Monday 26 September 2016

Harvest Monday: September 26, 2016


Carrots and Queen Anne's Lace ... can you tell the difference?  I am not quite fully educated on the "weed" known as Queen Anne's Lace but I can usually tell which is which before pulling up the root.  I put the word weed in quotes because not everyone thinks of it as undesirable and it is edible.  I personally consider it a weed that has cleverly disguised itself as a carrot (greens look the same but the root itself looks like parsnip).

L to R: Q.A.L., Parsnip, Carrots

But it is not so much a disguise as it is an actual carrot.  From what I've read, domestic carrots are a cultivar of this wild carrot.  I used to think how amazing nature is that a weed looking just like carrots happens to grow among carrots (like some brilliant defense mechanism hoping the bunnies will nibble on the weeds instead).  Since the carrot seeds (if I understand it correctly) have been cultivated over years from this wild carrot, then I guess the wild carrots are likely coming from the same seeds as some sort of hybrid??  



With this weeks harvest, I've added another 5 lbs of carrots (shown above) and that's the last carrot harvest for the season.  Other harvests include more peppers, some Delinel beans and a  batch of basil that was made into pesto and frozen for later use.

King of the North,  Xanthia

K of the N, Hungarian Hot Wax, Gypsy peppers


And a new harvest this week ... apples!  These are Haralson apples, and the first time the tree has produced any.  The tree was here when I moved in a few years ago and I was actually considered removing the tree as I wasn't sure it would ever produce.  Good thing I waited!  I only got three pounds but good enough for some apple crisp.


I also had another (4 lb) Hale's Best Melon which went to a friend.  While dehydrating the latest harvest of chocolate cherry tomatoes, I finally got around to grinding up the Feher Ozon peppers for a paprika.  I added some to another batch of squash mac 'n cheese and I LOVED IT!  The paprika smells wonderful and was a great addition to the dish. The photo below shows three trays worth of peppers after dehydration and just before I ground them.


Please stop on by at Our Happy Acres to see what other gardeners are doing this week with their own harvests!

6 comments:

  1. Interesting info about the Queen Anne's lace. I do think the fresh ground paprika is pretty amazing too!

    Dave@OurHappyAcres

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  2. Beautiful bunches of carrots, and an interesting comparison to QAL. I've never actually eaten one, but might try!

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  3. Nice carrot harvest. I dried my paprika peppers but have yet to grind them. I will have to try that soon.

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  4. Carrots have a fascinating (to me) history, apparently they all started as white or purple, then a purple one mutated to make a yellow one, then yellow ones were selected to end up with the fairly modern and ubiquitous orange carrots. Check out the Carrot Museum in the UK, they have a ton of information about carrots.

    Yum, fresh ground homegrown paprika, it's amazing.

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  5. Lovely carrots and peppers...what what I'm most envious of are those apples - they look perfect! Can't wait to harvest some from my trees - I'm still not sure if I'll be picking any next year or if I'll have to pinch off those buds so that the roots have more time to get established.

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  6. Lovely harvests, those apples look especially delicious! Interesting comparison between the carrots, parsnip and queen anne's lace.

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