Monday, August 17, 2009

Monday's Harvest Post

Here goes this Monday's Harvest post. If you would like to join in you can post your link on Daphne's Dandelions for all to see.

First of all I will update on the garden. The past week or so it has actually been hot which has been a drastic change from what most of the summer has been. Today the high was 30c(86f) and with the humidix factored it was 38c(100f). I hope this weather sticks for the remainder of summer because all the warms season crops have shown a drastic improvement in growth. In fact I think update photo's will be in order at some point this week.

Now onto the harvests. They have been very similar to last weeks harvests with a few tomatoes, beans, zucchini and lots of cucumbers. For the most part the harvests have been just enough to consumes quickly which has been nice. With that said I think in the next week or two I will be in a glut of tomatoes & beans which will need preserving.

Aug 13th harvest: Here are a bunch of small storage onions as you can tell in reference to the pickling cucumbers. They will be used whole in stews this winter. We also have cucumbers and a zucchini. Believe it or not my zuc really is not producing much. I hope with the heat it starts because I wanted to make a half batch of zucchini relish this year.

August 15th harvest: Above is more cucumbers, they have really done well this year. Also in the basket is a few cherry tomatoes, a chocolate stripe tomato & a siletz tomato. In the next photo is a full basket of dill heads that I used for the 7 litres of baby dill pickles I made Friday night. I made them extra dilly as you can see and a post about them to come soon.

August 16th harvest: I noted a few post ago that the red fingerlings had started to die back so I have since harvested them. From the 24" contained they were growing in I harvested 1lb 11oz of fingerlings which doesn't seem to shabby to me. The funny things about them is I planted red fingerling potatoes and ended up with mostly yellow fingerlings with a little bit of rose here and there. I also harvested the last romanesco broccoli head and it was about half the size of the first one. They seem to turn an off color when they mature in the heat. I think next year I will plant early for harvest in June.

August 17th harvest: Today I harvested the last of the set grown onions. They die back much faster then the seed grown ones and I find they mature much smaller. I also picked a siletz tomato and a few cherry tomatoes including the first velvet red tomato from The Conservative Gardener. Then I harvested another litre of dragon tongue beans which seems to be a Monday ritual lately.

Well in the garden today I noticed that quite a few charentais melons are setting, I am really hoping for at least a couple ripe one this season. The squash are also really ballooning in this heat and the pole beans will be ready by next week, finally! Lots of tomatoes are starting to faintly show signs of color! Bad news is today was the first time I did a harvest without any cucumbers. The vines have alot of mildew & yellow spots so I don't think they will be around long. There is how ever about 6-8 small cukes on the vine which I think may be the last of them .

Lastly there has been alot of talk about Woodstock with its anniversary just passing so I thought I would post a close-up of the romanesco broccoli. Hope you all have a good trip :-)

5 comments:

  1. Who needs acid with a pic like this !
    Great harvest, Dan. I got to get dragon tongue next year. They're splendid.

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  2. This has been the summer without much zucchini here too. I did pick two today and there are a couple more set on the vine, but really I should be drowning in them. Ah well. There is always next year and the hope for a warmer June.

    Those dill heads are so pretty. If I had some cucumbers to pickle I'd pick mine too. I do have to go out and get some seed though. A lot of them are setting already.

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  3. Haha love the fractally broc! Definitely good for woodstock. Also that Stripey tomato looks delicious!

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  4. I think those dragon tongue beans are kind of "far out" too! LOL!

    My green zucchini quit producing for me weeks ago and while the gold is still providing for the dinner table - were are not exactly swimming in them either. The plants are healthy so it is a bit of a mystery.

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