What are you harvesting? Spring-Summer, 2015

lexusnexus · Tue Jul 14, 2015 5:16 pm

Lately I've been harvesting green beans and wax beans (both bush and pole beans), zucchini, yellow squash, grape tomatoes and Cherokee Purples.

applestar · Sun Jul 19, 2015 3:27 pm

Taiji · Sun Jul 19, 2015 3:44 pm

I continue to be amazed that I get these every time I dig up a potato hill. Wasn't expecting anything at all since my leaves were all pin holed, shredded, eaten, curling and shriveling up til the plants all died. I would certainly recommend red norlands as an early prolific potato.

If I could just get the smaller ones to start sprouting I could probably plant them and get a second harvest. Anyone know how to speed up potato sprouting from the eyes?

Taiji · Sun Jul 19, 2015 5:03 pm

I was just searching the internet, and found this in answer to my own question:

"Potatoes have a natural dormancy from the time they are harvested to when they begin to sprout, starting their next growth cycle. This can only be modified slightly by storage conditions. Though this dormancy varies from variety to variety, six-months is about average."

I guess if this is true, the thought of replanting recently harvested potatoes for a second crop in the same year is out. I guess that makes sense. Otherwise, why wouldn't all potatoes in the ground from recently died plants immediately start growing again? Instead, they wait til next spring if left in the ground.

lexusnexus · Mon Jul 20, 2015 9:38 am

One negative about potatoes (to me anyway), you can't ever get rid of all the tubers. Some are going to escape harvesting and will rear their head next year, and the year after, and the year after...

Of course, if you going to keep them in the same place year after year you will be fine.

Taiji · Mon Jul 20, 2015 11:58 pm

It's easy to miss them when digging, that's for sure. I was working up some soil yesterday for some midsummer planting and found a great big baker. Don't how I missed it the first time! I guess that's an argument in favor of planting taters in a great big container.

Peter1142 · Tue Jul 21, 2015 8:29 am

My Kennebec potatoes just won't die back. 120 days next week and still mostly green.

I have harvested in the last week all the tomato varieties (finally ripe full size fruit this week), eggplant, zucchini I am mass freezing at this point, onions, an early acorn squash that had a bug eating it, leeks, bush beans (pole not far behind). It is hard to keep up with right now

GardeningCook · Tue Jul 21, 2015 9:46 am

Not from my own garden, but this past Saturday nearly every single vendor at our local farmers market had absolutely HUGE (as in 3"-long thumb-size) blackberries for sale. Irresistible, & sugar-sweet; couldn't resist buying a couple of pints. I've never seen blackberries so large.

Rairdog · Tue Jul 21, 2015 1:40 pm

I have been getting lots of pepperocini. Got a 1/2 gallon fermenting.

Here are some Cherokee Purples, a Limbaugh Legacy(new to me..sort of a wine taste at the end...yum) Martino Roma and cukes.

Green bells, Corno de Toro(my new fav sweet green) and onions daily for fajitas, SD pizza and such.

JayPoc · Thu Jul 23, 2015 1:44 pm

part of yesterday's harvest:

became last night's dinner:

It's especially fun for me when an entire meal or dish is 100% from my garden....

GardeningCook · Thu Jul 23, 2015 2:06 pm

Lovely!

Rairdog · Thu Jul 23, 2015 3:45 pm

JayPoc wrote: It's especially fun for me when an entire meal or dish is 100% from my garden....

Ditto...or close to it. Yesterday's fermented hot pickles and pepperocini's. From the garden: cukes, serrano, onion, coriander, mustard seed, dill and grape leaves. From the store: peppercorn and garlic....mine drowned

applestar · Thu Jul 23, 2015 3:55 pm

Ooh! Looks good! Could you post the recipes in the recipe forum? (Are those grape leaves?)

Rairdog · Thu Jul 23, 2015 5:50 pm

applestar wrote:Ooh! Looks good! Could you post the recipes in the recipe forum? (Are those grape leaves?)

