In My San Diego Garden and Kitchen
Only the peppers and herbs remain from the summer garden. Impatient to plant lettuce and other greens, I’m harvesting the larger bell peppers when green. Ten plants are growing in a 4 x 4 foot area in well-amended soil. The plants have been very productive.
Most every dinner for the last few weeks incorporated red peppers in some way. A cache of bell pepper recipes in my folder gives me options.
This Red Pepper Gouda Soup was easy and a good way to use four large red peppers. I topped with toasted pepitas and garlic chives to counter the richness of the cheese and indulgence of a half cup of heavy cream. Extra soup to the freezer for a cool evening when warm October days are a memory.
I interplanted lettuce and bunching onions with the twelve cauliflower plants. The romaine lettuce has thrived in the warm days and cool nights. I anticipated harvesting the full heads as they grew but opted to begin using the outer leaves instead. ‘Freckles’ lettuce in another location doesn’t mind the shade provided by the overhanging apricot branches.
Ever faithful arugula, planted in late summer, kept us in salads until the lettuce was ready.
The daily strawberry guava harvest looks something like this. I have plenty of puree in the freezer so my daily task is to sort and offer to the half dozen friends who share our enthusiasm for this sweet-tart delight.
The day-neutral ‘Seascape’ strawberries revived after their late summer doldrums. There is the promise of more to come as I check the plants. We may only get a half dozen each week but they’re an autumn pleasure and unexpected bonus.
In the category of garden sharing, a generous neighbor brought me a prized Hachiya persimmon and another came with several passion fruit. Add pomegranate which I usually harvest from the biblical garden at our church and you have my three favorite SoCal autumn fruits.
No words needed for one of the last roses of the season, a David Austin favorite, ‘Ambridge.’
You may enjoy seeing what other garden bloggers harvested last week at Harvest Monday hosted by Dave at Our Happy Acres.
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