Harvest Monday 25 August, 2014

I had to pick the rest of the peaches last Monday as they were starting to fall off the tree. This is half of them as the other half goes to the townhouse mates. I slowly worked my way through them eating and canning. I still have two left in my fridge that will get eaten up today. It has been a phenomenal peach season, with my one peach tree (the second one died after never giving us a single peach and was replaced this year) giving me a total of 51 pounds. The peaches weren't huge. I'd say it was about 130-140 peaches all told. Now if they would just ripen over many weeks instead of them doing it all at once it would be better. But I suppose this makes canning easier.

Have you ever looked at my sidebar tally? Well the fruit section (which means the landscaping fruits) was put in to see how long it would take to pay pack putting in a bunch of trees and bushes and such. I'm nowhere near paying it off. And I keep spending more money on it every year. But this year marks the first year where I had more in harvests than I paid out. So maybe it marks the start of my fruit finally paying for itself.

Like last week corn was a big producer this week too. Those photos are just the tip of the iceberg. My husband has been eating two to three ears a day. I can only handle one to two. I've been feeding the townhouse mates and today gave some to a neighbor (over the fence so it never got weighed - it happens). And I've been freezing. It has been a great corn season. Really great. I'm already 10 pounds over last year and I still have a lot more to pick. Though I do have 25% more space in corn but even taking that into account production has been good and the ears have been very very sweet, so true to the name - Honey Select. It also doesn't have that grassy flavor that I'm not all that fond of in corn.

I picked my first kohlrabi. And I've been picking cukes and beans as I have for the last month. The cukes are finally starting to slow down as wilt is taking over. But the beans have picked up since I got rid of the Kentucky Wonder. It is giving the Golden Gate a lot more sun. They have responded by putting out a new wave of blossoms and beans.

Whoohoo! Melon season! Yeah yeah, broccoli, zucchini, beets, and such. But the baskets are really about melons.

I picked two Halona melons. The first was over ripe as you can see, but still sweet as candy and worth eating. I kept watching it. I pick them when I can pull the stem off easily. Well this one never pulled off. I finally yanked it off and it took a bit of the melon with it. The second one slipped off like it is supposed to. I think the taste this year is the best ever. I will forever grow them in the circle garden as the surrounding bricks really keep the heat for them. I do alternate them with the sweet potatoes. One gets the east bed in this garden one year, one gets the west. The next year they switch, but this year the melons the best side. The east side is surrounded by brick path on three sides instead of just two. And oh it makes a difference for the flavor of the melons. Yum!

The other two melons are Sensation. I'm not sure how to describe them. Maybe a cross between a cantaloupe and a honeydew. But I don't like honeydews and I do like Sensation. It is a very sweet and mild melon. I ate this one for breakfast on Sunday. I ate the whole thing in one sitting.

I'm actually growing three varieties of melon. The last is Alvaro Charentais, but it is still green and shows no sign of ripening. Which is actually good as all my melons ripened at the same time last year. One that waits a couple of weeks is a good thing. I'll appreciate them more when I've finished with all these melons. Not that the melons in the baskets are the last of their kind on the vines. I've got a couple more of both that are ripening up. As long as we don't get any rain in the near future they will be just as wonderfully sweet as the ones I've already picked. I've already stopped watering the patch. It makes for much better melons that way. Though I'm contemplating watering the Alvaro as it hasn't started to ripen yet and might need the water if it takes a while.

• Alliums: 2.05 lbs
• Beans: 0.78 lbs
• Broccoli: 1.11 lbs
• Corn: 16.76 lbs
• Cucumbers 5.66 lbs
• Greens: 0.86 lbs
• Herbs: 0.51 lbs
• Melons: 16.01 lbs
• Roots: 0.43 lbs
• Squash, Summer: 1.19 lbs
• Weekly Total: 45.35 lbs
• Yearly Total: 383.33 lbs
• Yearly Tally: $515.45

• Fruit
• Raspberries: 0.40 lbs
• Peaches: 33.90 lbs
• Weekly Total: 34.30 lbs, $106.34
• Yearly total: 61.87 lbs, $208.46

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.