Harvest Monday, October 22nd, 2012

Last week I spent my time in the garden cleaning out the summer plants. As I went along I harvested anything that was left. From the bean patch I got green beans, shelling beans, and dried beans. I still haven't shelled those shelling beans so they won't go into the tally until later. But the Masai green beans gave me quite a bit. I had thought I picked all of them, but I was quite wrong. I still don't like the variety. I'm not a fan of those thin little gourmet beans. I like the big old fashioned ones for taste so much better.

I also cleaned out the squash beds so picked the last ripe ones. Or ripish ones I guess. The bigger Tetsukabuto squash passed the fingernail test, but the butternut didn't. From the color I can tell it is ripe enough, but it won't store well, so it will go into my pile of squash to use up first. The little one wasn't ripe, but I used it in some soup where its mild flavor worked out well. I also picked four unripe butternuts that didn't make the tally as they won't get eaten. They are adorning my front steps before they meet their fate in the compost pile.

I picked some beets that had sized up. And those are the last of the zucchini. I thought last week would have been the last, but the frost didn't kill the plants, just most of the leaves. The plant used the last of its energy to send out a few more female blossoms. The beans aren't from the bean bed. I planted a small section of beans at the end of the carrot bed. The frost just nipped a few leaves, but mostly the plant looks healthy. It is mostly played out but I keep getting a few pods here and there. The peas are similar. The big flushes are gone, but I get a few peas now and again.

The celery was picked. Last year I picked it throughout the summer taking off single stalks, but this year it was just too hot. The celery sat in the ground but didn't grow. As the cooler fall hit the plants finally started to size up. Last year I got over 11 pounds from four plants. These are eight plants and I've picked a good portion of them and only have 3+ pounds. I'll get another harvest before everything freezes up, but not nearly what I got last year even with twice the space. This year I've grown both Ventura and Redventure. The red one is only mildly red and very strongly flavored. I would only eat it cooked. The Ventura does a decent job of self blanching the center stalks. So it is much more mild. The stalks are also wider but shorter as you can see in the photo. I don't really eat celery much raw, so it all got frozen for winter soups.

Last night I had to go out and harvest some carrots for dinner. I had run out of them and we were having chicken soup. The carrots are about the best I've ever grown in taste. They aren't huge carrots like I got last year, but the flavor is wonderful. Usually supermarket carrots taste better than mine. Mine often have a bitter edge to them. But not this fall. I think the row cover really helped out with that. Since the carrot flies couldn't get to them, the carrots weren't stressed. This bed used to have brassicaas in it so the nematodes weren't there unlike with my spring planted carrots that were overrun. I need to remember to always grow carrots after brassicas. After mustards would be best, but any brassica is good. I would say never ever grow them after the nightshade crops but since I'm never going to grow the nightshades again, I don't think that is an issue for me.

I beat the 600 lb mark this week. Whoohoo! And I haven't even weighed in the sweet potatoes, the fall carrots, or the dried beans. Last year I got over 30lbs in fall carrots. I think this year I won't get as much. But if I come close I might even make the 700 lb mark. That would be totally awesome from a 570 sqft plot. I'm doing pretty well this year even with the low yield of my umbelliferae plants (which is the carrot family - carrots, parsnips, fennel celery, dill, parsley, cilantro, caraway, cumin, chervil, and poison hemlock - OK I don't grow all of those in the garden especially the last one).

• Beans 1.23
• Carrots 0.60 lbs
• Cucurbit 9.53 lbs
• Greens 3.64 lbs
• Peas 0.09 lbs
• Beets 1.71 lbs
• Weekly total 16.80 lbs
• Yearly total 607.26 lbs
• Tally $1164.94

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.