Harvest Monday 8 September 2014

The beginning of the week had the same old same old. Beans and cukes. But then I pulled my beans and cukes. So of course the fall beans started to produce in a big way. But I swear there will be no more cukes anymore. All of them are out of the garden.

I did however get more zucchini since the zucchini plants have more sun now. Not a lot. They are shaded in the morning and midday. But at least they get the late afternoon sun and a brief peak earlier. This is pretty typical for the garden in fall, but they are in probably the shadiest spot. I'm glad they are producing even without too much sun as I have plans for my zucchini this winter so I need to be able to preserve some.

And it was a good greens week. Not only did I water the garden, but mother nature did too. And the greens really responded. Especially the chard. Of course the chard was also happy to have the beans ripped out. The beans really shaded them and stole their moisture. But now they are gone and the chard is in heaven. Last week when I picked chard I was thinking it was getting tough and not tasting as good. But this week it was tender and delicious again. I'm glad those beans are gone.

Alvaro

Halona

And then there are the melons. It was a good melon week in a good melon year. And sadly the last melon week as the plants are pulled and I planted some spinach in their spot. And now that all the numbers are in I can do a little evaluation. I grew three varieties of melon - three plants of Halona (22.41 lbs, 7.5 lbs/plant), three plants of Sensation (17.97 lbs, 6 lbs/plant), and two Alvaro (10.43 lbs, 5.2 lbs/plant). Halona was the clear winner in taste and production. Sensation was nice for its difference and also tasted pretty good. Alvaro was the bottom in all categories.

The one thing that was nice about Alvaro was its late production. If all my melons got harvested in the same week I'd never be able to eat them. I did give 2.5 melons away over time, but most of them I ate (or will eat this week). Melons are a major treat from the garden and I don't like missing them. I give them away if I have more than two melons at a time in the fridge. I tend to eat half a melon a day. So that works out pretty well. Though Alvaro was OK. It certainly was very sweet. I obviously don't like the charentais melon taste as much as the cantaloupe taste. I just need to plant a later cantaloupe I think. Or try a different kind of melon that is later.

With the melons being pulled it marks the transition from the summer crops into the fall crops. Though I've picked small bits of fall crops over the last few weeks, next week I'll be picking Asian greens again. I've noticed a large Napa that needs picking soon. But I will really miss the summer fruit. The only fruit I'll get is little handfuls of raspberries this fall. I got them this week, and I'm sure I'll continue all through fall.

• Beans: 2.14 lbs
• Broccoli: 0.94 lbs
• Cucumbers 3.09 lbs
• Greens: 2.33 lbs
• Melons: 15.89 lbs
• Squash, Summer: 1.85 lbs
• Weekly Total: 26.24 lbs
• Yearly Total: 448.17 lbs
• Yearly Tally: $649.02

• Fruit
• Raspberries: 0.38 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.