Harvest Monday..........09/26/2011

I can't believe that this is the first fall Harvest Monday and the last one of September! As of yesterday morning, I thought that my harvests for the week would consist only of the last Spaghetti Squash and 5 tomatoes. Well, I was wrong! I went to the plots late in the morning on Sunday and once again came home with a great harvest!

Look at this container of sunshine!

There are still tons of peppers at the plots. I'm letting them ripen and will not pick any green ones until we have a threat of frost. The Rosa Bianca eggplant are still doing great and the other three varieties are still small. I even found a ripe Kellogg's Breakfast tomato on a dead vine! Jose, a great gardener at the plots, gave me some Yard Long Beans which are pictured here. We had them for dinner last night and I think that I may just plant a few next year.

I picked this big zucchini at the plots on Sunday. To my surprise, there are two small fruits on the plant that should be ready by the end of this week. The Spaghetti Squash is the last one of the season. We now have 8 nice squash to store for use over the winter!

To my disappointment, most of the Leeks had to be pulled. The outer layer was getting soft from all of the rain. I will slice and freeze them for use over the winter. It really doesn't look like we will have any left in the ground for over-wintering.

I also pulled the remaining bush dry beans at the plots on Sunday. There are still some dry pole beans over there that are not ready to be picked. I couldn't leave the bush beans in the ground any longer or they would just mold and rot from all this rain. I have a lot of the dry beans hanging on the back porch to finish drying. Due to all of the rain and humidity, they are not drying very well. I think that I will move them to the attic later today.

That's about it in the harvest department, with the exception of herbs. For some reason, I haven't weighed a single herb this year. There's been a lot of other things going on that I will post on during the week.

Total weighed harvests for the week - 15.625 lbs.

Beans, Purple Pole - 6 oz

Celery - 3 oz.

Eggplant - 2.75 lbs (44 oz)

Leeks - 35 oz

Peppers:

   Bell - 33 oz

   Hot & Spice - 39 oz

Spaghetti Squash - 2 lbs 7 oz. (39 oz)

Tomatoes - 20 oz

Zucchini - 31 oz

Hop on over to Daphne's Dandelions, our host of Harvest Monday to see what's going on in Veggie Gardens and Kitchens around the globe!

Baked Sweet Potato Fries

Last Sunday when I was at the plots "Whitie" a fellow gardener gave me 6.2 lbs of fresh dug sweet potatoes! He is also the great guy who gave us several dozen of his delicious sweet corn on a couple of occasions this year! Thanks Whitie, for your wonderful veggies!

Look at these lovely sweet spuds!!

I decided to make some sweet potato fries. After looking for a good recipe, I came up with this. The seasonings that I have listed is what I used. Be creative and use what you think would taste good. I think that the Paprika & Cumin are a must though.

Baked Sweet Potato Fries

• About 2 lbs. of Sweet Potato wedges
• 1 Tbsp. Olive Oil
• Cayenne Pepper (use just a dash if you don't like it hot)
• 1/2 tsp. Cumin
• 1/4 tsp. Paprika
• Garlic Powder
• Onion Salt
• Fresh Ground Pepper

Directions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees F.
2. Place potato wedges in a large zip-lock bag or a container with a lid
3. Mix Olive Oil and choice of Seasonings in a small bowl
4. Pour Oil & Seasoning Mix over potato wedges and shake to cover them
5. Place seasoned potato wedges on a baking sheet or in a baking dish
6. Bake for about 30 minutes or until done

This is what they looked like before baking. I totally forgot to take a picture of them after baking!

I hope that you enjoy these nutritious and low-fat baked sweet potato fries!

Liebster Blog Award

The Apple Pie Girl and Jody at Spring Garden Acre have been so kind to award me the "Liebster" Blog Award! APG is a fine gal who also has some nice boots! Jody, his wife Belle and the little guys, who we recently visited, have a great garden and some chickens too! Stop by their blogs and see what they have been up to!

"Liebster" is a German word meaning dear, sweet, kind, nice, good, beloved, lovely, kindly, pleasant, valued, cute, endearing, and welcome.

