Harvest Monday..........8/22/2011

The harvests slowed down significantly this week due to the diseased tomato plants at the plots. We did however, have some unusual firsts for this time of the year. I didn't take a lot of pictures of the harvests this week as we were very busy with family, life and I was doing a lot of this......

Yep....the "Can Can"!!

I had to harvest two leeks from the home garden this week. I usually don't start harvesting the leeks until the fall. However, these two were a good size and the outer layer was starting to get a little slimy. I guess it was from the weather. The remaining leeks at the home garden and plots look fine and hopefully won't need to be harvested until much later this year or next. We really enjoy harvesting fresh leeks from the garden during the fall and winter to enjoy in Leek & Potato Soup on a cold day.

The first Purple Pole beans were harvested this week. I sowed the seeds very late in the season and they just started to produce this past week.

The first and only Orange Field Pumpkin of this year was harvested this week.

Total Harvest for the week: 41.71875 lbs.

Beans, Puple Pole - 8 oz.

Cucumbers:

    Burr - 6 oz.

    Japanese & Slicing - 52 oz.

Eggplant - 25 oz.

Leeks - 9 oz.

Peppers:

    Sweet - 58 oz.

    Hot & Spice - 35 oz.

Pumpkin - 96 oz. (6 lbs)

Tomatoes - 355.5 oz. (22.22 lbs)

Zucchini - 23 oz.

Stop by Daphne's Dandelions our host of Harvest Monday to see what's going on in Veggie Gardens and Kitchens around the globe!

It's a Jungle out There!

Although all of the recent rain may not have been good for some things at the plots.....it's definitely turned the neglected home garden in to a jungle!

This is one part of the Herb Garden

Do you think I need to get some things trimmed and dried????

Look at this Happy Sage Bush!

Here's a volunteer tomato plant growing along side of some dried coriander that should be harvested and over some oregano and chives!

The Spaghetti Squash vines are still doing great!

This is a picture from my neighbors yard. There are three plants growing along the fence.

I have found 3 more big squash and a few babies!

Here's a view of the beds from the deck

The MWC, front right, is really taking over...This is after I trimmed it way back on Monday!

Out of control Basil

This is the bed where the garlic and peas were planted earlier in the season.

Now there are cucumbers along the edge and bush (which are out of control trying to vine) dried beans. Spinach was sown in the dirt area on Monday or Tuesday. Hopefully we will get a good crop or even a small crop would be appreciated as the spring spinach was a complete failure!

There are still plenty of these around that should ripen and keep us in eating tomatoes for awhile.

This is a view of the beds from the back.

As you can see I did get out there and trim back the tomato plants on the left.

So, is there anything out of control in your life....besides the economy and our goverment??

The State of the Plots.....Part 1

It has been raining off and on since Friday and the last time I was at the plots was Saturday. Well, a lot has changed since then and most of what I am posting today is NOT good!

The first thing that I noticed upon arrival at the plots this morning was the field pumpkin plant looking very bad. After close inspection, I harvested the nice orange pumpkin on the vine and got to work. The SVB's got to the plant as well as squash bugs and powdery mildew.

Bad pic...but this is what the vine looks like after I trimmed it.

One baby pumpkin on a healthy part of the vine.

I buried as much of the vine as I could that was past the SVB invasion point.

Here's the other end of the vine buried with another baby pumpkin on it. Maybe the vine will take root and these babies will be saved. If not, we did manage to get one nice orange pumpkin from the vine.

On the other side of this Three Sisters planting are the Sweet Dumpling vines.

As you can see there is some powdery mildew & squash bug damage to parts of these vines.

The vine is still producing and has a lot of healthy growth on it and at least 6 squash. Maybe we will get some more squash from these vines.

Now for some really bad news.....the tomato plants are all diseased! There was some disease on them late last week and I did some trimming....but, this is not good!

Look at this....not good!

Tomato Alley....all diseased!

The tomato plants in the other bed....diseased too!

I think that they may have about a week....maybe, maybe not.

There is a lot of good news at the plots though. Last Thursday I found where the groundhog was entering the plots. The bugger was coming and going between three plots and having dinner at all three! I spent some time, lots of digging and put a lot of chicken wire down deep both vertically and horizontally.

So far, so good! No re-entry to the plots and no more nibbling! Steve, the guy with the great water set-up, has the plot behind ours. He also did some work on the hole on his side. I told the woman to the right of us about it. She hasn't done anything....but there are no signs of re-entry.

Although the groundhog did completely eat the nice round watermelon that was growing last week....we still have these.

