harvest monday

Harvest Monday – November 14

~ McArtor ~ 3 Comments
Turnips

We are getting our garden plot ready for winter. We pulled out the last of the pepper plants and covered two beds with three tall bagfuls of mulched leaves collected from our yard and my mother’s yard. Some cold hardy plants are not ready for the winter “tuck-in” yet. Broccoli, brussel sprouts, turnips, lettuce and parsley are still growing in our plot. I harvested over three pounds of turnips, a handful of cherry bomb peppers and a large bunch of parsley this week.

We had our largest turnip harvest this season. This is the first year the turnips were larger than golf balls. I had enough turnips to fill up a casserole dish. I made a delicious Turnip gratin by adapting a recipe I found at Simply Recipes.  I peeled, then cut the turnips into thin slices with my mandolin slicer, blanched the slices for 3 minutes in boiling water.  I double layered the casserole with turnips, bread slices, onions, goat cheese and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. I baked the gratin at 375 for 30 minutes. The pungent flavor of the turnip decreased after baking.  My husband and son even enjoyed this not-so-popular root vegetable.     I am glad since it is loaded with vitamin C.

Harvest Monday – August 29

~ McArtor ~ Leave a comment
bottle neck gourd

A few plants in our community garden toppled over from Hurricane Irene.  My son cried when he saw his sunflowers bent and broken.  But he felt better when we showed him several large gourds hiding under his gourd vine’s velvety leaves.  As we expected, some tomato plants were knocked over, yet we still collected over 20 pounds of ripe tomatoes and over 10 pounds of green tomatoes!  We made 10 quarts of salsa and plan to make tomato relish  or green tomato cake from the green tomatoes.  Our fig tree keeps popping out sweet figs.  I picked 5 pounds of figs this week.  We canned 8 half pints of low-sugar fig jam.

I picked three eggplants this week.  The eggplant has become my favorite vegetable because of its high versatility and low carbohydrate content.  I discovered that strips of broiled eggplant can be used like pasta noodles and topped with tomato sauce and cheese.   The eggplant is peeled, sliced a quarter inch thick, brushed lightly with olive oil, broiled for 5 to 10 minutes on each side and cut into strips to make “eggplant noodles.”

Here are my harvest totals for the week:  beans  0.5 lb, eggplants 2 lb,  figs 5 lb, habanero peppers .25 lb,  leeks 1.25 lb,  red pepper .25 lb, shallots .25 lb, tomatoes 21.75 lb and green tomatoes 8 lb.

Total this week:  39.5 pounds

Total this season: 257.10 pounds

Thanks to Daphne’s Dandelions for Hosting Harvest Monday.