Harvest Monday 1 September 2014

I did a really poor job of documenting my harvest this week. I do have four photos of the main harvest baskets, but just that. And once again the consistent harvests are always beans and cukes. That is about to stop though. The cukes are dying fast. I got a bitter cucumber and once that starts on all the vines I'll just rip them up. The beans are diseased and barely holding on. There are no more flowers on the plants, but they are ripening up the last harvest or two. I'll rip them out this week. That will give the choys and chards more sun.

Part of the reason is that I wasn't necessarily harvesting in the morning as normal. If I harvest right before dinner like this basket sometimes they get skipped when I'm busy cooking. We had the last of the corn this week. It was very sad, but it was a good four weeks. My husband never got tired of eating it. I didn't either, but that was because this year I told myself I would only eat one ear of corn if I wanted and not two just because it was in front of me. So if I didn't want it, Joel could eat it and I'd just pass. A lot of corn got frozen for the winter this year, which I'm very happy about.

And since the corn numbers are all in for the year I thought I'd see how well I did with this variety. This year I harvested 45.8 pounds. Last year I harvested 27.6 pounds. I have 25% more space this year, so to compare the numbers fairly I'll give last year 25% more, which is 34.5. I harvested about a third more this year than last year. And 20% more than the year before (2012) which was my previous record year. We didn't have nearly the corn growing weather that we did in 2012, but production was very high.

I attribute it all to the variety, Honey Select. Part of the reason was good germination. I had no gaps in my corn grid. All of the stalks produced, which is better than I can say for Ambrosia or Serendipity in my garden. Neither were great germinators in the cool wet soil we have in the spring. Now if I could find an early corn and a late corn that would not cross pollinate badly with Honey Select and produce as well I'd be all set. After one disastrous year when I thought I had two corns with all the right genes (if they have different genes that make them sweet and you cross them, the corn won't be sweet), but I was wrong. Since then I've stuck to just one variety and planted it successively. But it would be better for my squash if I didn't have to wait so long to plant. In a two sisters bed the squash will overtake and smother the corn if you plant it earlier. So it has to wait until the corn is in.

Can you believe I only took one photo of the melons and not one with them cut open? I harvested a lot of melon this week. I've been eating half a melon every day and giving away my excess. I still have one Halona in the garden. The Alvaros haven't even started yet. Three have set and are starting to ripen. I expect to pick today or tomorrow. I don't know why the last Halona is taking so long. I do have to get the melon out of the bed soon as September 1st is my fall spinach planting date. I'm not going to make it. The melons are more important anyway. The spinach will overwinter even if small and give an early spinach harvest, so all is not lost if I have to wait an extra week.

And last but not least. I pick a handful of raspberries every morning for my breakfast. Yum.

• Beans: 1.83 lbs
• Broccoli: 0.85 lbs
• Corn: 8.18 lbs
• Cucumbers 5.61 lbs
• Greens: 2.13 lbs
• Herbs: 0.30 lbs
• Melons: 18.73 lbs
• Squash, Summer: 0.98 lbs
• Weekly Total: 38.60 lbs
• Yearly Total: 421.93 lbs
• Yearly Tally: $592.98

• Fruit
• Raspberries: 0.37 lbs

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.