So what is this?
A farmer's market cart?
Grocery store produce section?
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| Harvest cart |
Believe it or not, this is our harvest from this weekend! Yep. Things are coming in fast and furiously, ha.
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| Purple top white globe turnips |
Here are the turnips. Still a few more in the ground but this is a big first batch. We planted these to see how things would work for us. Um, apparently very well! Any good turnip recipes/uses?
Best way to store them?
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| Garden harvest |
And here are five eggplants, some cylindra beets, okra, a few carrots, and a bunch of jalapeƱos!
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| Huge cucumber harvest |
Here are the cucumbers, more than two dozen! They are going CRAZY. I swear, I think they grow hour by hour. I harvested some in the morning and before we left, 10 more grew in their place. OK, so maybe I just overlooked them the first time around, ha! I have plans for pickle making but they are growing so fast I can't keep up. They seem a bit too long for slicing into spears, what about "sliced pickles". Anyone have advice on that? I know I could Google but I wondered if any tried and true canners out there have some good tips for this. I'm definitely trying the microwave bread and butter pickles that sweet Texas Rose left in the comments last week, but that will give us a few jars, what about the rest?
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| Overripe cucumbers |
Speaking of, apparently I REALLY overlooked three of them. Yep, that orange one is a cucumber! I had no idea they turned orange. The orange one alone weighed a bit over 2 lbs!
Looks like we're on our way to a great season this year. Tomatoes are still a bit up in the air, one plant looks great and they are all green but the other plant looks weaker and two of the green tomatoes on it have been eaten (possibly birds). But we know tomatoes are resilient. We should have zucchini this coming weekend as well. It looks like it might be a "hiding vegetable" too. We'll see!
hahaha...i hope you guys really like cucumbers!
ReplyDeleteWe're about to find out! :-)
DeleteNothing like fresh produce!!!!! Congrats on the wonderful yield. I have been buying smaller cucumbers like those lately. I love cucumber sandwiches, and you can make a great cucumber and onion salad with sugar and vinegar. Eaten cold, it's great in hot weather.
ReplyDeleteThank you!!! Cucumber sandwiches? That's popular in the UK huh? I have never had that but I will definitely try it. Thank you! Salad sounds wonderful too. Thanks!!!
DeleteWonderful harvests! With our very cool weather this spring, it will be a while before we harvest anything as it's all growing at a snails pace.
ReplyDeleteYou'll get there about the time we are hotter than Hades, ha.
DeleteI am amazed, my vegetables are just sprouts popping out of the ground :)
ReplyDeleteEnjoy your garden, it's wonderful.
Aww, thanks! Your time is coming and you'll have amazing produce soon!!
DeleteThat cart photo looks like a Martha Stewart Living magazine photo. Beautiful harvest and pic ha.
ReplyDeleteHa, that's a cart we found for free downstairs at our apartment. I decided to use it to sort the veggies and I looked and realized it would make a good photo. Not sure about Martha Steward Mag worthy but thank you much.
DeleteOh my gosh! Look at that harvest! I'm so envious, I can't wait to show mine off!!! And I never knew a cucumber could turn those colours!!!
ReplyDeleteWe can't wait to see yours you know it's gonna be great!!! Fingers crossed! And yep, I had no idea either. Interesting. Like an oddly shaped pumpkin, ha.
DeleteI can eat cucumbers every single day, but even with my daily addiction I could not eat enough to keep up with your harvest. I think you need to get started making pickles really soon. And cucumber infused water, and taziki sauce, and cucumber sandwiches and, and, and!
ReplyDeleteWe have some infused water going. Also made a batch of microwave bread and butter pickles, gave away some at work and now I'm going to look up taziki sauce!! (oh and will try the sandwiches too)
DeleteZuchinni are definitely skilled at hiding themselves.
ReplyDeleteLove your produce. You are going to be busy, but busy in the best kind of way.
And well fed.
I think I'm about to find that out. I was moving the giant leaves out of the way but I everything I saw that might be a zucchini was a stem or a small one. Thanks much and yep, well fed we always are, ha.
DeleteThose pictures are beautiful and the food looks delicious!
ReplyDeleteThank you very sweet of you.
DeleteGarrison Keillor said that when he was a kid, everyone had so many cucumbers that they'd leave a bag of them on someone's doorstep, ring the doorbell, and run!
ReplyDeleteLove,
Janie
Oh my gosh that is TOO funny! I think we understand that fully now. :-)
DeleteGood Grow'n!
ReplyDeleteI assume you document what and how much you feed/fed them. Keep it up and when you finally move out there You'll never have to buy veggies! :-)
That's true. Yep, keep track of it via some notes and even this blog for specific dates, etc. We can't wait. Still a few years from that but that day is coming. And hey, if things hit the fan and we have to have a place to go (hurricane, power outage, whatever).
DeleteWow, your garden is working overtime in production! Y’all will have some good meals and some good canning sessions from all of that.
ReplyDeleteI googled for the cause of your orange cucumber and found out they do that if they stay on the vine too long - they turn yellow or orange when they are overripe. So with you being there just on the weekend, you might end up with more colorful ones. I read that you can still use them - recipes call them “Copper Pickles” or “Slippery Jim (or Jack).” The skins and seeds are removed and they are sliced into spears for pickling.
My cucumbers are experts at camouflage also. I picked twice yesterday and just knew I had gotten everyone that was pick-able size. I couldn’t pick this morning because it was raining, so this afternoon I went out and found mostly the right sizes -- then I came across a big one. I really do think they have a sense of humor, hiding and laughing at me!
Yep, good stuff coming. I figured the orange one was hiding really well last couple of weeks. I've never heard of that copper pickles, I will look that up. We're going to have 2nd Family come get them when they want it as well.
