The dry weather continued, with no significant rain but at least temperatures have been a little more moderate. It makes it tough to get any seeds to germinate if the beds continually dry out. Summer harvests continue to come in. The peppers are starting to come into their stride, too bad our season is not longer.
This is a big pile of Jimmy Nardello peppers, with a few others. The Tiburon Ancho are finally starting to fruit heavily and I hope I get enough for some Chiles Rellenos. It takes them a while to reach size, now small bushes about 30 inches/75 cm. tall. This is probably the last of the summer squash. The bushes have been taken down by the powdery mildew and I will pull them this week.
Harvested a couple of flea-bitten heads of Win-Win choi that was replanted when I pulled out the Soloist cabbages. These were started from seed indoors so I could ensure germination before transplanting.The advantage of the dry weather is no slugs or earwigs.
I picked a lot of tomatoes, including this pile of paste varieties. Eight quarts of these were turned into 8 pints of chili sauce for the pantry. That task consumed Sunday but is well worth the effort. I used this recipe from the Joy of Cooking cookbook. I do not like to can and normally avoid it. I can buy canned tomatoes and pasta sauce that is pretty good, but I can not buy anything like this chili sauce. We like it on hamburgers, steaks, and scrambled eggs. This batch came out with a bit of a bite. In lieu of the red pepper flakes, I used two of the large Padron peppers for heat. This year they are hotter than a Jalapeno by far.
Some of the larger slicers are ready now, including Celebrity. A lot of the Sweet Treats and Juliet tomatoes are now in the dehydrator for my second batch of dried tomatoes. Another bag of tomatoes was harvested but misplaced so they did not get photographed, plus a few of the slicers were snitched for BLTs. More tomatoes are due in this week, so maybe I will have to change my mind about processing some. I will probably try Dave’s technique of blender sauce in my Ninja Ultima and then freeze it.
To see what other gardeners around the world are harvesting from their gardens, visit Daphne’s Dandelions, our host for Harvest Monday.
That chili sauce sure sounds yummy. I love it but I've never had a good recipe to make my own. Our paste tomatoes are mostly done for the year but I pinned your recipe for next year. The last time I grew Padrons they got hot too. I could have made hot sauce with them!
ReplyDeleteLooks great, and good job with the chili sauce. Sorry your summer squash is winding down--I hope you got enough. We need rain, but there is none in sight.
ReplyDeleteSuch a wonderful selection and bright colors. I'm sure your meals are very yummy with plenty for winter.
ReplyDeleteGreat batch of the JN's. I only had one plant this year but definitely intend to plant several next year. I do process tomato sauce most years, but when I don't have enough to make a day of it (like right now as they come in bits at a time), I'll just make a quick sauce and throw it in the freezer.
ReplyDeleteYour harvests look a lot like mine this week, including those big choys. And look at those Jimmy Nardello's! Mine are just starting to colour up - I hope it goes quickly as I'm anxious to try them. I'm glad that I'm not the only one that is finding the Padrons super hot - I was beginning to think that perhaps it was just me and my spice tolerance was not as high as other people.
ReplyDeleteI really wish we had a longer harvest period too - what a different 3 or 4 weeks would make!
Your peppers looks gorgeous and you're getting lots of tomatoes. Flea beetles have been really bad for me this year as well, hopefully next year will be better.
ReplyDeleteWhat do you think of patty pan squash? I think I like them better than summer squash, but they're no where near as prolific. Then again, I let a few get too big and that really affects production.
I'm hoping to have enough tomatoes and chillis to be able to dehydrate some. However (like yours, evidently) the stock keeps getting whittled away for other purposes! We love eating the smaller tomatoes as a snack with a cocktail and the bigger ones sliced into a lunchtime sandwich.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing the chili sauce recipe. I look forward to trying it out sometime when I get a glut of tomatoes. :)
ReplyDeleteGreat tomato harvest, my tomatoes are not producing much this year due to shady location, need to do better planning next year.
ReplyDeleteWow lots of tomatoes and peppers, everyone is saying Padron is spicy hot, I have yet to get one this year, wondering it's the weather or the seeds.
ReplyDeleteThe only thing I do can these days are tomatoes, but only paste tomatoes. I caught up on my tomato harvesting today so tomorrow the dehydrator will be whirring away and I'll be cooking up tomato sauce and puree for the freezer. The idea of the chile sauce sounds great, but I think it would be something that just takes up space in my pantry, we just don't seem to get around to eating those things.
ReplyDeleteI absolutely love how shiny your fruit and vegetables look.
ReplyDeleteLike an oil painting (and a big bonus) you can eat all of these.
Even though they are flea bitten, I love the choys. I'm missing my choys from earlier in the year, but it looks like I'll get some Chinese cabbage soon. More because it needs picking because it is struggling though.
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