Today's harvest

[pepperhead212]

I didn't harvest much today, but I got more beans again! I also trimmed my curry tree, to get it ready for bringing onto the back porch, those nights it gets below 50° (earlier, at noon, there were 2 nights below 50° in the 10 day, but all were gone in the 11 PM weather). I took the "trimmings" to the Indian grocer I go to, and his first words were "Long time, no see!" He knew what I had for him, and a lady customer there wanted to know what I "fed" my plant, to get it growing sow well. Her first year growing one, she said, and I gave her some of my experiences, good and bad, and told her it's over 10 years old now, so I'm doing something right! The seeds from spring - actually fruits, with individual seeds in them - are just starting to ripen, which is a long time. Usually, they are ripe long before now, and I've pulled them.
The trimmed branches of the curry tree, all 16-20 inches long. 9-15 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Seeds of the curry tree, from the spring, just now starting to ripen. 9-15 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

 

[larry_stewart]

I've brought my curry plant back from the dead year after year. I dont have any south facing windows, so any plant I bring in for the winter is a big challenge. I do have artificial lights but not enough to take the place of the sun. My curry plant loses most of its leaves ( which is a real mess and doesn't thrill my wife). But it always manages to stick it out until I can get it back outside the following spring. The year it bounced back really well ( surprisingly). I have the same issue with my Meyer lemon trees. They lose most their leaves, but all flower like crazy over the winter months ( the room smells real nice and fragrant ). They never successfully pollinate, probably cause they're under too much stress from the environment change. However, My pineapples, Cinnamon and coffee plants over winter well ( and they are supposed to be the most challenging, go figure). I need a green house!!

 

[larry_stewart]

Another decent Tomato harvest. As long as the temperature doesn't tank, I probably got one more good harvest left.

My freezer is quite full of tomatoes , so I decided to take a few quarts out and reduce to paste. After hours and reducing it by 2/3's , I still got a ways to go. Good thing is, at least I have more room in the freezer.

 

[bbqcoder]

I’m really happy with my late summer planting of cilantro. They look great. Always have had trouble with it bolting quickly. I planted the seeds at the end of July this time. I think next year, I will try growing it in the shade of other plants like Okra to keep it cooler so I can get it throughout the year.

 

[pepperhead212]

It's almost the end of the season for my okra and hot peppers, due to the cool weather. Today was the first day with not a single okra large enough to pick, after only one yesterday! It's been in the 40s at nigh, and only mid 60s for a high, and these plants love heat. I did harvest the last of my Aji Dulce peppers, off the only plant - picked them today because I'm taking them to my dentist's office tomorrow, as I have a teeth cleaning, and several of them told me that they loved the flavor of those, but have never been able to eat habaneros, because of the heat. I have more frozen and dried than I'll be able to use before next season, so they are getting the rest. And this was just one plant!
Last Aji Dulce harvest, 9-20 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Yesterday I harvested more beans, and cut all of them up from about 3 days, steam blanched them, and vacuum sealed them, to go in the freezer. Beans are doing well, for sure.
More Foodsavered beans, ready to go in the freezer. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

 

[Kathleen]

I harvested more okra and a couple of lovely eggplants.

 

[larry_stewart]

I pulled my okra out today. The last few I had were woody and the plants looked like they've had it. Can't complain, as I had a very good okra year.

Peppers are ripening on the plants.

A few zucchinis on the plants, just waiting for one more warm day for them to possibly get a little bigger, then out the plants go.

Preparing Garlic bed so they are ready to go in a few weeks.

Cool weather crops in ( beets, carrots, kale, peas, spinach, lettuce and arugula. Everything looks healthy so far.

Waiting for Sweet potato and peanut ops to start dying down. Usually I pick them in October.

String beans done

Pole beans/ Scarlet runners, slowing down but still have one more picking left. Ill leave those vines in for awhile, cause I saw a bunch of adult praying mantises in there ( at least 6) and I down want to disturb them. When I finally ripe them out, ill be keeping an eye out any egg sacks as not to disturb them.

About 50% of the potatoes dug up already. Made /and froze parboiled fries and hash browns for future use.

Tomato plants dying, but tomatoes still continuing to ripen on the vine. Probably got one more decent harvest left out of them.

late season cukes producing ( slowly but surely). Nothing groundbreaking, but not taking up any space that Id use this time of year so a few is better than nothing.

Picked and drying sunflowers for use over the winter to feed the birds ( and likely he squirrels too)

Kiwi's should be ripening too, now that its getting cold.

Chestnuts dropping from the tree, but more because the squirrels figured out that if they chew off the branch that the chestnuts are on, they'll fall to the ground, dry and open up for them to take. In 20 years I only had 1 or 2 good chestnut years, thanks to the squirrels.

A few crappy apples on the tree that Ill toss in with the ones I picked over the weekend at the Orchard to make home made cider ( tomorrow).

Just picked 3 Delicata and 1 butternut squash.

Raccoon feasted on my watermelon.

