Monday, August 12, 2013

Harvest Monday - August 12, 2013

This past week, I got a whole bunch of tomatoes from the community garden that I forgot to take picture of. I did take a snapshot the last harvest of coeur de boeuf from the balcony as well as the dwarf champion and golden dwarf. The coeur de boeuf is interesting - they all have slightly different shapes. I had 5-6 that were big and wrinkly like the pictures I had last week, but the majority of them are smaller and more tear-drop shaped. There were some questions about this tomato. This plant was started from seeds that I saved from the coeur de boeuf that I bought because I thought was so pretty. Unfortunately, this tomato tasted, well, like crap. But I saved the seeds and planted it anyway to see what kind of tomato I would get. I was happily pleased to get tomatoes that looked like the original tomato and more importantly, tasted delicious! Here is the what the cross section of the largest tomato looks like - I peeled the tomato because all my tomatoes have really thick skins.
Coeur de boeuf tomato peeled
Cross section of the coeur de boeuf  - it looks like a mitochondria...
The tomato is really meaty and sweet. The flavor as not as dense as cherokee purple (which is still my favorite) but they are a really beautiful and tasty tomato. I wasn't sure if the store bought tomato was heirloom/open pollinated but both the tomatoes grown on the balcony and in the community garden looks like the original tomato so perhaps they are OP. Who knows. I saved some seeds from the tomatoes I harvested so we'll see how these plants do next year.

Here is the basket of tomatoes I harvested from the balcony last week.
Mixture of coeur de boeuf, dwarf champion and golden dwarf champion
I have also harvested some okra. I have been harvested about 2-4 a week. Since I don't get a lot, I prepare it by blanching lightly and flavoring with a little soy sauce and bonito flake.
Okra - these got a little too big
Simple okra dish
I've harvested my first 4 habenero peppers - these are Caribbean red habenero. I have 2 plants, so I think I will be harvesting many peppers soon.
Caribbean Red Habenero
I am linking to Daphne's Harvest Monday!

8 comments:

  1. Thank you for detailed review of the coeur de boeuf tomato, I look forward to try it next year. Love the picture of the harvest basket and habanero peppers.

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  2. That's one crazy looking tomato! I'm glad it ended up tasting good! That was quite the harvest from your balcony tomatoes. I've never had much success growing tomatoes in pots so I'm very impressed!!

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  3. I live that tomato. I'm fascinated by it. I have always liked a scalloped tomato though...beatuiful harvest.

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  4. That tomato looks yummy! I think you are getting more tomatoes from your balcony garden than I am from my large country garden. Great job!

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  5. I'm glad your tomato experiment work AND your home grown tomato did not taste like the original! LOL!! Congrats!!

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  6. Still love the coeur de boeuf. Every week, it just makes me smile. Not sure why; it's probably the weird shape. The Cross section it made me think of something that would be found in the ocean. Not sure why it made me think of that.

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  7. You always seem to have such beautiful harvest, you have a green thumb. I recently harvested sage, a whole bunch of mint and culantro, thinking of harvesting rosemary, I have 6 berries in my blueberry bush, turmeric and ginger booming.

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  8. That is one amazing tomato! "Meaty and Sweet" sounds perfect, I might have to give them a try at some point...

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