Harvest Monday

It has been quite a while since I participated in Harvest Monday. On this rather grey but warm fall day I decided to harvest some crops. I headed out with a basket, clippers, camera and a pint of Muskoka Harvest Ale. The ale was a fine dry hopped pale ale by the way :-)

I ended up with quite a nice mix of veggies today. The fall has been great so far, no frost, lots of rain but a little lacking in sunlight. Frost must be coming soon so I brought in everything that will be affected by a freeze.

• Three Waltham Butternut squash
  
• A couple bell peppers grown from Granny's seed. The bell peppers had to much shade this year so they didn't produce well. I'll have to relocated them next season.
• A good bunch of Big Chili II peppers, they seemed to do alright in the shady spot. I will roast them, remove the skin and freeze for later use.
• My lone head of cabbage was brought in, it was grown some seed shared by Soggy Creek Seeds . The chipmunk ate the rest of the crop early in the spring.
• One head of fall broccoli, more to come for them.
• I also picked the only Petit Gris melon of the season. They were shaded by the tomatoes early on and didn't seem to like it.

Today I also harvested a bunch of Red Fennel seed. They were not so good at producing fennel bulbs but did produce very fragrant seed. I'll dry them and make porketta and maybe some Italian sausage later on.

Here is what I have harvested in the last couple weeks, Just some red celery. This celery is hallow inside and is only good once cooked. It has a reddish base and adds an excellent celery flavor to soups, stews & red sauces. The celery was used in a Leek & Potato Soup and Lasagna.