Monday, October 22, 2012

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.

24 comments:

  1. I must remember to plant carrots after brassicas. I did not realize stress caused carrots to have a bitter edge.
    Congratulations on exceeding 600 pounds.

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  2. What an amazing marker to pass!!! Congratulations! And hey, I'll take tasty over size any day! Your carrots sound divine!

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  3. Is there anywhere in the world where the celery has done well this year? Mine has struggled too. I have to admit to being a fan of the thin little gourmet beans - I find they stir fry well.

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  4. Wow, nice amount of beans. And very nice squash and carrots. I did not grow any winter squash this year, I was just so sick of the squash bugs and svbs. There seemed to be a reduction in squash bugs so hopefully that helps for next year.
    Nice to know about the carrots, My daughter thinks store bought carrots are better than mine also. I struggle with them.

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  5. That is an awesome amount from 570sqft. Your intensive beds are more productive than my row style garden for sure. I'm with you on the green beans. The slender ones are attractive, but for flavor I like bigger ones, including the flat ones. They are just more 'beany' to my taste.

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  6. That's quite the nice harvest for the week! I'm so envious of your winter squash - ours were pretty much a bust this year... And great to hear that you're enjoying you carrots!

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  7. You got lots of gleanings from the clean up process. I have shell beans to pick yet myself. Waiting for a dry spell to get at it. In my region, I may be waiting a while! ;D

    I wish I had gotten more than the tiny little butternuts that I did. Yours may not be super ripe but it sure looks good.

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  8. I am just preparing to plant celery, Ventura seeds from Fedco. Any suggestions? I've never grown it before but Ventura, California is similar to Point Loma--cool with fog so I'm hopeful it will do well.

    How far did you separate the plants? Was germination good? Any diseases? I'm planting with other members of the carrot family. Thanks for your recommendations. Susan

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    1. I usually plant them about 9" one way and 12" the other. Celery needs lots of water and is a heavy feeder. I had decent germination, but I started them indoors two months before going out. They start off very slow. I think my celery struggled this year because of the nematodes that the rest of my umbelliflerae struggled with too. I also got some rotting stems on one of my plants, but I haven't a clue what causes it. Last year I had some hollow stems, but didn't get much of that this year. I'm sure they will love your cool foggy weather.

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  9. I also planted Ventura celery. They are still sitting in the garden, not doing much, since March! They do seem to like cooler weather though. I am not sure when I'll finally decide to harvest them...

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  10. You have an impressive variety of vegetables for this time of year! How are you able to harvest fresh beans? The freezing nights here have completely destroyed our plants. We have a row of peas that was planted late. We haven't seen any pods form yet, but we're hoping to get a handful before the weather gets them too.

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    1. We have had two cold nights so far. The coldest was 29F. The low leaves on these beans got nipped by the frost, but mostly the plant didn't seem affected at all. The large bean harvest was from the Masai plants and they had all their leaves dead. But the beans underneath the leaves seemed unaffected and fine. Here we often miss the first frost of the season, but this year it hit us. I guess I just have some hardy beans.

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  11. Wow, you did haul in the veggies this year! I do like the slender filet beans but I also like the big meaty beany flavored beans, it would be difficult for me to choose between the two so I have to grow both. The bigger beans are far more productive given the same amount of space, so I suppose if it came down to a choice I would opt for the big beans.

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  12. Congrats on the 600 pounds! I'm still hoping to hit that mark too! I think this years hot weather was really hard on our celery too. We have 5 plants still in the garden that are just now starting to size up. We have a really hard freeze coming this week so I guess I will have to get out there and get them harvested!!

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  13. Thats a really nice harvest again, Daphne! Congratulations on the tasty carrots! And Your tiny courgettes looks amazing, bet they will taste great! Interesting with the celery! Have a nice week! :) Mia

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  14. That is impressive! All I have is a few leeks and some kale.

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  15. Does this mean there is still hope for my celery? I never got anything other than pencil thin stalks. My fall carrots have also been really good. I read that it was good to plant them after corn too, so next spring I'll be planting mine in this year's corn patch. I haven't yet pulled any pf mine that are in the cabbage row, I hope they are at least as good as the other fall carrots.

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    1. My tentative layout has them following the corn (and squash since it was a two sisters bed). I was thinking I needed to switch that, but maybe not. Maybe I should keep that layout.

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  16. I am drooling over what you are still harvesting! Congratulations on hitting the 600 pound mark of harvest this week! Nancy

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  17. This week was gleaning time for me too. 600 pounds is so amazing! Records are made to be broken, though. How are you going to top this next year? Giant pumpkins?

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    1. I can't grow pumpkins well here. The vine borers kill the plants before they ripen. So I stick to the butternut group because they are resistant. But I'm thinking of taking a half bed out of veggie production and putting it into fruit. I get more veggies than I can eat anyway and not nearly enough fruit.

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  18. Your celery looks perfect, mine has always small, hard stalks, although is really tasty. Everything else looks great too, and congrats for the 600 lb mark!

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  19. Wow, lots of beans hiding in those bushes. Your carrots and beets look wonderful too.

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  20. There are many varieties you have harvested this week is the first time I heard. Never seen these seeds in our local catalog here in any seeds companies. Beautiful Bountiful Harvest as always.

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