 

[pepperhead212]

I harvested 45 squash blossoms today! I even left a couple for the bees that were in them, covered with pollen. And I found at least 6 new squash, two of which still had flowers open on them, so I got a q-tip, and pollinated them, just to be sure.
Immature butternut - one of 6 I saw today, 9-22. Not sure if they have time to develop, but hopefully some will. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Even though I got 45 blossoms, there are far more immature male blossoms, ready to take off now!
Smaller, immature male blossoms, lying in wait! by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Here's one of those blossoms that falls off - looks almost usable, but not really. You open one up that fell off, and it usually is filled with insects, even more than usual, and the orange is pretty much gone.
Overgrown blossom - they quickly turn this way, in storage. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Here are the blossoms, before and after cleaning. I just hold them under a slow stream of water, while removing the stamen, and washing the insects out. Then I spin them dry.
45 squash blossoms, ready for cleaning. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

45 squash blossoms, cleaned and spun dry, removing over 1/4 c of water. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

 

[bethzaring]

Getting ready to can 7 quarts of V-8 juice, with my own onions, garlic, green chiles, parsley, carrots and celery. I thought canning season was over, but I finally got another canner load of tomatoes. Also, I see where I have too many Sierra Blanca white mild onions to use up before they go bad, so I will be canning caramelized onions soon.

 

[GotGarlic]

Lots of peppers this year, of all kinds. I'm going to chop and freeze most of these for soup and stew later. And we're starting to get tomatillos! Yay! I'm down to less than a pound from previous years but the bushes are loaded right now. Can't wait to make the first posole of the year [emoji39]

 

[pepperhead212]

GG, You didn't get an earlier crop of tomatillos? I got an earlier than usual crop (sometime in July) with a new type (for me) - Everona Large Green . It was sort of a determinate type, and once they were all picked it started flowering and produced a later crop, but much smaller, and not as productive as the first. Next year I'll go back to Rio Grande My tried and true variety, which starts producing full size in early August, and runs non-stop, until frost.

I got about a half dozen okra today - it's coming back, due to the heat of the fall! After those last days of summer being so cool at night (in the 40s here), and 9 or 10° below average, during the day, these last two days got to 80 and 81°! And not a night in the 10 day in the 40s - most in the high 50s, and even 60s, and several days well above average. Crazy weather! Still not too warm for the fall crops, and it should give them a little boost. Right now, I'm getting the hydroponics ready for the off season - the cloner first, then the others, for those rooted cuttings.

 

[larry_stewart]

I have so many Tomatillos from last year, I didnt even grow them this year.
Ripped my okra up, as the cooler weather took its toll on the plants. I may have gotten a few more with this weeks sudden warmer weather, but not guaranteed, so I figured Id get an early start on breaking down the garden.

Waiting for the last of the tomatoes to ripen up. Not too many on the vine.

 

[GotGarlic]

GG, You didn't get an earlier crop of tomatillos? I got an earlier than usual crop (sometime in July) with a new type (for me) - Everona Large Green . It was sort of a determinate type, and once they were all picked it started flowering and produced a later crop, but much smaller, and not as productive as the first. Next year I'll go back to Rio Grande My tried and true variety, which starts producing full size in early August, and runs non-stop, until frost.

No. I'm not sure what variety they are, but we've never had a crop that early. I'll look into those seeds.

 

[GotGarlic]

I have so many Tomatillos from last year, I didnt even grow them this year.

We didn't grow any last year for the same reason - two years ago, we had a bumper crop. I made salsa verde and froze it, as well as whole husked and washed tomatillos in 1-lb packages. But now I'm almost out.

 

[pepperhead212]

Tomatillos are another thing that do well in the dehydrator. I first tried this when I tried a variety called Gigante, which produced an incredible number on just one plant, but all at once, before the two Rio Grandes, and nothing else after that. I tried grilling them, then drying, and it worked well, but I tried something with the ones I dried raw, that also produced great dishes - toasting the dried pieces in a dry skillet, just like I do the chiles. I press down on them briefly, flip them over, do it again, then soak, and blend them. They usually dehydrate to 1.35 oz from a pound, but I use 1.5 oz to a dish calling for a pound, soaked in 14.5 oz hot water. Only time these don't work as well are in salsas calling for a coarse blending of the tomatillos - these need blended well.

 

[GotGarlic]

Do you think dehydrated tomatillos would work in posole and chicken or pork chile verde? I make those regularly during the winter.

 

[pepperhead212]

GG, The dried ones work well in pozole - not as green (but then, neither are the grilled or broiled ones, from the browning), but the same, tangy flavor. I also make a dish with dried ones, that uses 3/4 lb of tomatillos - Shrimp in Chipotle Sauce - and I can't tell the difference! It seems the longer they are cooked, or doing that intense cooking down, as done in a lot of Mexican, does away with much of the difference with the fresh.

Some tomatoes came back some here, and produced a few more, since it dried out considerably this month, and the fungal problems stopped fairly well. However, this is when bugs get on mine, and they almost always bad spots, I have to cut out, by the time they ripen. Today I did a bunch of this trimming, and put 3 trays of tomatoes in the dehydrator, along with 2 more trays of eggplants, almost entirely Ichiban, which had a large second crop, once it cooled.
A few more trays of tomatoes and eggplants in the dehydrator. 9-24 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

 

[pepperhead212]

Today I harvested 37 more squash blossoms, after getting the 45 just 3 days ago! I wasn't even going to look at them, but I was spray painting something outside that I had to wait a few minutes between coatings, so I just went out and noticed all those full sized ones already there, so I grabbed a pot, and snipped them all. I saw a good number of females, with small squash again, and those ones from Tuesday were much larger now. The flowers were really covered with some sort of bugs this time; what didn't scare off, is down the drain now.
37 more squash blossoms in just 3 days! 9-25 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

 

[Rocklobster]

The chili plants are still producing..made up a couple of jars of chilies in olive oil...

 

[bethzaring]

Getting ready for another round of freezing temperatures. This may be the last harvest of Big Jim green chiles. The photo of two boxes of tomatoes are what I harvested today. The photo of 5 containers of tomatoes is what I have harvested over this past week.