Harvests are getting slimmer and after a couple of nights near freezing, will be even more so. I picked a nice head of endive, although not blanched as well as I would like. I have more of that and escarole still in the garden and it if slightly frost tolerant. The Swiss chard is recovering from a case of Cercospora leaf spot and I am starting to get some useable leaves. It is amazing how the color of the Magenta Sunset chard has deepened with the arrival of cooler weather. This is the chard that knocked me over when I saw it in the demonstration kitchen garden at Tower Hill. Unfortunately chard doesn’t do well in freezing weather because if its high water content.
The pepper plants have dropped most of their leaves and with possible freezing temperatures arriving, I decided to pick all of the remaining peppers, resulting in this haul. At least I managed to get a few more of the Carmen peppers to ripen. I now have a large batch of them to try roasting this week. I have to figure out what to do with the rest of the peppers. I will dehydrate some of them and maybe a pepper relish for the rest.
I did find some yellow banana peppers at the store to add to my Trinidad Spice peppers for a batch of hot sauce using Dave’s recipe. I also threw in a small Poblano, an orange Habanero, and a Shishito. The result is actually green not yellow and is still fermenting. It smells nice, not too hot.
That is what I harvested last week. To see what other gardeners around the world are harvesting, head over to Daphne’s Dandelions, our host for Harvest Monday.
Really nice looking endive, chard, and peppers. I did not know that chard was prone to freezing, I guess because mine never lasted into the fall. But this year it's still growing, so I'll find out.
ReplyDeleteA light frost may not matter but a freeze does. May not kill the plant but existing foliage doesn't like it. Last spring we had an unexpected freeze that damaged everything in the garden except the lettuce.
DeleteThat red chard is really lovely. I could see it growing in an ornamental garden. I will need to do a cleanup harvest of peppers here soon. I think I will chop and freeze many of them.
ReplyDeleteI can see why you were so taken with the Magenta Sunset chard, it is very striking. It seems like the Carmen peppers did really well for you, I might have to check those out.
ReplyDeleteCarmen was a great pepper, heavy set of fruit. Took a while for them to ripen here, your longer growing season would help.
DeleteThe Magenta Sunset chard would be a good candidate as one of the edibles among my annuals and/or perennials. Will be looking for the seeds.
ReplyDeleteGorgeous peppers & that is such beautiful chard! I still have some in the garden as well and was wondering only yesterday if it would survive a hard freeze as it seems to have come through a couple of light frosts relatively unscathed.
ReplyDeleteLovely harvests. It turns out we didn't get that predicted frost. So I'm happy with that. I hope it holds off while I'm gone since I have some chard in the garden still.
ReplyDeleteI love that chard! Definitely going to look for that for next year. And beautiful peppers - I really struggled this year to get any myself so somewhat envious. You certainly have a wide variety. Maybe that's my problem. I only grow one or two kinds and if they don't work out well, I end up with nothing.
ReplyDeleteLove that red chard and all those peppers look lovely! I keep stalking the weather forecast and hoping the frost stays away for awhile. I didn't realize the chard couldn't survive freezing. The last time I had fall planted chard was when we had an unusually warm winter and it survived. I guess I'll see how long it lasts this winter.
ReplyDeleteWhat a beautiful harvest it is!
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