Harvest Monday................... 09/24/2012

I weighed the Kennebec potatoes that I dug last week figuring that would be about it for the harvests this week. Then I went to the plots to start Fall Clean-Up! I always take my harvesting containers just in case. It's a good thing I did!

Here are the Kennebec Potatoes that I harvest last week

They were a nice size and the yield was OK

These are the ones we will eat first. 

They are the tiny potatoes and the potatoes that have some type of damage.

I pulled all of the tomato plants from the one bed and managed to get some nice tomatoes

and some pretty tomatoes

and some more green tomatoes for Green Tomato Salsa. Since some of the other green tomatoes turned red.

Sweet Peppers

A few more yummy Raspberries

The last of the Sugar Pie Pumpkins and biggest leek I have ever grown! This baby is at least 2" across at the bottom!

The nicest Jalapenos so far this year and the Habaneros are finally getting ripe! 

More Eggplant

I have no idea what I'm going to do with these! 

The first Lima Beans of the year. 

The vines were so dense that I couldn't find them until I trimmed them back.

Total weighed harvest: 50.92 lbs.

Beans,Lima - 12.8 oz

Eggplant - 34.15 oz

Leek - 8 oz

Onions (not pictured) 38 oz

Peppers:

    Hot & Spice - 30 oz

    Sweet - 24.52 oz

Potatoes, Kennebec - 450 oz 28.13 lbs

Pumpkin, Sugar Pie - 47.5 oz

Raspberries - 3.2 oz

Tomatoes:

    Red - 138.55 oz

    Green - 28 oz

Hop on over to Daphne's Dandelions, our host of Harvest Monday to see what's going on in gardens around the globe!!!

The State of the Plots Mid-July Part 2

In the previous post "The State of the Plots Part 1", I went through Beds #1-4. In this post we will go through Beds # 5-8 and Plot 102.

Click on any picture to enlarge

This is Bed #5

In the front of Bed #5 are French Cantaloupe. I lost one plant so far and it looks like another one is on it's way out.

Behind the cantaloupe in Bed #5 are some more Pickling Cucumbers. They are struggling along just like the other cucs and just starting to produce.

The next in Bed #5 are two Small Sugar Pumpkin plants. They are very happy right now. Let's hope that it stays that way!

Following the pumpkins are a few leeks which I forgot to take pics of. They are struggling with this weather. Next are the cabbage. There are a couple of Savoy, Tet Noire and Red Acre. All of the heads are small and I have yet to harvest one. They were planted late.

This is where the spring Broccoli was planted. I sowed some Great Northern Dry Beans here and covered them with straw. These are starting to pop up too.

The Sweet Peppers are next in this bed. They are also much much smaller then the plants last year. I'm sure we will have enough to get us through the winter. At the end of this bed are two Zucchini plants which I failed to take a picture of. One was sown 2 weeks ahead of the other and are doing well.

Bed #6

The Raspberries and Blackberries are planted in this bed. They transplanted well. Hopefully we will get a late harvest of Raspberries. The Blackberries have some fruit and new shoots on them. Their harvest will be very very small as they were cut way back to transplant.

Due to the small size of the Blackberry transplants I was able to plant celery, onions and Purple Pole Beans in this bed. Next year I don't think there will be much space for any additional crops. The celery is really suffering due to our extreme heat and lack of rain this year. The onions are also very small.

The Purple Pole Beans are doing well and hopefully will start producing soon.

Bed #7 is the Strawberry Bed.

The transplanted strawberries are much much smaller then the roots I put in at the far end.

This is where the Strawberries transition from the transplants to the new roots. Boy, what a difference! They are even the same variety. Hopefully we will have a bumper crop of strawberries next year!

Bed #8 is divided in to 3 parts. 

There is Asparagus at this end. In the front I sowed some late peas where the Favas were planted. I also covered them with straw to hold moisture in so they would germinate.

In the middle of Bed #8 there are 4 Celery plants and onions. As you can see all of the celery is really struggling with this weather. It's a good thing I planted way more then we need to get us through the year.

The onions are so so small in comparison to last year. I really don't know if we will have enough for the year.

There are a few good size onions. But these are Walla Walla onions and they should be twice this size. I'm going to dice them up and freeze them.

The far end of Bed #8 is planted with another variety of Asparagus. I also sowed some peas here.

Last but not least is Plot #102.

Patti & I pulled all of the tall weeds in about 1 1/2 hours. Yesterday, I weed whacked the rest down. Now, we just need to get it tilled. Then we will put up the fencing we have accumulated and start planting fall crops!

