It's Harvest Monday over at
Daphne's Dandelions where gardeners are sharing their harvest with one another! Hop on over to see what goodies everyone's bringing in this early August week!
Even after the slowdown with all the hot weather, my harvest is ahead of this time last year so I really can't complain. But I still will. Tomatoes. Sigh. No, seriously, I am getting tomatoes and some is much better than none. I even got some canned this week.
I picked the last of my first sowing of beets. These are Lutz Salad Leaf and they are huge! But they still cook up tender and sweet, which is very nice.
My basket is overflowing with tomatoes, summer squash, peppers and broccoli.
Swallow eggplants are doing amazingly well. More ratatouille coming up!
Summer squash is starting up from my second planting. The early plants are ready to be pulled out since the squash bugs have pretty much killed them.
Peppers are coming in strong! I counted over eighty small ones on the plants, so there should be plenty in the freezer for use throughout the year in spaghetti sauces and on pizzas.
Green bean patch #2 just started producing and patch #1 is blossoming again, so we will be knee deep in beans again this week. It's hard to believe I'm getting them already; as you recall, patch #2 was planted in the spot where my soft neck garlic had been in the spring.
Broccoli shoots! Wow, a nice little batch of them. This is my best ever broccoli season. My main heads were small, but I made up for it by planting lots of them and they are putting out many small side shoots. Since broccoli has always been our favorite vegetable I am beyond happy to have been able to freeze quite a few packets.
And I got a few good sized cukes. Not getting nearly enough for a batch of pickles, but enough to make a batch of pickle relish and to enjoy as a snack.
I had one more unexpected and unwanted harvest. My little watermelon fell off its stem. Maybe if I'd supported it, it wouldn't have, but the stem looked dried up so maybe it would've happened anyway. Of course, it wasn't quite ripe. Needed another week or two. That made me sad, but I ate it anyway. The pink bits were tasty and gave me an idea of what would have been. Someday maybe I'll succeed in growing a nice ripe watermelon!
Well, that's it for this week's harvest. Hope all you gardeners out there have a great gardening week ahead!
That's a wonderful harvest. And you are ahead of your totals from last year? That's great.
ReplyDeleteThank you! As I've been gradually improving the soil here I'm definitely seeing improvement in the harvests.
DeleteLove the harvest baskets overflowing with garden bounty! Picture perfect. That broccoli really does look excellent. Nice haul on the beans too. Our plantings are just getting started. I have a second planting put in after the garlic was finished too and it is racing right a long and catching up quickly to the early plantings.
ReplyDeleteAmazing how fast things grow in summer isn't it? Especially beans; good thing we love them! Hope you get lots!
Deletesad to hear about the melon; I had two cantaloupe that cracked and rotted because they were no where near ripe; but the rest of your harvest is looking amazing!
ReplyDeleteThank you! There's always next time isn't there? Gardeners are optimists!
DeleteI always aim high and hope to harvest amounts like what you've got here, but I know that half of it would end up with the neighbors. That's an enormous bounty! I had the same problem with broccoli not giving big enough heads but now I'll change my tune seeing that you let the shoots grow out. I always pulled the broccoli and tossed it into the compost.
ReplyDeleteRowena, I think I get more from the side shoots sometimes than the main heads! Not all varieties give side shoots, but the ones I plant do and I'm glad of it! I overplant because I don't always get a good harvest and my aim is to stock the freezer so as not to have to buy veggies in winter. I also like to have enough to give to people if I can.
DeleteMmmmm...cukes! We're still waiting on our cukes, and it's tortuous! I think this week just might be the week!
ReplyDeleteSorry about your little watermelon! I'm glad you got to enjoy it a bit, at least! We have yet to grow any successful melons, but it doesn't stop us from trying :-)
Ever the optimistic gardeners are we! Good luck with your cukes; mine are much less productive this year than last, but every year is different!
DeleteYour eggplants look perfect! I'm having trouble with beetles...I've been able to harvest some but not as pretty as yours! Great looking vegetables!
ReplyDeleteThank you! Although on close inspection you can see a number of the eggplants with little slug bites out of them.
Deletegreat harvest - I wish I had some home grown food this year, but as we are moving I have to rely on the farmers market for most everything. I envy your tomatoes and well, everything you are growing I love.
ReplyDeleteThank you Stevie! Hopefully you can garden next season in your new place. Thank goodness for farmer's markets springing up all over the place these days. Good luck with your move!
DeleteYour green beans look great as does everything else. I'm flabergasted at how much eggplant you have there. I can't bleive the rain killed off my 3 plants already. Wahhhh.... Oh well!! :-)
ReplyDeleteSorry about your eggplants! I have to admit, I plant a lot of them (over 20 plants) because we use a lot of eggplant, my spouse being a vegetarian.
DeleteI love lutz beets, they stay well in the ground and don't get woody. Your baskets sure are overflowing. That's a lot of beans, lovely.
ReplyDeleteI discovered Lutz last year. They grew huge, but one day I went to pull one and found it completely hollowed out by voles! So no more leaving in the ground too long,lol!
DeleteLooks like a great harvest. I love the beans, mine didn't do well this year so I'm a little jealous. Maybe me second planting will make up for it????
ReplyDeleteGood luck with that second planting! Actually my first planting was really a second one as the first sprouts all disappeared mysteriously!
DeleteWhat a pity about your melon. The rest of your produce looks glorious. Well done!
ReplyDeleteThank you! It's always something,but I generally don't give up.
DeleteThat harvest looks wonderful.
ReplyDelete