Yes....for tannin/crispness

MichaelC · Thu Jul 23, 2015 7:00 pm

Right now I'm getting a few pounds of cucumbers, 3/4 lb. pole beans, a few Padron peppers (my peppers are not doing very well this year), and a half pint or so of cherry tomatoes every week.

applestar · Fri Jul 24, 2015 2:32 pm

We had a nice first harvest of wax beans

...and blackberries (bagging the fruit trusses as soon as they turn red is REALLY paying off)

(Volunteer Coyote cherry tomato has started to ripen ahead of the seed-started ones...

)

...and our first cucumber atop a big basket of Lemon Verbena -- I wish this was smell-o-vision

JayPoc · Sun Jul 26, 2015 8:00 pm

A little over 3 lbs of pickle bush and burpee pickler hybrid cukes. I've got 5 plants going, and this is the second picking of this many. Many more on the way, too (hopefully, fingers crossed).

applestar · Mon Aug 10, 2015 6:16 pm

I decided today was The Day to harvest the mature Tromboncino. I was ready to cut it out of the fence if necessary, but looking at it closer, realized it was like one of those dis entanglement puzzles

... TAH DAH!

digitS' · Mon Aug 10, 2015 8:10 pm

YAY for AppleStar!

And, yay for me!

The gardens are now producing all the green beans, sweet corn, big ripe tomatoes, and cool cucumbers that I can eat.

All the early sweet tidbits and the health sustaining veggies were leading up to this fresh every year moment.

It's only been in the last dozen years that melons have been added to my peak of the season list. And, I've got ripe melons earlier than ever, in this very warm summer. Gardening has never tasted so good ...

Steve

MichaelC · Mon Aug 10, 2015 8:40 pm

Currently - About 1.5 - 2 lbs of beans a week, a few pints of cherry tomatoes. Cucumbers are slowing down, say a half dozen fruits a week, but I'm expecting more flushes coming. Large tomatoes are just finishing up ripening, I've been very lucky that the heat has held down below 90 F. San Marzanos are finally starting to ripen. And still just a tiny handful of Padron peppers from this year's sad pepper patch.

jal_ut · Mon Aug 10, 2015 9:03 pm

Green Beans, Corn on the Cob, Yellow Onions, Zucchini, Crookneck

Rairdog · Mon Aug 10, 2015 10:32 pm

Picked some peaches today. Made 5 pints of freezer jam with some of these super hot beauties. I also froze some bags of peach puree with a little lemon juice for some future orange hot sauce. The super hots are just starting to turn color.

Yesterday I took out some frozen strawberries and picked some habaneros and inca red drops. I made 2 pints of hot sauce. It was hot and too much berry tasting so I added some red Corno di Toro peppers and it balanced nicely.

Gotta go take SD garden pizza out of the oven.....yum

applestar · Tue Aug 11, 2015 5:31 am

Thanks @digit'S

...and @raredog, those look positively dangerous!

So you are making fruit and hot pepper jams and jellies? I hadn't thought of that! I make "Cowboy Candy" but that takes so much sugar....

applestar · Tue Aug 11, 2015 5:34 am

What I'm NOT harvesting this year again is Pristine summer apples since I lost the tree to girdling winter rodents.

The other day, when we went to the zoo, my mom brought store bought organic Gala apples to share. I was starving and thirsty on the drive home and ate a whole apple while driving -- and I devoured it out of physical need -- but my reaction was "Wow this apple ....(has no real flavor)" ...my Mom however, interrupted me to enthuse -- "...taste GREAT! Doesn't it ?" Hmm.....

This time of the year store bought Gala must be either stored domestic fruits from last year's harvest or imported from the Southern Hemisphere. So that alone would be a strike against them, but really -- they were juicy enough, and had the front end sweetness of Gala at first bite, but as I chewed, my taste buds in the back were screaming for that spreading flavor that never came. "Where are the REST of it!!???" My DD1 agreed.

