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Monday, October 30, 2017

Monday October 30

With frost predicted later this week, it was time to harvest the remaining peppers.  I got another nice batch of ancho peppers, along with some Carmen and Giallo sweet peppers.  All of these were put on the grill.  The anchos went into a final batch of harissa, while the sweet peppers went into a Buttercup squash soup.   A lot of green anchos were left on the vine.

There were hot peppers too, jalapenos and Fish.  I set aside the green jalapenos for later use, and put the red ripe peppers into the harissa.

It was a very good year for peppers, probably my best ever, with nearly 18 pounds of peppers harvested.  Overall it was a very good year.   No vegetable was profligate, such as the pickling cucumbers 2 years ago that gave me more cucumbers than I could possibly use, and most importantly, there were few busts.  The Diva slicing cucumbers, which all died, and lettuce, at 2.9 pounds were the biggest shortfalls.  The poor lettuce harvest appeared to be caused by the potting mix, since I grow most of my lettuce in Earthboxes.  

The tomatoes, at over 100 pounds, and the beans, at 35 pounds, were the stars this year.  I got 22 pounds of pickling cucumber, 40 pounds of winter squash, 14 pounds of sweet corn, 6 pounds of eggplant, and 3.6 pounds of spinach.  Below average harvests were 4.4 pounds of okra and 8 pounds of summer squash (I'm not a huge fan of summer squash anyway).  Onion harvest at 10 pounds was about half the normal amount.  That was more due to a new variety being tried which did not transplant well, than any environmental conditions.

Cole crops:  10.5 pounds of cabbage, 8.6 pounds of kohlrabi, and 4.3 pounds of broccoli, and 1.4 pounds of cauliflower.  Probably a little below average.  At this point I've picked 305 pounds of produce, and will probably get about 10 pounds of parsnips later this year.  Not bad, but I'd like to get the harvest up to 400 pounds from this plot.  Maybe next year.   I planted the garlic and spinach yesterday for overwintering, so I'm already thinking of that.

To see what other people are getting from their plots, head on over to Our Happy Acres and check it out.

6 comments:

Eight Gate Farm NH said...

Nice way to cap off the year, and it was good to read your yearly summary. Even though there were disappointments, I think you should be very proud of your achievements.

Dave @ HappyAcres said...

It sounds like you had a great year with not too much or too little of most things. Your anchos got riper than mine did for sure. I had quite a few green ones, but none really ripened for me. Too bad about the lettuce though. Hopefully you can get a different mix that the lettuce likes.

Michelle said...

Do you harvest your green Anchos (Poblanos when green I think)? They're very tasty when used to make Chiles Rellenos. Hard to believe the year is winding down. I've still got a few more weeks but soon it will be pretty slow in my garden. It is nice to get a good balance of veggies, not too much and not too little. I'm always striving for that sweet spot.

Margaret said...

Those peppers look wonderful - that is one thing I really missed this year, the bumper pepper crop that I had last year with my freezer and pantry overflowing with sweet and hot pepper goodness.

I like moderate years - where there are a few winners and, especially, only a few losers ('cause there's always something, isn't there?). I'm hoping that next year I'm back up to "normal" since this year was definitely on the low end of the scale.

gardenvariety-hoosier said...

Michelle - yeh I hated to leave all those green ancho/poblanos to die on the vines when they could be used. I broke my foot two weeks ago and just didn't want to mess with it, in a nutshell. I really have to watch where I'm walking.

Kathy said...

Those are impressive weights of crops that you have, and like you say, there are some "losers" every year. It is that unexpectedness of things that I love...it wouldn't do if every year was identical, after all, and the frustrations of those "losers" make me appreciate them even more on years when they are "winners"

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