Musica and Gold Marie continue to give us lots of beans too. I never had much luck with the pole Kentucky Wonder or Blue Lake, even though I know many people love them. Fortex is my favorite round pole bean.
ReplyDeleteDitto, Fortex is my choice for a round pole bean and I recommend it, but just like the Violetto, I didn't check the packet and had only a few beans to plant.
DeleteLovely harvests. I'll have to try shallots next year. I like that you can grow them from seed.
ReplyDeleteAfter having $20 of shallot bulbs rot on me over winter, a couple of bucks for seed shallots looks like the way for me.
DeleteGreat harvests Dave. I had some shishito peppers for the first time at a restaurant a few weeks ago, and they intrigued me. From where did you get the seeds?
ReplyDeleteThe Shishito seeds are widely available, I got mine from Baker Creek. Shishito is a Japanese pepper, but similar to a Spanish pepper, Pimiento de Padron, also available from Baker Creek. How were they prepared? Typical is as a tapas, sauteed until blistered in olive oil, sprinkled with sea salt and served as an appetizer.
DeleteThey were prepared like that. It was one of those uber-trendy places in Atlanta that my boss took us to. You know, where everyone shares and gets their cooties all over everything. I see now that Johnny's offers a "shishito-type" pepper called "Mellow Star F1." Might try a packet next year.
DeleteWonderful variety (even with the monotony of the beans)! I successfully grew onions from seed only one time, too much work for me and I now use sets which seem to be going well enough. Very thoughtful for you to donate to the local food pantry, I'm sure it is much appreciated and likely much needed.
ReplyDeleteI have used sets for green onions but never had any luck with them producing usable storage onions. And yes, the food pantries really appreciate fresh produce. We have two plots in the community garden run by girl scout troops where all the produce goes to the pantries or to senior citizens in town. And we have volunteers in town who make runs to the food pantries so all I have to do is drop my stuff off at a local church. Better than throwing it in the compost pile.
DeleteI'm wondering if I should try some seed shallots next year, yours are very impressive. And I want to try some tropea onions as well. Kentucky Wonders are good, but a little variety is good too, I love my Musica beans. My Amish Paste tomatoes do the same thing, I get anything from big XXX sized fruits to long thin thin ones, but they are all good.
ReplyDeleteWill the Trionfo Violetto pole beans remain purple after cooking?
ReplyDeleteDo you save some of your shallots to plant in the fall like garlic? I read this can be done.
Hmmm, never tried growing shallots from seeds, might have to give it a go someday. I have good luck with Renee's Garden "Duo Scallions", the red variety bulbs up and become a mini onion of some sort in spring if it's overwintered, I've been using it as shallot, I always start a batch this time of year and tuck in the green onions wherever there's few inches of dirt.
ReplyDeleteA nice diverse harvest this week. I never thought of growing shallots from seed. I've tried sets with mixed results. Smart idea since they are so expensive at the grocery store. I know I would use them more in cooking if I had them on hand. ~ Rachel @ Grow a Good Life
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