I'm really bummed that I lost the Pristine tree. Otherwise, we would have summer apples harvested in July to eat through the rest of August and then by mid-Sepetember, Enterpirse and my other tree -- espalier Arkansas Black -- will yield occasional semi-ripe fruits to tide us over until full harvest. I should decide on a replacement tree and get one to plant this fall....

MichaelC · Wed Aug 12, 2015 3:03 am

I bought a few galas a couple months ago because they looked pretty, and my experience was just as you describe. From what's generally available in stores around here, I stick with Pink Lady or Honeycrisp.

It'll be a while yet before we're harvesting apples in our yard.

MichaelC · Thu Aug 13, 2015 8:50 pm

Today's tomato harvest:

Rairdog · Thu Aug 13, 2015 9:06 pm

The colors of evil

MichaelC · Fri Aug 14, 2015 2:34 am

I found this co-joined twin fruit among my yellow pear tomatoes this morning. They are not fused together, but share a stem. When I pull the crown off, they will look perfectly normal. Viewed from below (not pictured), they take on a rather ribald shape.

imafan26 · Fri Aug 14, 2015 2:49 am

Weeds and sweat.

Kalak · Fri Aug 14, 2015 1:26 pm

Sadly, nothing yet. Had some lettuce earlier on, but everything else is either not ready or eaten by slugs. We were just saying last night -- when will be actually get some food out of this? Noticed a surviving cucumber last night, but only two inches long. Pepper plants have no peppers and most of the leaves have holes.

MichaelC · Fri Aug 14, 2015 9:14 pm

Today's bean harvest:

Peter1142 · Fri Aug 14, 2015 9:51 pm

Kalak, sorry you are having a rough time. It'll get better quickly with experience. Next year will be so much better, I promise!

applestar · Fri Aug 14, 2015 10:15 pm

Elderberries... and some other stuff

Rairdog · Sat Aug 15, 2015 5:35 pm

applestar wrote:Elderberries... and some other stuff

Is the big red one Corno di Toro? That is my favorite sweet. I just recieverd and sent off the seed train from another forum. I picked out 32 more varieties to grow. I cut back on the supers....lol. I picked out the Corno di Toro Giallo which is a yellow variant. I can have both red and yellow bull horns next year for sauce colors.

applestar · Sat Aug 15, 2015 6:33 pm

This one is Donkey Ears. It's wonderfully sweet with thick juicy walls and despite the large fruit size, it only grows to 12-18" tall which makes it perfect for growing in containers.

I have red Corno di Toro also with green fruits. I will compare when they have turned red, but I'm pretty sure Donkey Ears is distinctly sweet while CdT has "regular" flavor....

jal_ut · Sat Aug 15, 2015 8:06 pm

JayPoc · Sat Aug 15, 2015 8:12 pm

Ok....haven't harvested anything the last 4 days or so due to a very busy work week.

Here is today's haul!:

A look at the peppers. 7 store sized bells (Cali Wonder) from one smallish plant. Making pepper jelly tomorrow!:

Squash, anyone?:

It's cuke to be square! Mind you, my 5 little cuke plantsd have already generated copius salad cukes and about 8 quarts of pickles...:

And finally, just for fun....

I'm gonna put a 'mater photo up on the mater progress board....

I'm so thankful for what has easily been my best garden ever. Thanks to all the sage advice on this board!

MichaelC · Tue Aug 18, 2015 12:46 am

Looking good, JayPoc!

Well, jalut makes my take pale by comparison, but I got another pound and a half of beans today. Three pounds a week they're making, I can't eat and give them away fast enough!

jal_ut · Wed Aug 19, 2015 10:58 pm

The summer squash just keeps coming.

lakngulf · Thu Aug 20, 2015 9:29 am

jal_ut wrote:

WOW My back hurts just looking at that picture. Nice haul

What are you harvesting? Spring-Summer, 2015

Re: What are you harvesting? Spring-Summer, 2015