Harvest Monday..............09/12/2011

This past week was not a nice week weather wise, here in our parts. It rained all week. The days are getting shorter, we don't have any more news on the garden move.....so, I have not been a happy camper and have not felt like blogging one bit. I have been getting some canning done which will make for some good posts at a later date.

The only harvest from the home garden that I weighed and took a picture of are two more Spaghetti Squash.

These fine babies were harvested on Tuesday or Wednesday. The green striped one was on the same vine as a few of the others I have harvested. It is now changing to a nice golden color.

The Moon & Stars watermelon from last weeks harvest was ripe...but, could have been left on the vine a bit longer. It was OK and I'm sure that it would have been sweeter if I had left it on the vine.

Sunday, I finally made it to the plots and harvested the last Moon & Stars Watermelon, a White Fortna Pumpkin, 4 Leeks and some small ears of Popcorn. The popcorn will be dried and weighed at a later date. I don't know what is with my leeks this year. They are so early and the outer layer of these four were starting to get mushy so I had to pull them. I really like to leave them in the garden and harvest them during the cold days of fall and winter.

I also harvested three Eggplant a hand full of Purple Pole beans and lots of peppers at the plots. The bean tepee fell down again from all the rain and wind this week. Unfortunately they are done for the year. I think that I will get some more eggplant and definitely  a lot more peppers from the plants at the plots.

These beautiful Habanero peppers some Serrano peppers and Pepperoncinis were also harvested from the plots yesterday. I'm working on making different types of hot sauce.....so, we will see how they turn out.

Here they are....the last salvagable tomatoes from the plots. The green tomatoes will be made into something that will be canned and posted about at a later date. The red tomatoes will be made in to some more tomato puree. There are also a couple of Trail of Tears dry beans in between the tomatoes. They are just starting to get ready. I think it will be a couple of weeks before most of them are ready though.

Total weighed harvests this week - 26.5 lbs.

Eggplant - 24 oz.
Leeks - 18 oz.
Peppers:
   Bell - 22 oz.
   Hot & Spice - 33 oz.
Pumpkin White Fortna - 34 oz.
Spaghetti Squash - 92 oz.
Tomatoes:
   Green - 67 oz.
   Red - 86 oz.
Watermelon - 48 oz.

Stop by Daphne's Dandelions our host of Harvest Monday to see what's happening in Veggie Gardens and Kitchens around the globe!!

Pending change & Plots clean-up

I have been in a blue funk since receiving the mail on Monday. I received a letter from Farmland Preservation, the county department in charge of the Community Gardens. Subject: "THE CEDARBROOK GARDEN PLOTS - MOVING TO A NEW LOCATION!". What????

It seems that someone in the county has made a decision to move the gardens. For what reason?? They are not sure. But, it seems that the county wants to use that land for something else. The gardens have been there for quite some time (20 years + or -). They used to be in another location until the county sold that land Dorney Park.

Needless to say, I was very upset. I sent an e-mail to the woman who is responsible for the gardens on Monday afternoon. Tuesday morning I received a response and talked to her on the phone. Her department had no idea that the county had planned to move the gardens and at that point had no details on the dates. Typical goverment!!

Yesterday, I finally went over there to get things cleaned up from Irene. While I was there I talked to some gardeners who have been there since the beginning and went through the last move. Rumor has it, that it will be some time until the gardens are moved.....maybe as late as fall of 2012 or spring of 2013. Who knows at this point!!!

That being said....here's what the plots look like after several hours of tidying up and weed wacking.

The bean tepee is standing once again. I put it upright, added some supports and tied it to the fence. None of the plants were uprooted.

I put a metal stake in the ground and tied the corn and beans to it in the "Three Sisters" planting in Bed #2. The leaning posts and trellis for the Sweet Dumpling squash was removed and so were the plants. I did find one more squash.

 

I left the leaning tomato plants alone in Tomato Alley. The plants are almost dead and why bother to try to make them upright at this point. I harvested some ripe tomatoes and a handful of green ones that were on the ground. The plants will most likely be removed, if I have the time over the long holiday weekend.

Asparagus beds look great!

The corn & beans in other "Three Sisters" planting were staked  and tied up too. There are a few small white pumpkins on the vines in this bed. We shall see how big they get before the vines die off. As you can see, powdery mildew is setting in

The hot & spice peppers and celery in this bed are thriving. The eggplants are doing OK too!