DeleteAnd they are so adept at hiding. I would look at them pull the ones I saw, walk around to the other side and see two more that were right where I was pulling the others. Then I thought I picked them all, went to the porch to take pics, etc, went back to check on the other plants and saw four more I missed before. What the heck??
I make my own sweet pickle relish using a water bath method with our cucumbers. The weather hasn't been too good this year due to a lot of rain for our cucumber crop. Yes, I tend to pout when that happens! It's so good for potato or homemade chicken salad. We also eat it on burgers in place of sliced pickles. You can find some 'easy sweet pickle relish' recipes for it online. It definitely is a good way to use up excess cucumbers, onions and bell peppers (if you choose to use the last two)
ReplyDelete~Pam in Louisiana
OOH. relish!!! I never thought about that. I was thinking pickles of course but relish would be wonderful. Thank you for that suggestion. Will look that up. I think we're in for a lot of cucumbers at this rate, ha.
DeleteOops, that would be a water bath canning method for pint size canning jars... ~Pam in Louisiana
ReplyDeleteWhat's funny is as I read that, I "heard" canning method in my head, ha. Stop by and share wisdom anytime!!! We're knew at this. :-)
DeleteWhat a Wonderful bounty. Such wonderful pictures.
ReplyDeleteI do see you doing some canning in the near future
Definitely working that direction!!! Thank you!
DeleteMy favorite way to eat turnips is to eat them raw. Peel, slice and sprinkle with a little salt. If they need it, cover with ice water for a few minutes to crisp them up. Crunchy and delicious!
ReplyDeleteReally? Wow I have never tried that but I'm willing to give it a try!
DeleteJust jumping on the band wagon to recommend making pickle relish (sweet and dill), kosher dill and sweet pickles, taziki sauce, and other all things cucumber. They are also used in preparations for the skin. I once knew a professor who was making a burn treatment from a cucumber concoction. The results were promising. If nothing else, you can have an endless supply of cucumber rounds to put on your eyes to "de-puff". And yes, turnips can be cooked like mashed potatoes, as a root vegetable in stews, and sliced up raw for a crudite tray.A nice peppery flavor!
ReplyDeleteThank you for all the wonderful suggestions. Heck, the puffy eye thing I never thought about but I've heard it works. And hey, guys can have puffy eyes too. :-)
DeleteWow what a haul!!! Fabulous!
ReplyDeleteI love cucumber. You can also eat it with watermelon and feta cheese for a light bite. Pickles. like tzaziki but spicy with the amount of garlic in it, is cacik. pronounced jar jeck.
http://ozlemsturkishtable.com/2010/05/yoghurt-dip-with-cucumber-and-garlic-ozlems-cacik-dip/
Hello and thank you for the watermelon idea. Will definitely try that. LOVE feta cheese. And what an awesome link. We will try this. It looks delicious. Hope you'll come back and visit!
DeleteRemember Daphne who used to host Harvest Monday? She had a great refrigerator pickle recipe. http://daphnesdandelions.blogspot.com/2012/06/thursdays-kitchen-cupboard_14.html It's a way to use some of those cucumbers fast. Also give some away. Coworkers, neighbors appreciate fresh produce.
ReplyDeleteOh yes, miss her blogging so much. Thanks for this link, and love the idea of sharing with coworkers, that's always fun.
DeleteYou can make cold cucumber soup. My friend has a wonderful recipe.
ReplyDeleteCold Cucumber Soup
3 medium cucumbers, peeled and seeded
24 oz. fat free, low sodium chicken broth
1 rib celery, cleaned and roughly chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, smashed
1/2 c. water or dry white wine
16 oz. fat free, plain yogurt
1/3 c. light sour cream
1 tsp. salt
fresh dill or snipped chives for garnish
In a heavy sauce pan, combine broth, celery, onion, garlic and wine or water. Bring it to a boil, turn down the heat, cover and let simmer about 30 minutes until the veg. are very tender. Remove from heat and let cool about 30 min.
Put your prepared cucumbers into a food processor fitted with the all purpose blending blade. (You may do this in a heavy duty blender.) Add about half of your broth and process until smooth. Remove half of that mixture to a large bowl and blend in half of your yogurt and sour cream. You must make this by doing it in "batches" as I have never found a processor or blender big enough to do it all at once. Pour the broth/yogurt mixture into your large bowl, and then pour half back into the processor and blend again with the the rest of the yogurt, sour cream and salt. Do this several times, until everything is fairly smooth and blended together. Don't overfill your processor or blender, just take a few extra minutes to pour back and forth till completed. Chill soup thoroughly. Serve garnished with a slice of cucumber, a dollop of sour cream and a sprinkling of dill or chives.
I made cucumber ice cream with my bumper crop last year!
CUCUMBER SOUP? Wow, this looks great. We'll definitely try it as well. As long as they keep coming in we've got lots to try.
DeleteMy favorite way to use turnips is to slice thin and eat raw like a radish. Great on a relish tray. We eat kolrabi that way also.
ReplyDeleteThanks for this, I will do that this weekend and give it a shot. Thanks again!!!
Delete1st Man,
ReplyDeleteNice harvest!!! I would have to agree,you've done something amazing with your soil this season and your seeds/seedlings love it. I would always put my yellow/orange cukes in my compost (chopped up)because they were just to old to do anything with.
Have you also considered using some of these green cukes for harvesting seeds? And you could also use some of these cukes for cool compresses over your eyes, or even for soaking in a tub.
I had some others that I did cut up and toss in the composter. We'll see how it does. Yes, will definitely harvest some seeds (have many more coming, ha). I like the idea of cool compresses and never thought about soaking in the tub but that's kinda neat. Thanks!!
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