Today's Harvest

[Djdonut]

Today's Harvest: Black Beauty Eggplant (our first ever), Japanese Eggplant, Lebanese Squash, Lemon Cucumbers, Space Saver Cucumber, various heirloom cherry tomatoes, a mystery heirloom tomato variety, Pimento Red Pepper, Nardello Red Pepper, Purple and Italian Basil.  On the Menu: Grilled Veggie Sandwiches. Ok, we cheated some since the avocado, onion and Buffalo Mozzarella were not home grown. Grilled the eggplant, onion and red pepper with a bit of olive oil on the George Forman grill, drizzled olive oil on toasted Ciabbata bread, a bit more olive oil, salt and fresh lime and Voila, healthy, tasty and easy to make.

[DonRocks]

Welcome to my old friend from high school, Donna, who (with her mate Gavin) grows her own vegetables, and uses them to make fresh-from-the-garden meals. Yum!

[Donna, I should add that you've unwittingly discovered a bug: the counter that increments the downloads of these photos is stuck at zero, even though I know that these photos have been clicked on - I've reported the problem to our software provider.]

Keep posting, please.

[thistle]

Welcome Donna, it's so nice to eat your own home grown veg- you just have to go out in the backyard to harvest...I've totally neglected my backyard, but I'm still getting eggplants & more Sungolds than I know what to do with....

[lperry]

Welcome Donna, it's so nice to eat your own home grown veg- you just have to go out in the backyard to harvest...I've totally neglected my backyard, but I'm still getting eggplants & more Sungolds than I know what to do with....

Roast the eggplants whole on the grill, peel, freeze, defrost for instant baba ghanoush.  Slit the Sungolds nearly in two, roast until there are some black bits, freeze, pull out in January, stir into a risotto, love life.

[Djdonut]

Today's Harvest: Swiss Chard, Nardello Red Pepper, Pimento Red Pepper, Golden Bell Pepper, Hungarian Wax Peppers, chili and jalapeno peppers, Black Beauty Eggplant (the biggest one yet), various beans including Roma, Gina and Dragon Tongue (I think that's the name), Lemon Cucumber, Edamame, mixed varieties of Heirloom Cherry tomatoes. Plus, Shiso, Lemon Balm, Pineapple Sage, Thyme, Oregano, Peppermint, Garlic Chives and Purple, Italian and Neopolitan Basil.

Pesto is already made. Herbs are drying.  Chard is cut and ready to use in a great dish with Sweet Potatoes and Lentils. Tomorrow-- Salsa and Bruschetta. Exhausting, but yummy.

[DonRocks]

Gang, Donna was worried that this wasn't interesting to people - I assured her this is *the* slowest time of the year (hence, Restaurant Week, Labor Day vacations, etc.), and that just because people aren't responding doesn't mean they're not interested. (I've found this out the hard way - just when I think I've written the best, most brilliant thing of my life ... <crickets chirping> - but, it builds up over time.

Seriously, Donna, these harvest pictures are great! They're also a document of the season.

[jasonc]

Are you planning on canning any of your bounty?

[Djdonut]

We don't usually can much of our garden bounty--- we don't have enough of any single veggie to do that. However, we do A LOT of canning and jamming with fruit from Larriland Farm where we pick every year. We do use some of our herbs and sweet and hot peppers in salsa and bruschetta and things like that, but we use Larriland's tomatoes.

[KeithA]

We don't usually can much of our garden bounty--- we don't have enough of any single veggie to do that. However, we do A LOT of canning and jamming with fruit from Larriland Farm where we pick every year. We do use some of our herbs and sweet and hot peppers in salsa and bruschetta and things like that, but we use Larriland's tomatoes.

We've been picking a variety of stuff at Larriland for years, but this Saturday we couldn't help ourselves and picked a ridiculous amount of peaches, blackberries, and gala apples.  Soon we realized that we'd need to make some jam or ice cream, etc ASAP. So a neighbor taught us how to can and now I have 20+ small jars of peach, blackberry jams and some quarts of ice cream. What are your favorite jam recipes? (we mostly did basic fruit plus sugar but spiced peach jam was really good too).

[lperry]

We've been picking a variety of stuff at Larriland for years, but this Saturday we couldn't help ourselves and picked a ridiculous amount of peaches, blackberries, and gala apples.  Soon we realized that we'd need to make some jam or ice cream, etc ASAP. So a neighbor taught us how to can and now I have 20+ small jars of peach, blackberry jams and some quarts of ice cream. What are your favorite jam recipes? (we mostly did basic fruit plus sugar but spiced peach jam was really good too).

I'm going to jump in here in case you were asking the community for recipe ideas.   Try to get hold of a copy of Christine Ferber's "Mes Confitures."  The photos are enough to inspire you all season, her maceration method makes everything look gorgeous, and she has some lovely flavor combinations using spices, wines, dried fruits, etc.

[Ilaine]

Donna, in what area do you live?  I am asking because I live in Fairfax and wondering whether I can grow what you grow. How much of an area do you devote to raising your bounty? What is Lebanese squash?

[Djdonut]

Today's Harvest (it may be one of the last)- Japanese Eggplants, Fairy Tale Eggplants, Holy Mole hot peppers, Hungarian Wax hot peppers, Jalapeno, chile and cayenne hot peppers, Pimento Red Pepper, Golden Bell pepper, Nardello  Red Pepper, Cucumber, Lemon Cucumbers, German Johnson, Purple Calabash and Black Krim (we think) tomatoes, mixed heirloom cherry tomatoes, straggler beans, Pineapple Sage, Lemon Thyme and Malabar Spinach berries for decoration (edible, but tasteless) .  Plan for the day is to attempt to make some Subway style pickled Hungarian Wax peppers, and a ratatouille with the eggplants.

We live in Brookeville. Most of the "crops" are grown in pots on the deck-- so not a lot of room required, though not much walking space on the deck. We have tomatoes in a couple raised beds (3 x 6) below the deck but they are somewhat shaded by woods so cherry tomatoes, beans and greens grow well down there, but not other fruit bearing or larger sized plants. We never do well with squash.The Lebanese Squash-- it's a greenish gray squash-- in the picture is the second one we got and that's it. Curses, Squash Vine Borers!!  It was very good, though.

[DonRocks]

Today's Harvest (it may be one of the last)- Japanese Eggplants, Fairy Tale Eggplants, Holy Mole hot peppers, Hungarian Wax hot peppers, Jalapeno, chile and cayenne hot peppers, Pimento Red Pepper, Golden Bell pepper, Nardello  Red Pepper, Cucumber, Lemon Cucumbers, German Johnson, Purple Calabash and Black Krim (we think) tomatoes, mixed heirloom cherry tomatoes, straggler beans, Pineapple Sage, Lemon Thyme and Malabar Spinach berries for decoration (edible, but tasteless).

It's amazing how your harvest has changed so dramatically in just two weeks. It has literally become the picture of early Autumn.

(Great post, Bart - it deserved its own thread.)