Monday, August 6, 2012

Harvest Monday


Eggplant, zuke, yellow bell, a pound of datterini and calabrian chile peppers

7:15 am, hold the coffee! - I was so excited to be able to finally participate in Daphne's Harvest Monday roundup that the dogs were fed, the husband's bento lunch packed, and I was out the door picking these before the pups could thank me with a burp in the face. Snipping off that dark, shiny Violetta di Firenze eggplant was such a happy moment as it is very difficult to cultivate hot weather crops in this cooler mountain climate. The highest it has been is 86°F and we suffer! Weaklings. This year is certainly not one of my better seasons for gardening, and with the exception of the Cherokee Purple and Marmande heirlooms (which still have a ways to go), everything in this photo started as seedlings from the nursery.

Todays high: 26°C / 79°F

19 comments:

chaiselongue1 said...

It's a beautiful round aubergine, all the better for being grown in difficult conditions! I hope you'll have many more!

Cristy said...

Awesome harvest! I love eggplants, and that one is beautiful.

Susan said...

Beautiful tomatoes and eggplant!

Rowena said...

I keep looking at it as if it were a huge purple jewel! Or better yet, a mysterious crystal ball.

Rowena said...

The funny thing about that eggplant is that it started to form when the plant was still quite young, thus stunting the plant while it sucked up all the "juice". Now that I've snipped it off it should allow the plant to catch up with its siblings!

Rowena said...

The price that I pay for beauty is high (we need more warmth and sun!), but where it concerns tomatoes and eggplants, I count my blessings that I don't suffer any of those pest problems that other gardeners do.

Andrea said...

Great harvest Rowena! Wow that eggplant(love the name too) looks fantastic, what will you make with it?

David said...

Gorgeous Eggplant! The color is fantastic!

Liz said...

Oh I'll have to look out for that eggplant variety - beautiful shape and colour isn't it?

Rowena said...

From a woman's point of view, I have to say that that color is the inspiration for a new handbag and scarf.

Rowena said...

It's so dark purple that it hinges on black! I love how it's so shiny too.

Rowena said...

Eggplant parmigiana, but first a trip to the supermarket for tomato sauce and another eggplant(!) as this one is not enough.

Adventures in Agriburbia said...

I just love Cherokee Purple tomatoes! Too bad mine are not doing so well! Hope yours start to crank out tomatoes.

K and S said...

loving the harvest!

Mac said...

Beautiful eggplant, wish we have some of your cool temp, it's way to hot here, but the melons and squashes are loving it.

Rowena said...

I go the extra mile and "pep talk" the dozen+ that are now growing on the vines. Please no BER or catfaces this year!

Rowena said...

Although not anywhere what we got last year, I'm glad that it wasn't a total bust for 2012. The most unbelievable thing was the difference in the mirabelle plums....only a little over 3 pounds this year compared to 22 lbs. in 2011!

We need to grow more plums....

Rowena said...

I would gladly trade 2 weeks of our cool temps for some heat. I gave up on melons and pumpkins as they simply don't do very well no matter if I put them in the sunniest spot. Makes me sad that I can't grow my own jack-o-lantern pumpkins!

Michelle said...

86ยบ is a hot day here too, we're a bunch of weather wimps, don't like it too hot nor too cold. And I still haven't harvested an eggplants, tomatoes, or ripe peppers yet. Zucchini is another story, it's more tolerant of the cool weather.