Harvest Monday

Here goes another addition of Harvest Monday. It has been a slow garden this year but things are picking up now.

These are the first tomatoes of the season, a handful of
Sungold Cherry Tomatoes. Looks like by next Monday I
should have actual full sized heirloom tomatoes.

A full basket of Dragon Tongue beans. These always do well
in the garden. Looks like my Blue Lake pole beans are still
taking their sweet ass time.

Two quarts of cucumbers were ready for harvest. This basket includes
Adam Gherkin F1 and Rocky F1, both are Parthenocarpic varieties.

This evening I harvested my Cascade Hops. This is their
second year and they are doing very well. They will be dried
and used to make beer. I am still waiting on the Nugget
and Goldings hops to mature.

Lastly the first head of Broccoli. These took ages this year
and are coming in kind of strange. It would appear broccoli
does not like cold springs followed by hot humid summers.

I've Gone Pickle Mad!

This past long weekend I turned 2 bushes of cucumbers into 81 jars of pickles. Needless to say I don't want to see another cucumber for a while... I made a few different kinds for the whole family which I will show below. This year I opted for an outdoor propane burner, 60,000 BTU of raw power :-) It boils the canner in minutes and does not heat up the house.

10 jars of Granny's Sweet Pickle Relish.

6 jars of Old Fashion Bread & Butter Pickles, recipe follows
in the post below.

15 jars of Baby Dill Pickles. I tried out some 2L jars for this batch.
They fill much faster and their larger size speeds up the
processing. I think I will use more of them next time.

Now for the big job, 50 1L jars of Halved Dill Pickles.

Charlie helped out too by filling boxes.

Old Fashion Bread and Butter PIckles

Yields 6 500ml jars

4lbs small pickling cucumbers
1 package pearl onions
2 tbsp pickling salt
4 cups cider vinegar
3 cups white sugar
2 tbsp mustard seed
1 tsp celery seed
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/4 tsp ground clove

1. Remove stem & blossom end from the cucumbers and slice into 3/16 inch rounds. Blanch & skin pearl onions. Place prepared cucumbers and onions in a large bowl, mix in salt and let stand 3 hours. Now drain & rinsed the vegetables.

2. Combine vinegar, sugar and spices in a large pot. Bring to boil over high heat. Then add the vegetables to the brine and boil until they are no longer bright green, about 30 seconds.

3. Remove the vegetables from the brine with a slotted spoon and pack into hot sterilized jars. Pour liquid over the vegetable to within 1/2 inch of the jar rim. Process 10 minutes in a boiling water bath.

Harvest Catch Up

Our cool weather has definitely departed now, the last few weeks have been hot and the last couple days have been scorchers. Above is a thermometer shot I took today in the deep shade under the big Maples out back, 36c (97f). Our day time high today was 38c(100f) and close to 46c (115f) with the humidex (heat index) factored in. Now for the task at hand, catching up on what I have harvested lately:

Here are the first cucumbers, Adams Gherkin F1. These
are a parthenocarpic variety that produce cucumbers
without pollination. They are producing very well now

I pulled all the garlic today. Timing their harvest is pretty critical.
They are ready for harvest when the bottom leaves die back leaving
about 5 green leaves on the top. If they are left past this the wrapper
will start deteriorate and the bulbs will not keep.

Here is another first of the season, Dragon Tongue beans.
These are great beans because they keep a nice texture when
cooked. I am still waiting on my Blue Lake Pole beans.

This is the last of the peas because they have all gone crispy
from the heat. I didn't get many pea photos on the blog
this season but they did do well during our cool damp spring.

Harvest Monday

This is my first time partaking in Daphne's Harvest Monday this season. It has been a long time coming! I'd say it is a mix of weather and weather related laziness. That said, the weather has actually been really nice the last few weeks. Lots of days above seasonal for once and the veg has been enjoying it. Below are some shots of what I pulled from the patch today:

A big collander of Pac Choi, both red & green. I am going to
plant some more this week because it is all harvested now.

Here are French Breakfast & Easter Egg radishes. They have done
well this season. I also need to seed more of these this week as well.

Lastly, I picked a few Purple Podded peas today. They will end up
in a stir fry very soon. These are the only peas that have produced
so far. Snap & Salmon Flowered peas are just setting now.

I'll warp things up with Charlie in a chinese take out bag....

Look for another garden update by the weekend.