Monday, September 20, 2010

It Comes in Dribbles

My early fall harvest, that is.

The peanut harvest is slow in coming. You can see the nodes reaching down from where the flowers had been on the peanut plants. I planted these in April, and just now they're beginning to send down what will become peanuts. This variety is Carolina Black.


Daily, I bring in collections of four or five tomatoes and a few peppers. However, it looks like in a week or so I'll be slammed with peppers. I can't wait. In this picture you can see a couple Zavory peppers and four Black and Brown Boar tomatoes.


I've now finished my winter squash harvest, and the squash are sitting in the shadiest and coolest part of the shed. Here, you can see some of them. The long-stemmed pumpkins are Winter Luxury Pie, the yellow acorns are Gil's Golden Pippin, the large pumpkin is a renegade Winter Luxury Pie (the sole fruit of one vine, perhaps accounting for its size?), the dark green are Uncle David's Dakota Dessert, and the mottled bells in the back are Seminole.


And this, relaxing in an old desk chair on the back porch, is Titan, the mighty sunflower. This week, I harvested two heads this size.

Also this week, I've harvested bunches and bunches of basil and sweet potato greens. Jars of fennelseed and coriander fill a bit more each time I go outside.

If you would like to see what others are harvesting across the spinning blue, stop by Daphne's Dandelions for Harvest Monday.

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Going back to school jolts my consciousness every year, but this year, with two deaths of significant members of the school community within the first few weeks, has been particularly tough. I keep oscillating between reveling in my students and their quirks and sparks, and mourning people who, as a coworker said of them, "loved well." I'm thankful to have known both. Loving well, I'm going to be practicing that as best as I can.

6 comments:

michelle said...

Peanuts look like a fun thing to try, but I suspect that they wouldn't like my climate.

I'm curious to know what you think of the Zavory peppers. I grew them last year...

That's a nice variety of winter squash you've got, again, I'm curious to know what you think of them, the only one of those that I've grown is Winter Luxury, but it didn't get a fair chance the year I grew it.

Loving well and living well is something that we should all try to practice. Losing someone certainly makes you appreciate the important things in life.

Ottawa Gardener said...

That'll make one serious luxury winter pie pie. I love the head of the Titan sunflower too. Usually we have some sort of borer weaken the stem of our sunflower so I don't get too many impressive heads like that.

Daphne Gould said...

Peanuts! Cool. I always love to see the different things that are harvested. And love the sunflower too. It is just huge.

Christina said...

Michelle: I'm excited about the peanuts, especially since they're a gorgeous, black-skinned variety. I didn't expect them to take so long though. I've enjoyed snacking on the Zavory peppers while in the garden. I have several other sweet chinense varieties that don't have ripe fruit yet, so I can't compare them to anything. I look forward to eventually having my own little taste test of them all. As for the winter squash, three of the four varieties are new, the fourth is Uncle David's Dakota Dessert, and it is just about the best tasting buttercup-type squash in the world. I love it so much. I share seed for it through Seed Savers, so let me know if you're interested in some--it's the only c. maxima I grow, so there is no chance of cross-pollination. I'll let you know how the other three taste as I get to cooking with them. And yes, losing really helps us appreciate having.

Ottawa Gardener: I had a huge praying mantis living on each of my giant sunflowers--do you have mantids in your garden? They may help keep the borers away. What a disappointment that must be!

Daphne: I'm not harvesting the peanuts yet! They're taking forever . . ..

ann said...

The deer get my sunflowers. Stupid deer. I now totally know what you mean about being "jolted" into the school year. I mean, I'm no teacher, but starting this job at the same time as everyone was going to school has given me some idea of what it must be like. I'm so sorry to hear about the loss of your colleagues. That makes things infinitely harder. Hang in there and revel in your students, like I seem to always say, they are so lucky to have you as their teacher!

Christina said...

Ann: Stupid deer. If they weren't so cute, I'd call them douchebags. Grr. Thanks for the kind words. We're hanging in there.