Harvest Monday Mid-August Edition

Happy Monday! Can you believe it's the middle of August already? I feel as if I just finished my spring planting, so it makes for some disoriented thinking! To complicate things around here we've had a few weeks of unusually cool and dry weather, reminiscent of what we normally get at the end of September. It has helped to shift the mind to the renewal of all the yearly activities that begin in fall. For me that includes choir and directing my church's children's program, both of which take a much appreciated break in the summer. But it's still high summer and the garden is busy producing as well as growing the fall crops.

 This week it feels like there's a lot of sameness to what I am harvesting, though strictly speaking that's not true. There are small tomatoes, as the large ones are still far from ripening, beans and more beans. Not complaining though, because it's a harvest! And it's so good to be finally enjoying my own summer tomatoes. But there has been a lot more diversity than it feels like. For instance:

 A few carrots at last! The tail end of the summer lettuce. There's a bit more out there and I have 8 small plants that I hope will grow into production soon. I also picked some more kale, pounds of the Gold Marie Vining beans and the Fresh Pick green beans are starting to really produce now. I have some scallions and herbs like parsley, basil and cilantro. It's my first time growing cilantro. Is there any way to preserve it? Can it be frozen like parsley?

 Still managed to get quite a few broccoli shoots as well as two small heads from a late planting. I harvested four of my late cabbages and another Saffron summer squash. That lone summer squash plant has already outproduced the two early ones I planted as well as those eight miserable zucchini plants. I also picked two more good sized trombocino squashes. Cucumbers are beginning to come in at a nice rate. They are doing so much better than last year's.

I have two semi-successful dill plants, so I picked a bit to pop in the freezer. I love the taste of dill in many dishes. Above you can see some Tango celery, also ready to be chopped and frozen. I planted another variety called Afina Cutting, which is growing well, but the stalks are really just thin stems and it acts more like parsley than the thicker stalked celery I'm used to. The flavor is the same though so it'll be useful in soups and stews. Not sure I would bother growing it again.
That's my mid-August harvest! This week is expected to be more like our typical August, hot and humid, so I'll have to keep a close eye on the small fall seedlings that are struggling to take hold. Now to pop on over to Daphne's Dandelions to see the other Harvest Monday links of the week!