Harvest Monday: September 8, 2014

I still have plenty going on in the garden although the weather is supposed to dip below average temperatures in the next week or so.

I've harvested all of the winter squash which turned out to be not quite the yield I was hoping for.  But the butternut squash seeds were 4 years old so I wasn't expecting much there.  I have some spaghetti squash to add to the few already harvested as well as acorn squash and just the one butternut.

I forgot a few acorn squash on another counter when I took the above picture so here are the rest.  One of them has a bit of scarring.  I've seen intentional scarring where you can write names and such on small pumpkins and they scar as the pumpkin grows - seems like a fun idea which I might try next year.

From the same garden, I pulled my one and only cantaloupe.  You wonder why I am so envious when I see other gardener's posting their bounty of melons each Monday at Daphne Dandelion's Harvest Monday?  As juicy and tasty as this was, check out the teeny size - yes, that is a regular sized lime beside it.

The crab apples are also not very big but since half of the tree has fallen to the ground I figured they are ready.  There is a similar amount still left on the ground and/or tree which I'll take care of over the next week or so.  These are very tart and, even with a lot of sugar, are not very tasty (as I discovered last year when I made crab apple jelly).  I will have the tree pruned before next season and have no plans to eat any this year.  In fact, this batch (about 15 pounds) was already dumped in the back for the deer.

Chocolate cherry tomatoes and some tomatillos. 

I pretty much have nothing but plum tomatoes left.  These will be packed in newspaper to help ripen the green ones.  The beans are Tarbais which are drying out before harvesting the beans inside.  And one more pepper (very few left on the plants).

I still have so much basil!!  The following pictures show the plants before I harvested, how much I harvested and the plants afterwards - still a lot left!

 

And I posted previously about my most recent potato harvest which involved several pounds of potatoes damaged by voles.  But I still ended up with about 15 pounds of fingerlings.

And the recent rainstorm bent over some of my African marigolds so I picked a handful.

Pop over to Daphne Dandelion's Harvest Monday to see the bounty from other gardener's this week!

The Potato Harvest

I finally got around to clearing out the rest of the plants, many of which are spread out on newspaper in my basement to dry out the skins a bit before packing them up for storage (some are already in the cold room).  I still need to turn over the potato garden for leftovers I may have missed and there are a few volunteers in the tomato garden from last year - but there shouldn't be too many left after this.

I harvested about 20 pounds of potatoes a couple of days ago.  Unfortunately, about a quarter of those had been nibbled on - voles, I suspect.  In fact, I chased a vole around the garden Friday morning trying to drown it with the hose but it disappeared down a hole.  I imagine there are hundreds in my yard.

The potato plants had died off and fallen over a couple of weeks ago but I just had not gotten a chance to pull them until this past week.  I really wish I had gotten to them sooner as the remaining crop was my beloved fingerlings!

Over the past month or so, I have been harvesting a few pounds of potatoes each week; mostly blue russians (I have no idea why I planted so many of those), as well as a smaller amount each of red chieftains, kennebec and yukon gold. But the remaining dozen or so plants were the fingerlings.  The first plant I pulled was almost perfect.  Almost 5 pounds from the one plant which is quite a large yield based on my personal history of growing potatoes.

As I pulled the next couple of plants, there were not as many potatoes.  And the potatoes there were had been nibbled.  Some were left with nothing but a partial skin.  They have been dumped into the compost (about 5 pounds worth in total).

I also noticed that many of the plants had been uprooted already.   A number of potatoes still attached to the plants were now lying on top exposed to the sun.  These have also been discarded as they are discoloured and I want to avoid any toxins.

Some had even started to sprout (in a weird way):

In the 10 years I have been growing potatoes I have never actually had a really deformed one.  But I had a few nifty ones this time around.  Where I used to live, the agricultural fair offered prizes for the vegetable most resembling a person or animal.  I think this one looks a bit like a hippo with a ponytail:

And this one looks like a mole lying on its back - see the "claws":

And this?  I don't know.

Other than my bean plants which were outright eaten (most likely deer), I did not have any damage similar to the potatoes in any other garden spaces.  Last year, I had grown pumpkins and watermelons in that same spot with no issues.  I was planning to put the garlic in that location in the next month or so but I wonder if I should avoid any plants that grow underground there?  On the other hand, maybe that is the best crop as I had heard of using garlic spray to keep voles and other pests out of the garden.

I won't even pretend that I can get rid of the voles, but any thoughts on what crops they are less likely to get into would be much appreciated so I can figure out what is best to put in that garden space next year (I will be doing some fencing next year but this space isn't a priority). 

Beetroot Risotto

I love any kind of risotto (with the traditional short-grained rice but also with pearled barley).  I have made this beetroot version a number of times but the last time I made it, it was an unappealing pinkish colour.  

So best to use lots of grated fresh beetroot - you can't really have too much!  In the version I made this week, I also used red wine instead of the usual white wine (or lemon juice if you prefer not to cook with alcohol) which really enhanced the colour.

The beets I used had been harvested a week or two ago from my garden, so there were no beet greens left.  But they are a nice addition - just stir them in a minute or two before serving.  And roast some extra beets if you have any on hand and toss them in as well.

Ingredients:
1 large shallot, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup arborio rice
2 medium beetroot, grated (1 1/2-2 cups)
2/3 cup red wine
5 cups vegetable stock
1 lemon
Parmesan cheese (or aged cheddar)


Saute shallots and garlic in 1 Tbsp olive oil.  Add the rice and stir to coat.  Toast the rice for one minute.  Add the wine and grated beetroot.  The wine will deglaze the pan so take this opportunity to scrape up any shallot bits that might have stuck to the pan.

Start adding the stock at about a 1/2 cup at a time.  Stir between additions just enough to incorporate the rice with the liquids.  When the rice is cooked, add another 1/2 cup of liquid to keep the overall texture creamy and loose. 

Squeeze in some lemon juice and stir in 1/4 cup parmesan cheese (or to taste) and maybe a dab of butter if you want it extra creamy.  Season with salt and pepper.

Serve with extra parmesan cheese or sour cream, if desired.