What a harvest week. I have my biggest weekly harvest ever recorded (though this is only the second year I've been keeping track) and my garden this year is smaller than it has been in the past. The reason is of course the weather. It has been spectacular for warm weather crops. Usually in New England our warm weather crops struggle, but not this year. This year they are going crazy.
Dried Beans
Shelled: Red Kidney, Ottawa Cranberry, Black Coco. So far the harvest hasn't been all that good for dried beans. And the Ottawa Cranberries are about half the size as the ones I grew last year. The beans are in the shadier part of the rock wall garden. There is a maple tree that hangs over some of them. Hopefully they will be more prolific in the future. So far all the Black Cocos have been picked, but not all of the Kidney or Cranberry beans.
Others picked last Monday are cherry tomatoes
And the larger tomatoes and tomatillos
Tuesday's basket is mostly tomatillos that were canned as Salsa Verde
Wednesday featured a lot of tomatoes
Thursday I picked a lot of peppers for salsa
Saturday I had to cut back my basil as it wanted to flower (also Chard)
Saturday's tomato bounty
On Friday I showed you that I cleared off my table after making salsa. Now it is worse than it was before. I'll have to can again sometime this week. Maybe it will just be tomato sauce as it is a lot less work than salsa. I do need more salsa though.
- Beans 0.79 lbs
- Cucurbits 5.51 lbs
- Greens 1.22 lbs
- Herbs 1.22 lbs
- Pepper 1.73
- Tomatillo 7.73 lbs
- Tomato 30.38 lbs
- Spent this week: $0
- Total harvested this week 48.56 lbs
- Total for the year 116.73 lbs
- 2010 Tally 209.35
Harvest Monday is a day to show off your harvests, how you are saving your harvest, or how you are using your harvest. If you have a harvest you want to show off, add your name and link to Mr Linky below.
The tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers look beautiful and make me wish our weather would warm up so we would enjoy similar good things. Unfortunately, it rained and was cool all weekend and the forecast is for cool temps all week (lucky to get to low 70's). I have cucumbers and peppers coming along despite the weather and lots of green tomatoes but I am beginning to really worry that August will end I will still be without tomatoes if it does not warm up at least a bit and soon.
ReplyDeleteYour new garden is already very bountiful. Imagine what it will be like after you have had a chance to improve the soil for a while?!
Your tomatoes are gorgeous! I love how the dried beans look, but I'm the only one in the family that appreciates them. What a great summer we're having.
ReplyDeleteYou had a great harvest every day of the week! Can it get better than this?
ReplyDeleteI was making tomato sauce all weekend and on Sunday afternoon I harvested another basket, so it's canning again next weekend.
It really has been hot summer for a lot of us this year. I wish my warm weather veggies were doing as well as yours, but my first-year newbie inexperience must be very effectively counteracting the positive effects of the warm weather. :) I love the variety of all your tomatoes and beans!
ReplyDeleteGreat looking harvest. It's nice to know I'm not the only one buried in tomatoes. Do you water boil or pressure can you sauce and salsa?
ReplyDeleteMy purple tomatilloes are just starting to develop shades of purple. I was getting worried there.
Congrats on your biggest weekly harvest recorded! It seems like I have been canning non-stop the past few weeks!! Although it gets a bit tiring, it's well worth it during the winter months.
ReplyDeleteKeep up the good work!
Oh my gosh, I bet you were a little overwhelmed with all of that coming in at once....
ReplyDeletekitsapFG, I hope your weather warms up for you too. Last year everything was slow for us too. Last year I barely got any cukes. Now I'm buried in them.
ReplyDeleteThe Mom, Oh how sad. We all love dried beans. Most things from the garden are not too loved by the family but dried beans are good.
vrtlarica, nope I don't think it can get better than this year. It has been amazing.
thyme2garden, after a while you will get the hang of it all. My mantra is compost, compost, compost.
Thomas, I water bath can them. I don't have a pressure canner. I have to add more vinegar that way, but I like it in the salsa anyway. If there isn't enough vinegar it just doesn't taste right to me. I'm glad your tomatillos are turning. Do they keep their color when cooked?
Robin, I was getting tired of it after two days last week, but with a two day rest I'm ready again.
EG, I am. You have to love August.
Beautiful Harvests. I'm still jealous of your tomatoes. I've still got a few weeks to go on mine.
ReplyDeleteThat's a *huge* harvest! We've got salsa (tomatillo and tomato) to can today.
ReplyDeleteDaphne, I don't know! This is the first time I'll be growing or eating purple tomatilloes. How did your salsa verde turn out? I was thinking about using that recipe as well.
ReplyDeleteEmily, good luck with getting your ripe tomatoes.
ReplyDeleteMamaraby, what fun. I'm still hoping to get some canning done today, but it remains to be seen if I have the time.
Thomas, it was fabulous. Though on the day that I canned it, I had some left over. That day it was really tangy. The second day after it had been in the fridge it was much sweeter. Both good, but different. Or maybe it was my perceptions that changed from one day to the next. Who knows.
Beautiful tomatoes!!
ReplyDeleteNow, you are just giving me more ideas of things to grow next year! Dh is gonna go crazy with all the things I want to add, especially if he has to build more boxes for me! Ha ! Nice beans though!
ReplyDeleteVery nice. I'm just loving all the tomato pictures showing up now.
ReplyDeleteYour harvests are beautiful and bountiful! And thank you for your enthusiasm for refrigerator pickles. I don't have any cucumbers yet, but I hot-footed it to the Farmer's Market and bought some and made up a batch. They were excellent and crunchy, which I really like in a pickle. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteMan, you're picking double the amount of tomatoes that I am. Mine just aren't ripening fast enough for all the salsa I want to make. I'm getting too many cherry tomatoes, so end up cooking little batches of sauce to use in casseroles through the week, rather than canning.
