Harvest Monday: Heartbreak Edition

Maybe I should call this the "heatbreak" edition! Because there has been both this week! Our awful heatwave finally broke yesterday and we are having more reasonable summer weather now. Thank goodness! I pushed myself to get outside ultra-early for the past two weeks to get the labor done before the heat got unbearable and I have to admit it has worn me out. This week I will take it a little easier and modify the pace a bit.
But yes, there has also been heartbreak. I harvested all my potatoes last week because the plants were dying back and got a terrific total of 30 pounds. But yesterday, alas, I found that most of them were rotting. Rotting! Sob! In doing some research I think, but am not sure, that they were the victims of early blight. They had started to blister under the skins and began weeping that foul-smelling decay that potatoes do when they rot. I had to throw most of them out and was able to keep only a fraction of what was harvested. Oh, sometimes gardening can really get you down. First the poor showing with zucchini (3 so far and all the first plantings about dead) and now the potatoes. So my gardening motivation is a little low at the moment!
BUT, there were some positives for Harvest Monday, which is hosted over at Daphne's Dandelions each Monday and here they are:

 There is one of my three zucchini and the only two yellow squash I have been able to harvest from my highly unproductive and now dying off summer squash plants. I have a fresh new planting that should start producing next month, so hope to get a few more. Hope springs eternal for the gardener! Those potatoes you see are "toast" now and it's making me sad just looking at them! I got more broccoli shoots and picked a few of my healthy but skinny little celery plants.

 Got a few more kohlrabi too and below you see my new favorite, Kossack! I heard about it from fellow bloggers last year and decided to give it a try. Not only does it produce a huge bulb, but it is sweeter than the other varieties I've had. This one is a keeper!

 I have two very large trombocino plants and harvested two beautiful specimens this week. One of them was a two pounder! Tasted great and helped take the sting out of the zucchini failures. Hopefully there'll be more. I've started to harvest cucumbers too, not a large amount, but a few Lemon and Double Yield. Also a flat yellow pole bean called Gold Marie Vining is starting to produce. All of the beets from my first planting were harvested last week except my Lutz Salad Leaf, which can get very large. But tucked in with them I found this overlooked perfect beet and have no idea what variety it is.

 The blueberries are coming in like gang-busters now. I've picked over seven pounds so far and there are plenty more on the bushes. I'll be out there later today picking them again. But the king of the garden this week is green beans. They are finally coming in and below is my first pound of them. There will be plenty more to come.

So goes the week! Barring any new disaster, next week should finally see my first ripe tomato. I have a number of small peppers, but nary an eggplant in sight. Every year is different isn't it? Every year a new challenge, a new disappointment and a new triumph. I've said it before and I'll say it again, gardening is a wonderful thing but it does keep you humble.