I am really starting to like posting about harvests on Monday. It really is a great day to get out in the garden and round up everything that needs harvesting. It is also nice to consolidate each harvest of the previous seven days to see how things are going. If you would like to join in, you can do a Monday's Harvest Post and put your link into
Daphne's Mister Linky so everyone can check it out.
This is the first harvest of the past seven days. It includes my minuscule shallot harvest, next year I know to plant a lot more and closer together. There also is a few tiny storage onions, six cucumbers and the first zuc of the season.
Here is the tomatoes I have harvested lately. In behind are two green hillbilly tomatoes that were accidentally pruned off during last weeks tomato pruning, I hope they ripen inside. In front is one variegated tomato (the red one), beside that is black zebra's and the end three are black cherry. The smaller tomatoes are really starting to turn now but the big heirlooms are still a ways off from ripening.
Here is today's harvest. The first thing on the chopping block was one of the Romanesco broccoli.
Sow This, Sew That was blogging that her Romanesco turned color and went bitter so the next day I tied up the leaves over my heads to blanch them. They did turn back to a more green color and they smell like sweet cauliflower. I will cook this head for tomorrows dinner and will report on its taste on this Thursday's garden meals. I then harvested about a litre of dragon tongue beans, to bad the cukes are hiding most of them. I wasn't sure about how these beans would taste when I order them but they are excellent. The best beans I have every tried and very productive too. The last of today's harvest was a couple cucumbers. The cucumbers have done really well again this year, I'm starting to think I should have a cucumber counter not a tomato counter!
This is the first harvest of the past seven days. It includes my minuscule shallot harvest, next year I know to plant a lot more and closer together. There also is a few tiny storage onions, six cucumbers and the first zuc of the season.
Here is the tomatoes I have harvested lately. In behind are two green hillbilly tomatoes that were accidentally pruned off during last weeks tomato pruning, I hope they ripen inside. In front is one variegated tomato (the red one), beside that is black zebra's and the end three are black cherry. The smaller tomatoes are really starting to turn now but the big heirlooms are still a ways off from ripening.
Here is today's harvest. The first thing on the chopping block was one of the Romanesco broccoli. Sow This, Sew That was blogging that her Romanesco turned color and went bitter so the next day I tied up the leaves over my heads to blanch them. They did turn back to a more green color and they smell like sweet cauliflower. I will cook this head for tomorrows dinner and will report on its taste on this Thursday's garden meals. I then harvested about a litre of dragon tongue beans, to bad the cukes are hiding most of them. I wasn't sure about how these beans would taste when I order them but they are excellent. The best beans I have every tried and very productive too. The last of today's harvest was a couple cucumbers. The cucumbers have done really well again this year, I'm starting to think I should have a cucumber counter not a tomato counter!
Those monster huge mammajamma beans are BUSH beans you were telling me about, Dan!? This is the sound of my jaw hitting the ground.
ReplyDeleteGreat pictures, Dan. I wish I could participate in the monday harvest thing, but don't have time to set up for a shot.
ReplyDeleteRibbit - Those are the beans. They do grown rather large and flat. I have been picking them young and eating them just like a green bean of which they taste the same or better. You can also grow them to maturity to use as a dry bean for chili etc. When cooked they loss the purple color and turn a light green, the dry beans look kind of like a kidney bean.
ReplyDeleteEG - I always have my camera so I have made a mental note to take a shot of each harvest. So far I have not missed a harvest.
I hate it when I accidentally cut tomatoes before they're ripe! It happens at least once or twice a season.
ReplyDeleteThat Romanesco broccoli is a creepy looking veggie. I've seen it in the seed catalogs before but it just looks so......ugly. I'm curious to know what it taste like.
So, what IS your secret to the great cucumber harvests? Inquiring minds want to know!
ReplyDeleteDennis - The romanesco is quite strange and rather psychedelic looking.
ReplyDeleteKitsapFG - I think a lot of it is the variety. It is called 'double yield' and as the name implys it quite often produces two cukes on a stem. I also started them a month early in peat pots. Asides from that, that is all I have done with them. They are getting a little mildue the last couple days which is not a good sign.
I'm jealous of your cukes. Mine seemed off to a good start (lots of females) but then many didn't set and those that have are just so slow to grow.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful harvest, Dan. :)
I don't think I could wait a whole week before harvesting! At the moment everything is coming thick and fast. I'm going away on holiday next week so have to just pick everything almost ripe and will probably have to give it away. You just bet my courgettes will have turned into marrows when I get back!
ReplyDeleteMy second planting of romanesque is just starting to make heads so I'm going to try your suggestion and tie up the leaves this time. Last time the bugs ate the leaves so badly there was literally nothing to tie up!
ReplyDeleteDragon tongue beans always look so pretty. I wish there were a pole bean version. Do the beans keep their color when they get cooked?
ReplyDeleteMiss M - I find the first flush of flowers never really set well. I bet your next set of blooms will be full of cukes.
ReplyDeleteMatron - I do harvest all week and snap a photo of them for Mondays post. I do find monday is a good day to do a good thorough harvest though.
Sande - Can't wait to see your second harvest. I wish I started some more.
Daphne - When you cook them the younger ones turn bight green and the older ones turn a lime green color. Taste wise they are excellent and a very nice texture as well.
You have a good mix in your harvest. We are pretty much picking about 15 tomatoes a day. We can't sun dry or give them away fast enough.
ReplyDeleteI have never seen broccoli that looked like that. I'll check back to learn about cooking it went, and perhaps get another idea of what to do with mine.
ReplyDeleteHooray for cukes! I had some that my sister-in-law harvested from her community farm last week. I though cukes needed warmer conditions; although they are small I was surprised about their success.