Harvest Monday

I can't believe another week of September has gone by already! I had every intention to do another garden post between the Harvest Mondays but the days just flew. It has been a busy week. I actually went shopping twice. To the mall. Nowadays that seems like something out of a different life, but I needed a dress for a wedding we were to attend this weekend and boy, those aren't so easy to find these days! The Bible club for children that I administer at my church started up this week so I was running around preparing for that too. All I really got done garden-wise was harvesting and preparing and canning tomato sauce and a batch of salsa. The garden looks pretty lame but the harvests are still coming in.

 Here they are in all their glory: my eight butternut squashes and one buttercup. Four years ago after every single one of my winter squash plants died squashless, to paraphrase Scarlet O'Hara I said "As God is my witness, I WILL grow a winter squash!" Each year since there has been improvement. Yay! I actually grew nine butternuts this year, but the smallest broke off its stem and began to decay, so I cooked the good (and not quite ripe) part. Not only are these the most butternuts I've ever grown, but they are also the largest, so I'm quite pleased. I actually like the taste of buttercup squash better and the one in the photo is a beauty. I was able to grow three others which are a bit (or a lot) smaller. At the top left of the photo above the squashes are two honeydew melons. My melons all did very poorly, with only three getting to a usable size. These two weren't fully ripe, but still tasted good.

 My honeydews are so rare around here they are taking another bow in this pic! Above also are the first of my fall Hakurai turnips. They turned out beautiful and I still have a batch growing which will be picked this week. The bowl is full of arugula and as you can see I got one Lipstick pepper and a couple of the last cucumbers.

 Pretty close to the last eggplant, peppers and tomatoes were brought in this week too. Just when I think the Gold Marie Vining beans have had it they put out another batch of yellow beans for me. The Chinese Red Noodle beans are still coming in nicely and I'm still getting more green beans than we need.

 My scallions were another interplanting success. I planted them in spring between the early cabbage and they are looking very good now. On the plate you see two tiny watermelons. The vines were dead, so I picked them. They made two tasty mouthfuls. I have one small watermelon that actually has some size to it (maybe about the size of a duckpin bowling ball) and I'm anxious to pick it, but I think it's not quite ready. It'll be another first for this garden. Like winter squash, I have a long way to go to successful melon growing!

 There's still plenty of kale! The late summer bugs are doing a number on it though!

And lastly, more beans, beans, beans! That the Harvest Monday haul this time around! Be sure to head over to Daphne's Dandelions to see what gardeners all over the world are harvesting this week!