Preserving

Monday, August 9, 2010

Harvest Monday....Cucumbers....

cucumbers and more cucumbers!! I harvested 12 pounds of cucumbers this week! I was a busy little bee finishing the sweet cucumber relish and making Bread & Butter pickles yesterday. I managed to finish canning everything and cleaning up the kitchen by about 4PM. It was just in time to sit down, relax and enjoy our anniversary together! We made a special dinner, enjoyed the last bottle of wine that was left from our wedding and relaxed outside on the deck for the evening.

OK, enough of all that anniversary stuff and on to the rest of this weeks harvest! The tomatoes have slowed down quite a bit. I harvested almost 16.5 pounds this week. There are a lot of nice large green tomatoes out there and it looks like I will get quite a bit more from them. The eggplants are starting to come in on a regular basis. I told "The Italian" that I'm looking forward to having a nice eggplant parmesan in the near future.

The potaotes have all been harvested.....what a failure! Next year they are going back in the ground! Do you believe that we only got 5.5 pounds of potatoes this year??? It's a good thing that we don't eat many potatoes around here.

Black Beauty eggplant on the left and Black Egg on the right.
I got a picture before "The Italian" took off with them!

This is the second head of Savoy Cabbage weighing 1 lb. 10 oz.

Yukon Gold & Caribe Purple potatoes.
We didn't even get any of the beautiful Cranberry Reds...the voles ate all of those!


Bread & Butter pickles on the left, Sweet Cucumber Relish on the right



Harvest Total: 41.3125 lbs.

Beans - 9 oz.
Cabbage - 1 lb. 10 oz.
Celery - 1 lb. 1 oz.
Cucumbers - 12 lbs.
Eggplant - 2 lbs. 11 oz.
Onions - 6 oz.
Peppers - Hot- 7.5 oz   Sweet - 1 lb. 9 oz.
Potaotes - 3 lbs. 14.5 oz.
Strawberries - 10 oz.
Tomatoes - 16 lbs. 7 oz.


Stop by Daphne's Dandelions host of Harvest Monday to see more harvests!


19 comments:

  1. Lucky you! Cucumbers are underperforming here. Not even a third of last year's volumes.
    That Black Beauty does look beautiful.
    How much potato did you sow? I hope it's more than 5.5 pounds.

    ReplyDelete
  2. What a nice summer harvest you are getting. The egg plant particularly looks tempting! I think my cucumbers will be in heavy production mode in about two weeks - right now I am getting ones and twosies but there is a flush of young fruit that is coming along behind the current singles. I am looking forward to it as I am down to my last two jars of dill pickle relish!

    ReplyDelete
  3. MM...I bet those pickles will be good! I like the look of the savoy cabbage...

    ReplyDelete
  4. Looks good Robin. I can't believe all that canning you are doing. I need a lesson on canning and I need to purchase a proper canner. Most of the times when I do it, they never seal properly. Maybe next year. This year, I manage to keep everything in the freezer or dehydrate. I have never tried potatoes, in part because I do not have a lot of room.

    ReplyDelete
  5. We only got 6 lbs of potatoes this year... BUT WE'RE IRISH!! LOL....

    ReplyDelete
  6. The eggplant looks beautiful! Hopefully the italian did a great job with them.

    I wasn't very impressed with my bucket potatoes either altough the all blues did rather will in them. Next year, I will probably use them to grow carrots, which don't do well in our heavy soil.

    ReplyDelete
  7. That's a lovely looking harvest. I'm a container gardener and have read that you can never harvest as much from a plant in a container as you can from a plant in the ground, so I suspect you're right to go back to dirt.'

    I use containers because my soil is poor and I have limited space in full sun and containers are the only way I can go. But I'm not complaining. Given a choice between reduced harvest and no harvest, I'll take reduced harvest every time.

    ReplyDelete
  8. MojVrt, I planted 3 lbs of potatoes. 1 lb each of Caribe Purple, Yukon Gold & Cranberry Red. The voles ate about 70% of what I planted.

    kitsap, Thanks, I am getting tired of making pickles!!

    EG, The pickles & relish are to die for. I always plant savoy cabbage. We like it the best.

    johanna, send me an e-mail gardenerrobin@gmail.com
    I will send you some easy canning instructions and little things to watch for. You don't need a proper canner. You should see what I can with.

    Erin, I'm 1/4 Irish...just enough to get me in some trouble!!

    Thomas, "The Italian" always does a good job in the kitchen!! I never thought of growing carrots in containers. That would probably work out well.

    Thanks Martha, I have never grown much in containers. If I had to choose between no harvest and a reduced harvest...I would take the reduction.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Nice to have all those cucumbers. Mine have been pitiful this year too.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Those eggplants are beautiful!!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Beautiful eggplants. I wish I had as many cucumbers, my family can't seem to get enough this year.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Nice harvest, you've been very busy, it's a good thing that The Italian takes care of cooking. I'm amazed you're harvesting cabbage this time of the time.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Your eggplants and savoy cabbage really stand out in those pictures! Oh please cc me on your canning instructions to johanna. I've never canned anything before, but I am really curious to try. My email address is thyme2gardennow@gmail.com Your pickles and relish look great!

    ReplyDelete
  14. I just never have luck with cukes - I just don't have the space to give them I admit. But you sure have been busy - that's a lot of pickles (and relish)!

    ReplyDelete
  15. That's a lot of pickles, you sure have been busy! The tomatoes and eggplants are good looking too, and you seem to be drowning in tomatoes, who will be making and canning sauce, you or the Italian?

    ReplyDelete
  16. Nice harvest. I made some cucumber relish yesterday too. Yum. And Happy Anniversary.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Mac, that is a cabbage from spring. it tried to bolt and I got it to form a head

    Minji, I sent you an e-mail

    Stevie, I don't have much room here either. I grow my cucumbers up on a trellis at the edge of the raised bed.

    Angela, I do all of the growing and canning. "The Italian" takes the fruits of my labor and cooks!

    Shawn Ann, mamaraby, The Mom, Dan & Daphne......Thanks a bunch!!

    ReplyDelete
  18. Gorgeous harvest Robin!! I love all the colors!! So jealous!! Everything looks delicious!

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for visiting my blog and leaving a comment!