Burr Gherkin cucumbers still growing like crazy!

The bell peppers did really well. I only found two broken branches and only had to harvest two green peppers. The one plant is nearly 4' high at this point! Hopefully we will have enough warmer weather to allow the peppers to turn in color.

That's about it for now. I will post any news about the pending garden move as soon as I receive it.

Harvest Monday..........8/22/2011

The harvests slowed down significantly this week due to the diseased tomato plants at the plots. We did however, have some unusual firsts for this time of the year. I didn't take a lot of pictures of the harvests this week as we were very busy with family, life and I was doing a lot of this......

Yep....the "Can Can"!!

I had to harvest two leeks from the home garden this week. I usually don't start harvesting the leeks until the fall. However, these two were a good size and the outer layer was starting to get a little slimy. I guess it was from the weather. The remaining leeks at the home garden and plots look fine and hopefully won't need to be harvested until much later this year or next. We really enjoy harvesting fresh leeks from the garden during the fall and winter to enjoy in Leek & Potato Soup on a cold day.

The first Purple Pole beans were harvested this week. I sowed the seeds very late in the season and they just started to produce this past week.

The first and only Orange Field Pumpkin of this year was harvested this week.

Total Harvest for the week: 41.71875 lbs.

Beans, Puple Pole - 8 oz.

Cucumbers:

    Burr - 6 oz.

    Japanese & Slicing - 52 oz.

Eggplant - 25 oz.

Leeks - 9 oz.

Peppers:

    Sweet - 58 oz.

    Hot & Spice - 35 oz.

Pumpkin - 96 oz. (6 lbs)

Tomatoes - 355.5 oz. (22.22 lbs)

Zucchini - 23 oz.

Stop by Daphne's Dandelions our host of Harvest Monday to see what's going on in Veggie Gardens and Kitchens around the globe!

Harvest Monday ............... 08/15/2011

Last week was a very busy week around here. The garden is still in full swing. I had a lot of preserving to try to catch up on, "The Italian" and I celebrated our 3rd Anniversary on Tuesday, lots of family stuff, I'm trying to get the fall garden ready and I had garden visitors from Maryland. Marcia from Birds, Blooms, Books etc. stopped by with her husband on Friday. We had breakfast at a local diner and then we went over to the plots. They were heading North for a family vacation and stopped in the area over night to visit with family & see the garden plots.

There were a lot of firsts this week in the gardens....so I thought that I would post pictures of some new and different veggies that were harvested this week.

Some Red Sweet Peppers, Habanero Peppers (seed from Mimi) and those funny little round green things are Burr Gherkin Cucumbers.

I ordered Gherkin Cucumber seeds from the Landis Valley Museum Heirloom Seed Project. What I expected was not what I got. The description did not say that they were a variety of Burr Cucumber. They are kind of cool looking though and I found a great recipe for them. If I get enough, I think that I will make a batch of sweet pickles with them also.

The first cucumbers were harvested this week. The two at the top/left are Japanese Cucumbers and the other two are a slicing variety. I direct sowed the cucumbers as a second crop after the peas in the garden. Next year I'm going to sow one slicing cucumber early and the cucumbers for preserving later. Then "The Italian" will have cucs for eating early in the season. I'm happy that I didn't sow the cucumbers earlier. I would really be going crazy making pickles at the same time as the tomato glut!

This is a Korean Melon.

 A friend of ours, who is from Korea, dropped off a couple of melons for us last year. I saved some of the seeds and planted a few at the plots. I don't remember what it tastes like and we haven't eaten this one yet.

Top to Bottom

Three Spaghetti Squash, One Fortina White Pumpkin, Three Long Island Cheese Squash (seed from Mimi) and Four Sweet Dumplings (or Little Dumplings)

Total weighed Harvest for the week: 85.53125 lbs.

Cabbage Red - 44 oz.

Cucumbers - 31.5 oz.

Cucumbers , Burr - 6.5 oz.

Eggplant - 14 oz.

Melon, Korean - 14.5 oz.

Peppers:

   Bell - 24 oz.

   Hot - 19 oz.

Squash:

    Long Island Cheese - 95 oz.

    Spaghetti - 128 oz.

    Sweet Dumpling - 58 oz.

    White Pumpkin - 41 oz.

Tomatoes - 864 oz. (54 lbs)

Zucchini - 29 oz.

Stop by Daphne's Dandelions our host of Harvest Monday to see what's going on in veggie gardens and veggie kitchens around the globe!