ReplyDeleteHoly cow that's a lot of stuff - impressive!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful harvest!
ReplyDeleteThe same conditions that are giving you an incredibly warm summer are making for one of the coolest summers here in California, everyone is complaining about how late the tomatoes and other summer veggies are and how cold it has been. Oh well....
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to see that your new garden is working out so well. Next year will probably be even better.
Way to go, Daphne. Those dried beans are going to look beautiful on your shelf!! Our weather is almost too hot. My precious husband built an arbor-type shelter to partially shade my plants that are BURNING in the sun. I hope to post on it later this week.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful harvest, I echo what everyone says. Glad you new garden is producing abundantly.
ReplyDeleteWow, what a harvest! Congratulations!
ReplyDeleteThis year the coasts seem to be switched. You've got lots of heat and your summer crops are doing great, I've got unusually cool weather in southern California and my summer crops are struggling. I am happy to see that somewhere tomatoes are growing well, it makes my wait easier.
WOW! 48 pounds. So impressive especially having to take care of the two gardens for most of the season.
ReplyDeleteVery impressive an colorful harvest this week, Daphne. This year's weather is sure making last years late blight only a memory. Your peppers are so far ahead of mine. I hope mine get a burst of growth soon before we run out of summer.
ReplyDeleteAnother amazing harvest!! The dried beans look yummy! I may try some next year. Look at all those tomatoes!! Mmmm! Puts my single tomato to shame. LOL!
ReplyDeletebeautiful! I've thought of growing dried beans, but always was intimidated.
ReplyDeleteYou've inspired me to try them next year. :)
I can't believe how much everything is growing, including young trees filling out and shooting up. Worth the 100 degree days, for awhile anyway :-)
ReplyDeleteQuite a haul this week Daphne, very nice!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful harvest Daphne! What kind of salsa peppers do you have? They look great. I really like the blackish/greenish cherry tomatoes, very pretty.
ReplyDelete~~Lori
What an impressive harvest! Our tomatillos are eluding us - too many seem to rot in their husks while still growing on the vine. How many tomatillo plants do you have?
ReplyDeleteWow! What bounty! Your 'maters are beautiful.
ReplyDeleteIs there a salsa verde recipe you prefer for your tomatillos? I'm going to have to preserve a bunch of my own soon.
Beautiful dried beans. You inspire me to try growing them. And what an impressive total, 48 lbs. That's nearly half of your annual harvest so far in ONE week. Wow.
ReplyDeleteAli, thanks
ReplyDeleteShawn Ann, I love trying new plants every year. Usually it is new greens though as I love my greens in the spring. I think it is because I've been so fresh vegetable deprived all winter long.
Cheryl, me too
Martha, I find them so much better than the canned variety and so much easier to make too. They may not keep forever, but they keep for a couple of months which is good enough.
Annie's Granny, I'm canning little batches of sauce oh and tomato juice. I think next time I'll make sauce with my strainer. It might have to boil down for a while, but it is so much less work.
Stevie from GardenTherapy, thanks
sweetlocal, thanks
michelle, I've noticed that we have stolen all your warm weather. The gardener in me likes it, but the person who has to walk places wishes it would just cool down already.
debiclegg, it is a bit too hot for me, but my plants are eating it up.
mac, thanks
Angela, I'm sure you will get your tomatoes soon. At least in southern California you don't get frost too early, so you have time.
johanna, I can't believe I harvested that much either. I only have 200sqft of gardening space and part of that is in shade. The heat is doing wonders for the plants.
GrafixMuse, I'll be hoping your peppers get with it this year. I'm not getting a great pepper harvest as the peppers are way too close to the tomatoes. They just can't compete, but they are doing OK.
Holly, one is better than none.
abigail, they are real space hogs for what they produce, but I eat so many of them in the winter that I like growing my own. Next year I ought to have enough space to grow lots.
ReplyDeleteKaren Anne, Luckily we don't get those 100 degree days very often. Maybe once every 5-10 years. This year being one of them of course.
Dan, thanks.
Dirt Lover, I have jalapenos, serranos, and Big Chili II. The black cherry is Chocolate Cherry.
foodgardenkitchen, that is too bad. I've had a couple do that to me, but luckily not many. I've never had such a huge harvest of tomatillos before. They are another one that is loving the heat. I have two tomatillo plants. One seems to be a sport and it is huge and really productive so I'm going to save seed and hope I get another big one next year.
Christina, I used this one:
http://www.canning-recipes.com/recipes/tomatillo_salsa.html
Which I really liked. I used a mix of chili peppers: jalapeno, serrano, and green chilis.
Lou Murray, I had only 60 some pounds the week before. It is almost doubling it. Part of that is that the cool weather crops really died too early. Usually I get a better brassica and lettuce harvest in June and July. I guess the warm weather crops will make up for it all.
Daphne,
ReplyDeleteThank you for hosting Harvest Mondays! After reading everyone else's harvest, I was tempted to start my own garden blog. This way, I could show off what I've been growing and harvesting to the rest of the gardening community(instead of just my family :-))
RandomGardener.
RandomGardener, Welcome to the blogging world. It is so much fun to see what everyone harvests. Though I confess my favorite time for Harvest Monday is in the winter when I can see produce still coming in from Australia and other southern regions. It keeps me dreaming about the garden when the snow is covering the ground.
ReplyDelete