Monday, July 22, 2013

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.

30 comments:

  1. Oh, how diappointing to have your potatoes start rotting due to blight :(

    At least the rest of your harvest is looking good :)

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    1. Thanks so much! A little sympathy always helps :-)

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  2. I'm very sorry to hear about your lost potatoes. this is definitely not a good year for a garden, but you do have beautiful harvest of green beans and kohlrabi. Squash is looking good too.

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    1. Thank you Jenny! It's certainly a mixed bag this year!

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  3. There is always good and bad in the garden isn't there! Bummer about your potatoes! I hope you get some squash out of your second planting. I was so determined to get squash this year I planted plenty and early and boy did I get what I wanted and then some. I will do the same next year. Those bugs can just really do a number on the squash.

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    1. Accepting losses is part of the deal with gardening isn't it? I'm trying to be happy with what I do get! Thanks for your comment!

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  4. I'm so sorry about your potatoes. It's always something, unfortunately. This is my year for lousy root crop production, small beets and small or nonexistent carrots. Many of my tomato plants look like they might die, and yesterday there was a foul, rotted half-ripe tomato on one of the healthy looking plants. At least we both have beautiful beans, and I'd love it if I could share my summer squash and zucchini with you!

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    1. Aw, thanks for the comments Granny! I have good stuff coming in and I imagine it's some kind of miracle if everything were to be great, so I'll take what I can. The potatoes were hard though because they all looked so beautiful before the rot set in!

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  5. Sorry to hear your potatoes got rot. That would be very disappointing. However, you have a lot of other things in your harvest basket that are worth celebrating. Those fresh beans, that perfect beet, and lots of blueberries! YUM!

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    1. True, Kitsap, I have to look on the positive side of things!

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  6. Oh I'm sorry about the potatoes. Two years ago we lost about 30% of our harvest to a similar rot! I was afraid it was some kind of soil born issue so I moved the potatoes along way away the next year and had no issues!

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    1. Well I suspect it is something to do with the soil but I don't have lots of places I can move them! Still, I rotate crops as much as I can so maybe next year will be different.

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  7. Can I join your Heartbreak Club?! Sorry about your potatoes but you are still harvesting more than I am if that makes you feel any better. LOL Hoping from here on the rest of the summer will be better for your garden. Great harvest of green beans! Nancy

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    1. Thanks Nancy and I'm truly sorry you want to join the heartbreak club! Hope you have some improvements in your harvests, but honestly what I've seen you show so far looks pretty good!

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  8. I'm west of you in NYS with the same weather. My squashes aren't doing very well either. It's the weather. It looks like you have a good variety of veggies, so something will flourish. It is a different veggie every year though.

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    1. Welcome Mary (I'm assuming that's your name)and yeah I agree the weather's been touchy this year, too wet at times, too dry at others, too muggy almost always which promotes disease that I've got in spades here. This year it's my alliums that are flourishing when last year they did terrible. You are right about different ones every year!

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  9. I too am joining your heartbreak club. Lost half of my okra plants due to very cold nights (40's) late in the season. The surviving plants are still small, not sure if I will get any harvest.
    Growing trombocino for the first time, I see 2 small fruits, unfortunately the plant is not getting enough sun due to the neighbor's trees.

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    1. Oh, that is too bad about your okra. I think trees are a real problem in the northeast. They are beautiful, but boy do I envy people with wide open expanses over their gardens! I noticed the trombocino get very large almost overnight, so wait and see!

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  10. Those beans look wonderful. Too bad about the potatoes. But you are right, every year has its ups and downs. You just never know what it will be until it happens.

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    1. Too true Daphne! Just wait till I show off my onions!

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  11. I feel your heartbreak pain. It seems nothing is going right this year in my garden. Hang in there and enjoy what harvests you do get. And I'm always thankful that there are grocery stores because we would have starved long ago if we had to survive on what I could grow!

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    1. Hi Julie! Sorry you're having your troubles in the garden too. I can't imagine having to completely depend on my garden though I wish I could. I kept thinking about the Irish potato famine and how those poor families felt seeing what they depended on to eat turning into hideous mush.

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  12. Too bad about the potatoes. Gardeners everywhere seem to be having trouble with them while a few have a bumper crop. Still, your kohlrabi and beans look great.

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    1. Thanks David! Definitely have to look on the bright side of things after the initial disappointment! Every summer is different.

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  13. I wish I could swap some of my zukes for some of your beans. Beans are my heartbreak crop this year, I just keep killing the poor babies off! Gardening isn't as easy as it seems, but the rewards keep you growing. It looks like you have lots of good veggies in spite of the problems.

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    1. That is very true Michelle! I think you can call yourself a gardener when you keep at it despite the failures! And the successes make it all worth it.

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  14. That is terrible about the potatoes! I can commiserate with garden troubles. Last year we got no cucumbers, but this year we can't give them all away. It's always something. Gardening sure has a way of humbling you sometimes, at least it does me. Aren't those Kossack kohlrabis nice though!

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    1. The Kossacks are great Dave! I think it was from your blog that I first found out about them. What really impressed me was how nice they tasted raw despite the large size.

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  15. So sorry about your potatoes, every year we gardeners have ups and downs failures and successes, hopefully you'll have a bumper crop next season.
    Your green beans are beautiful, I had one trumbocino squash plant last year, it produced so many squashes I could handle it, but I like the taste and texture better than zuchinni, I'll probably grow it again next year.

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    1. Welcome Mac, and thanks for the sympathy! I am really liking the trombocino too and it is certainly taking the sting out of the zucchini failure!

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