Harvest Monday: Allium Triumph Edition

 Beware! Lots of pictures in this week's Harvest Monday because I really didn't take time to group things together and, well, I really wanted to show off my alliums. But, first things first: Harvest Monday is graciously hosted by Daphne's Dandelions where each week gardeners from around the world share what they've harvested and to my mind many words of wisdom about the art of vegetable gardening. Go visit, it's very motivational!
They're here!! At last, my first ripe tomatoes. A full ten days later than last year, but finally we are able to taste the best of the summer garden, a fresh home-grown tomato. Sure hope there are a lot more of these soon!

 My overflowing basket of kale was also one of the bright spots of the week. I had a fabulous spring garden, but my summer garden is not one of the better ones. It seems that none of my heat loving plants are doing that well. Production is slow and limited and disease and pests are rife.

 Even the green beans are nowhere near as productive as I'm used to, but they are coming in at least. I also have begun to harvest my pole yellow beans in small handfuls.

 Broccoli shoots are still coming in steadily.  And below you can see my entire red cabbage harvest. Not one is bigger than a baseball. I have never figured out how to grow a large red cabbage. The white cabbages grow beautifully, but the reds are very reluctant to size up. I will cook these into German sweet and sour red cabbage and freeze for later use.

 The berries are still keeping my spirits up! Blueberries are still coming in strong. I've picked over seventeen pounds so far.

 We also have two patches of wild blackberries. They are a great treat, but unfortunately have settled themselves into very inconvenient spots on our property, attempting to crowd up to my garden and to smother my new little apple tree. They will have to be trimmed into submission after berry season is over.

 After harvesting three saladette tomatoes, my Sungolds decided it was time to ripen too. Hope there will be a lot more than these lonely two soon.

 But now...ta-da-da...I get to crow about the one triumph of my 2013 summer garden, my alliums! The garlic was trimmed and weighed last week and I got 13 pounds of it. By comparison, last year I harvested about four pounds and never did use it up. The garlic in the blue containers is what I'm saving for seed from each of six varieties. In the basket is the garlic we will use and give away.

 I harvested my onions yesterday and I can say without a doubt, they are the biggest and the best onions I have ever grown! Yay, onions! Last summer the vast majority of my onions were no bigger than sets, but this year, oh this year! Below are my Ailsa Craigs, which are not keepers, but will last about two months in storage. They are large and sweet and beautiful.

 I had to take a photo of the two very biggest onions in the lot. They are Ailsa Craig and I will weigh them when they're cured and trimmed.

 Here are the Redwings. The seed came in on backorder so they were started later than the other onions, but they still came out a pretty good size.

 I grew a number of varieties of yellow storage onions, Prince being my favorite. I also have some Copra, Pontiac, and Varsity. When I first planted out my seedlings, they all looked a bit wan and unhappy and I remember really worrying about whether they'd make it. My goodness, did they make it. Wish they'd tell a thing or two to the zukes, cukes, eggplant, peppers and carrots!

 Finally, here are my shallots, all grown from seed. I grew Prisma and Ambition and they also grew huge. When those seedlings were first planted out, about half had already died back in their flats, which made it that much nicer to see how well the survivers did this summer.

 All those alliums are now drying out on top of our old family camper, waiting for a bit of summer sun to help in the process of curing. Sunshine's been a bit scarce lately!

Here's to more good harvest as we close out the month of July! Already?!