This Moon & Stars watermelon had a little nibble out of it from the groundhog....but, it is growing nicely! Hopefully we will get to eat it!

There's another little watermelon on this vine too!

The "State of the Plots Part II" will be about a lot of good things going on over there!

Harvest Monday ............... 08/15/2011

Last week was a very busy week around here. The garden is still in full swing. I had a lot of preserving to try to catch up on, "The Italian" and I celebrated our 3rd Anniversary on Tuesday, lots of family stuff, I'm trying to get the fall garden ready and I had garden visitors from Maryland. Marcia from Birds, Blooms, Books etc. stopped by with her husband on Friday. We had breakfast at a local diner and then we went over to the plots. They were heading North for a family vacation and stopped in the area over night to visit with family & see the garden plots.

There were a lot of firsts this week in the gardens....so I thought that I would post pictures of some new and different veggies that were harvested this week.

Some Red Sweet Peppers, Habanero Peppers (seed from Mimi) and those funny little round green things are Burr Gherkin Cucumbers.

I ordered Gherkin Cucumber seeds from the Landis Valley Museum Heirloom Seed Project. What I expected was not what I got. The description did not say that they were a variety of Burr Cucumber. They are kind of cool looking though and I found a great recipe for them. If I get enough, I think that I will make a batch of sweet pickles with them also.

The first cucumbers were harvested this week. The two at the top/left are Japanese Cucumbers and the other two are a slicing variety. I direct sowed the cucumbers as a second crop after the peas in the garden. Next year I'm going to sow one slicing cucumber early and the cucumbers for preserving later. Then "The Italian" will have cucs for eating early in the season. I'm happy that I didn't sow the cucumbers earlier. I would really be going crazy making pickles at the same time as the tomato glut!

This is a Korean Melon.

 A friend of ours, who is from Korea, dropped off a couple of melons for us last year. I saved some of the seeds and planted a few at the plots. I don't remember what it tastes like and we haven't eaten this one yet.

Top to Bottom

Three Spaghetti Squash, One Fortina White Pumpkin, Three Long Island Cheese Squash (seed from Mimi) and Four Sweet Dumplings (or Little Dumplings)

Total weighed Harvest for the week: 85.53125 lbs.

Cabbage Red - 44 oz.

Cucumbers - 31.5 oz.

Cucumbers , Burr - 6.5 oz.

Eggplant - 14 oz.

Melon, Korean - 14.5 oz.

Peppers:

   Bell - 24 oz.

   Hot - 19 oz.

Squash:

    Long Island Cheese - 95 oz.

    Spaghetti - 128 oz.

    Sweet Dumpling - 58 oz.

    White Pumpkin - 41 oz.

Tomatoes - 864 oz. (54 lbs)

Zucchini - 29 oz.

Stop by Daphne's Dandelions our host of Harvest Monday to see what's going on in veggie gardens and veggie kitchens around the globe!

Harvest Monday...........08/08/2011

The week started out good, everything was pretty much under control. I had some tomatoes to can, tomato juice to make and some peppers to freeze and roast.

This was my kichen island on Wednesday. The peppers were coming in at a steady pace and the tomatoes were not out of control.

I had a nice smaller harvest from the plots on Thursday. The eggplant are quite small this year. I did make a batch of Eggplant Caponata this week and canned it. I still need to make another batch or two to get us through the year. As you can see there's a Little Dumpling in this harvest. It was accidentally knocked off the vine  when I tried to move it. That's the second veggie that I did this to so far this year. From now on, I'm leaving them alone!

I really thought that this weeks harvest were going to remain small. My harvest totals for the week on Friday were about 28 lbs. Then we had a day of much needed rain on Saturday and look what I found at the home garden on Sunday!!

The biggest tomato of the season....maybe my life! A Pineapple, seed from Diana, weighing in at 2 lbs. 9.5 oz. Boy that's one big tomato!

Then I went to the plots and picked a ton of tomatoes, cantaloupe and peppers.

This is what the kitchen island looked like on Sunday and that wasn't all of the produce in the kitchen!! It turned out to be another great week of harvests around here!

Total Week's Harvest - 84.5 lbs

Blackberries - 14 oz.

Cantaloupe - 106.5 oz

Eggplant - 38 oz.

Peppers:

   Bell Sweet - 114 oz.

   Hot & Spice - 19 oz.

Squash - Little Dumpling - 8 oz.

Tomatoes - 1026.5 oz. (64.16 lbs)

Zucchini - 26 oz.

Stop by Daphne's Dandelions our host of Harvest Monday to see what's happening in Veggie Gardens and Garden Kitchens around the globe!