The Liebster is awarded to spotlight up and coming bloggers who currently have less than 200 followers.

Here are the rules:

1. Thank the giver and link back to the blogger who gave it to you.

2. Reveal your top 5 picks and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog.

3. Copy and paste the award on your blog.

4. Have faith that your followers will spread the love to other bloggers.

5. And most of all - have fun!

I had a really hard time picking just 5 blogs to list...so, here are just a few of some great blogs that I really enjoy reading. They are listed in alphabetical order.

At Home on Paradise Cove - Deb is a great Lady. She is relatively new to gardening and loves to experiment with her garden. Her and her husband Fitzgiver live on a small lake in Western Washington. She is also a wonderful artist!

GrafixMuse - Rachel is a Graphic Designer who lives on a few acres in Maine with K. She has an amazing garden and does a lot of preserving.

Greens and Jeans - Emily has a great garden in New Hampshire. I met her mother Marcia, who stopped by recently to see the plots. Emily also has some new chickens and makes some really beautiful quilts.

Life as I Live It - Patricia is a wonderful lady with many stories to tell. I have to say that "The Italian" and I always enjoy reading her blog.

Mrs. Pickles Garden - Mrs. P lives in Saskatchewan, zone 2a. She does an impressive job of growing veggies living in a zone with a very short growing season. She also makes a lot of pickles!

I hope that you give these great blogs a visit and enjoy them as much as we do!

Harvest Monday .................9/19/2011

The gardens have really slowed down. I only harvested a few tomatoes, a few nice bell peppers and some herbs at the home garden this week.

Yesterday, I went to the plots to pull the tomato plants, do some general clean up and pick some peppers. To my surprise, I found some viable tomatoes there. I also found that the groundhog had dug a new tunnel in to our plots! He has been eating the Brussels Sprouts, which is no loss to me since they were destroyed by bugs anyway. I was going to pull them, but decided to leave them as a trap crop for the groundhog. Do you think that will work? I'm going to go over there today and fix the area where he tunneled in and go over to my neighbor's plot and fill in the hole on her side. I had mentioned it to her weeks ago...but, nothing has been done. 

All of the popcorn has been harvested and the dry beans are starting to come in. I will wait until I am done shelling those and post them at a later date.

Some beautiful Bells, Rosa Bianca Eggplant and Red Pepperoncini Peppers

Green Tomatoes for some more Italian Farmhouse Pickled Green Tomatoes!

Some of the ripe tomatoes harvested this week.

Total weighed harvest for the week: 10.375 lbs.

Eggplant, Rosa Bianca - 11 oz.
Peppers:
   Bell - 54 oz.
   Pepperoncini - 6 oz.
Tomatoes:
   Green - 48 oz.
   Red - 47 oz.

Stop by Daphne's Dandelions our host of Harvest Monday to see what's going on in Veggie Gardens and Kitchens around the Globe!

Visiting with a fellow Garden Blogger

"The Italian" and I spent the day with Jody, Belle & the two little guys at Spring Garden Acre.

We had a great time!

You can see their main garden, the chicken coop in the middle back, meat chickens to the left and the empty hill in the front is where the wonderful tasting watermelons and cantaloupe where planted.

Here are some of their fall crops in the side garden.

Look at these beautiful broccoli starts that were germinated inside and ready to be planted!

There was a lot going on!!

There were chickens.....and

a cat.....and

some great entertainment!!! and...

lots of great food! Belle made a wonderful salad of fresh lettuce and tomatoes from the garden. We also had some home grown Bar-BQ Chicken and I brought some home made baked beans. Everything was so good that I was too worried about eating it and didn't take any pictures...except for the best watermelon we have had all summer...fresh from their garden! We ended the meal with home baked shortbread, cookies and coffee!

We came home with these wonderful gifts! Two bottles of wine that they made. One bottle is Peach Wine and the other bottle is Apple Wine. We were also blessed with a jar of Belle's Cold Packed Dill Pickles and 5 hand knitted dish clothes! I don't know how she knew that I was in desperate need of dish clothes!

Thanks Jody, Belle and the boys for a Wonderful Day!