Pablano peppers ready for a quick roast under the broiler - one of two trays full. After the broiler chars up the skin we remove skin and seed/stem and then pack them in jars with olive oil and a little vinegar. One jar goes in the fridge for use now and the rest stored in the freezer until needed. So good on a sandwich or veggie burger in the middle of winter.
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My end of year tomato report-
Had 3 new tomatoes that stood out this year that I’ll plant again. Mountain magic (Campari size) was my best new variety grown, not many of these went to waste. Others were Eva purple ball and dwarf firebird. One other that I liked that I picked up from steins on a whim at the end of the planting season was orange zinger (Campari size) which I also liked a lot. Green doctors I’m on the fence with. Tastes awesome but the cracking was really bad.
Disappointing varieties were dwarf Catydid, dwarf sweet sue, atomic fusion, spoon currants (what a mess although my kid liked picking them tiny things that were everywhere), lemon boy.
Apricot zebra, jersey devil, and sun sugar I planted for a second year and are again some of my best and favorite to grow.
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No freeze yet. Just picked a basket of tomatillos.
I had to send this picture to my husband and say this: ‘This monster is wearing shoulder pads.’
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Is that a particular variety that gets that big, or just a random freaky fruit.
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This I do not know. It is the volunteer from what my chickens planted last year. I think that original was from random food bank tomatillos. On average they are about tennis ball size or a bit larger.
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Well, it didn’t exactly freeze the last two nights, but it was a degree or two above!
Looking like this right now.
Those are the only things looking sad though.
Frost finally took out the last peppers standing. shishitos of all things. i picked the last of everything a few days ago.
an Anaheim and a few shishitos still alive after a full hard frost (you can see all the other things have fully died all around, the eggplant were transparent leaves up close)
my notes for this year are that the black trifele are the best producers for sandwich tomatoes that i can grow, pink Siberian a close second. iraqi heart come late but are worth it for the sauces. baylor and san marz produce early and forever. I’m not going to try the big yellows again. i got nothing from them.
peppers: I’ll definitely do these anaheim and shishitos again, they did really well. i am trying to over winter a few of each. will grow my marconi and nardello as usual too but might start very early this year, even into Feb, in bigger pots they can live in all summer.
eggplant: rosa bianca only ones that got good sized. I’ll be starting them MUCH earlier and staying with pink varieties.
squash: tromboncino are getting planted only on the big cattle pen with trellising. they get too big for the fruit trees to manage them. but my cushaw will go under the plum tree.
mashed potato I’m going to start instead of sow. they need the extra time. same goes for the hubbards. I’ll direct sow my rouge vit d’etampfs though, they produce SO EARLY.
I’m so sad about my crookneck not productive this year but next year I’ll start them, then plant out front by the drip lines, maybe extra heat will get them going. i think it was just a bad year for summer squash here
my triamble and a blue jarrahdale both made one good sized and my kuri made two. and i got one red Hubbard, one candy roaster.
next year I’ve got a winter squash grex/mix to try out along my side area. it’ll get minimal care and water. curious to see how that goes.
all the peppers this year, I’ve been drying a lot on a string, then I’ll grind them for pepper flavoring. most of my harvests had a big bunch mixed in. this was the best crookneck bunch i got! I’ll do patty pan again though. they made a lot
i really like the narrow cayenne but they are best fresh cooking it seems like.
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How did the Centiflor tomatoes do? Do they get decently sweet?
Yes, they were decently sweet and did really well. The cosmic centiflors ended up being a couple of my favorites of the bunch. I got them from https://wildmountainseeds.com/ but I don’t know if they will be selling seeds this upcoming season. If they don’t I can send you some, there were around 40 seeds per packet so I’ve got plenty.
Does anyone have success ripening sweet peppers indoors and not having them go super soft? What’s the secret? I had a really great year for peppers (finally!), and the productive plants had about 100 that I had to pick in anticipation of first hard frost. I’ve noticed that the hot peppers (habanero) ripen well and maintain texture, but I’ve never had success with sweet.
No reason not to just cook with the unripe ones, right?
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Its officially the time where I start considering plants next year’s plants, so its time to do a recap.
Tomatoes: Had a pretty poor showing on tomatoes. Part of that was some early frost set backs, but most of it was watering issues. Everglades still produced, my yellow currants (which are basically Everglades) also produced well, San Marzano did okay, everything else was bad. Pink Thai Egg is still my favorite, but I am out of seed and need to get new ones. My two year old Midnight Snack puttered out from a combo of hornworms and little water, but I now have a 1 year old Sungold starting to produce again. Hopefully next year will be better, I already have some pretty established plants, some soon to be ready plants, and seeds that I am about to start this week.
Peppers: I went big on peppers, and peppers did pretty good for me. Have been getting mid-sized bells all yearlong, plenty of jalepenos, and this fall my new varieties kicked in and started producing. I had enough to make my own hot sauce and I am pretty quickly filling up a jar with cayenne pepper. I want to get a few more Violgos and Violet Sparkles going, they are both very tasty but haven’t been super producers yet. Poblanos have been very poor, only 5 or 6 peppers all year. Will get some more varieties planted next year, I still have 10ish varieties that I haven’t gotten to maturity yet.
Eggplants: Planted 2 Casper Eggplants. Got probably 30 eggplants off the two plants (both about 2 feet tall) all year. Plenty of eggplants for me (really too many eggplants). I like them, don’t taste like mushrooms, but do have the right consistency. Great for cooking, non-bitter skin. Might plant a seed or two as backups, but these are the perfect plants for me. Will continue to grow them.
Overall, I am pretty happy with ways things are going. I think I can fix my tomato issues with just some more care and better succession planning. Excited for 2026!
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Hi!
What an awesome list of tomatoes!
I was wondering how you liked the Amethyst Cream Cherry tomato from Wild Boar Farms? It wasn’t on my list to try this year but I was reading the description and happen to have the seed too and was debating whether to give it space in my small yard 
Thanks!
That one was ok, not spectacular. I had it in a sub-optimal location though. Very pretty tomatoes.
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