Today's harvest

[larry_stewart]

Fall Harvest

Was able to make a pit stop home in time to harvest peanuts and Sweet potatoes. While away I had my daughter keep me informed of the temperatures and frost conditions. The sweet potato vines were affected by the cold and frost, but the ground didnt freeze, so no damage to the potatoes. The peanut plants didnt look terribly happy about the cold, but were still alive. Usually I pick these two in the middle of October, but being away, I had to wait until now.

Peanuts were above average. I had just as many as last year, with 1/2 the amount of plants. They had room to spread out, which allowed them to put down more runners ( or whatever the proper term for a peanut plant would be), which allowed for more peanuts to develop.

The sweet potatoes were probably the same last last year. I changed their location this year because the vines grow all over the place, so i had to put them in a place where the vines wouldn't interfere with everything else.

Ill make not of this for next year. Garden is just about all picked out. Still have some potatoes and carrots in the ground, chard stopped growing, but whats there looks ok, and the parsley ,rosemary and thyme look healthy.

The miniature kiwis are plentiful, but out of reach. I may be brave and make an attempt to pick them when I get back, over the weekend.

Found a few tomatillos entangled in the sweet potato vines. Not sure I have enough to do anything will, but maybe ill make some kinda salsa.

Also have the mother load of sunchokes. Anyone have any good uses for them ???

 

[Cooking Goddess]

...Also have the mother load of sunchokes. Anyone have any good uses for them ???

Ask and you shall receive! I ran across a recipe (or two, but I dog-earred just one page) for a "carrot & sunchoke soup" in the November Rachael Ray magazine. It calls for chicken broth, but you could probably use a light-tasting veggie stock instead.

Carrot & Sunchoke Soup

She may have had another sunchoke recipe in that magazine, maybe two. I suppose if you google "Rachael Ray" and "sunchokes" other recipes might pop up.

 

[larry_stewart]

Ask and you shall receive! I ran across a recipe (or two, but I dog-earred just one page) for a "carrot & sunchoke soup" in the November Rachael Ray magazine. It calls for chicken broth, but you could probably use a light-tasting veggie stock instead.

Carrot & Sunchoke Soup

She may have had another sunchoke recipe in that magazine, maybe two. I suppose if you google "Rachael Ray" and "sunchokes" other recipes might pop up.

Great!
Thanks for keeping this thread in the back of your mind.
We just got 5 inches of snow here, so I have to wait for it to melt before I can dig the Sunchokes up.

I dug a few up the other day, just to see what was going on. Not as much or big as I expected, but definitely enough to do something with.

 

[bethzaring]

The final harvest of carrots this season. Even though we have had single digit temperatures many times, none of them had freeze damage. They filled 3 1/2 one gallon storage bags.

 

[GotGarlic]

Nice harvest!

 

[pepperhead212]

Great harvest for so late! You must have had some good mulch on those.

 

[Rascal]

Picking in between showers peas, raspberries, strawberries, beans and basil and cilantro. New potatoes ready for Xmas day.
Remember it's summer here.

Russ

 

[larry_stewart]

Those carrots look great. I don't usually have too much luck with carrots, so Im envious.

 

[pepperhead212]

Picking in between showers peas, raspberries, strawberries, beans and basil and cilantro. New potatoes ready for Xmas day.
Remember it's summer here.

Russ

I'm jealous! Well...maybe not. I always say I miss all those foods, but not the heat!

I am just getting ready to harvest my first lettuce in hydro. And tomorrow I'll be trimming a bunch of the herbs growing into the lights, to give to friends.

 

[Rascal]

I'm jealous! Well...maybe not. I always say I miss all those foods, but not the heat!

I am just getting ready to harvest my first lettuce in hydro. And tomorrow I'll be trimming a bunch of the herbs growing into the lights, to give to friends.

Wife has a greenhouse so we been eating lettuces and spring onions and a cucumber the other day. We just dried a heap of herbs as well.

Russ

 

[GotGarlic]

I forgot to post this the other day. I harvested rainbow chard, spinach and parsley from the garden for dinner Sunday night. I need to do more with the chard before it gets too warm.

 

[caseydog]

My spring planting is done. I planted Jalapeño, Poblano and cayenne peppers, and a new basil plant.

My other herbs survived the winter. My oregano is growing like crazy. The rosemary looks a little pale, but it is still tasty. The thyme id doing well, as is the flat-leaf parsley.

CD

 

[pepperhead212]

Looks great, GG! I just got my greens in Sunday - mostly a bunch of Asian greens, but also some chard - 6 Neon, and 5 perpetual spinach. The chard is the only thing that will last through the summer, for me, but I have a couple of the Asian greens that better than most. However, by the time the greens fizzle out, I have all those other veggies coming in! By the fall crop, I'm hungry for them again.

How is your garlic doing? I just put another layer of mulch on mine today, and pulled the few weeds that had come up through the original layer of leaves, in the fall.

 

[taxlady]

GG, what do you do with the chard? I don't think I have ever had any. I got some with today's grocery delivery.

 

[pepperhead212]

Taxlady,

Chard is a delicious vegetable, which can be used in many cuisines. Chard can be simply sautéed, in some butter or olive oil, with some garlic or shallots, and cooked just until wilted - 3, or maybe 4 minutes. And if you like Mexican, Rick Bayless has a lot of recipes in his books and websites, using chard. Many recipes call for cutting out the stalks and discarding them, but don't do this! Not much flavor in them, but a lot of fiber. I always add them to soups, Thai curries, or other dishes to add the bulk, and the lack of flavor won't be noticed.

 

[dragnlaw]

Argh!!! GG's picking crops! while taxy and I are looking at 2" of snow - and it's still snowing - mixed with freezing rain.

and not to forget rocklobster probably getting more than us!

 

[pepperhead212]

Be glad that you aren't in southern South Dakota, dragon. There is a 1-3 foot blizzard forecast there!

Anyone here in that area?

 

[GotGarlic]

GG, what do you do with the chard? I don't think I have ever had any. I got some with today's grocery delivery.

I use the leaves like any other cooked greens and the stems like celery for cooking, not for eating raw. I don't like spinach much, so I use chard instead in soups and stews or sautéed with other veggies like onions and peppers. After sautéing, I sprinkle it with a little lemon juice or balsamic vinegar.

 

[GotGarlic]

Argh!!! GG's picking crops! while taxy and I are looking at 2" of snow - and it's still snowing - mixed with freezing rain.

and not to forget rocklobster probably getting more than us!

Um, these wintered over from last fall [emoji2] We rarely get below-freezing temperatures for very long and chard is pretty hardy. I lost my romaine and dill in January - there's so much water in them, they just couldn't survive the low temps. I have quite a bit of dried dill [emoji38]

We planted peas and cilantro a couple weeks ago. Potatoes will go in this weekend. Last average frost date is April 15, so we will be planting tomatoes and peppers soon, and tomatillos if I can find them.

 

[taxlady]

I use the leaves like any other cooked greens and the stems like celery for cooking, not for eating raw. I don't like spinach much, so I use chard instead in soups and stews or sautéed with other veggies like onions and peppers. After sautéing, I sprinkle it with a little lemon juice or balsamic vinegar.

Thanks. I have not cooked greens much. I am not overly fond of spinach. I hate dandelion greens and the beet greens were edible, but not something I'm in a hurry to do again. These aren't bitter, are they?