What are you harvesting? Spring-Summer, 2015

[GardeningCook]

Lovely!

[Rairdog]

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]

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

[Rairdog]

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

Yes....for tannin/crispness

[MichaelC]

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]

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]

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]

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']

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]

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]

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

[Rairdog]

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]

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]

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]

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]

Today's tomato harvest:

[Rairdog]

The colors of evil

[MichaelC]

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]

Weeds and sweat.

[Kalak]

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]

Today's bean harvest:

[Peter1142]

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]

Elderberries... and some other stuff

[Rairdog]

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]

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]

[JayPoc]

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]

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]

The summer squash just keeps coming.

[lakngulf]

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

[digitS']

IMG_20150822_034153.jpg (23.31 KiB) Viewed 1483 times

Succession plantings of cucumbers in sweet onions and zucchini in broccoli.

Steve

[applestar]

SUCCESSFUL succession planting then, @digit'S?

I'm "harvesting" Monarch butterfly caterpillars. The technique used is not unlike picking beans and peas -- bend and look under the leaves, hold a stem and flop over one way and then the other way....

Subject: 2015 Saving Monarch Butterflies By Raising Caterpillars

Look, look, look !!!

I mentioned elsewhere that I had seen Monarch butterflies flitting around in the garden -- one each day a few to several days ago. And today when I was checking under the common milkweed leaves, I FOUND SOME OF THE BABIES!!!


[...]
I keep them in the family room where we can keep an eye on them. After they molt to 5th instar, they are put in a special cage so they can climb to the top of the container and make their chrysalis for the final stage of their metamorphosis. At indoor temperatures they stay in the chrysalis for approx 11-13 days then eclose into a butterfly. I label the chrysalises with a sticker on the topside of where they are attached with date and sequential number which makes it easier to predict the next one to eclose and when.

[digitS']

... SUCCESSFUL succession planting then, @digit'S?

Yep . Sorry about the darkness of the photo. It kind of reflects our smoke-filled neighborhoods, houses, cars, clothing ... I didn't see the sun, yesterday afternoon!

Yep, harvesting sweet onions and broccoli began in July. The squash and zucchini transplants went in, right in the middle of the beds. The broccoli was in a bit of a holding pattern but is gone now. The onions closest to the cucumbers were pulled first. None remain that aren't now flat on the ground -- meanwhile, the cucumber vines are merrily trailing off the beds.

Steve

[applestar]

I harvested 7-1/2 POUNDS of tomatoes (I zeroed the scale for the 2 gal bucket and the bowl before weighing) just from today.

[jal_ut]

Filled a bucket with zucchini, a couple crooknecks and a handfull of green peppers. Early corn is gone, the next crop not quite ready. I have carrots.

[Rairdog]

Cleaned out the Aquaponics Jungle today. That's one Black Cherry tom sprawling everywhere. It was a sucker from the ones I lost in the flood so it had a late start and just now producing LOL. I will have a nice fall crop when temps drop outside.

Before


I got 3 gallon bags of freezer stock celery from the grow beds for winter soups, stews and sauces. Still lots of bells and basil left in there.

[MichaelC]

San Marzano tomatoes have finally started coming in. I've taken around eight pounds or so, with several pounds still green on the plants. A depressing number of them have hidden BER inside. There's no way for me to tell until I've blanched and peeled them, and cut into the blossom end with a knife. I won't be featuring this variety next year, I'll buy my plum tomatoes from the farmer's market. Matt's wild cherry is still producing a bit.

Pole beans have slowed down, I took perhaps a pound this week. Clearly they were peaking when I last posted. Still getting a few Persian cucumbers.

[digitS']

SUCCESSFUL succession planting then, @digit'S?

The 1st succession sowing of green beans. They followed the spring lettuce. And, yield was more than a shopping bag full ... so far .

What followed the peas will need another week or so. They should have it. Survivors. That bed of beans has already come back from the going-over Benjamin Bunny gave it!

Bok choy that followed the early carrots is ready!

Steve