HARVEST MONDAY

Houston, we have a harvest!

Not huge but not too bad all things considered (heat/no rain/automated watering issues).

We got three yellow squash.  They look pretty good and of course we had to harvest some basil.

And look...

...tomatoes! (and more basil, ha).

I pulled all the red ones and two yellowish ones fell off as I was reaching in to get them.  There are still more that are green so the cover has been working as we had hoped.  We are hopeful that the green ones remaining on the plants will turn over the next week or two.

The plants however are very scraggly and there are zero blooms on them so with these near 100 degree temps, we're guessing tomato season is over.  Even the squash vine is starting to fade.  Not the best season we've had but we got started late because of the pandemic and focusing on prepping while stores were closing down around us.  At least we got something in the end and had fun with the distraction from the other stuff going on in the world.

WEEKEND HARVEST

Saturday was the day at the farm (we had family commitments Sunday). 

It was too hot to do much of anything but I could pick veggies!

Tomato plants were pretty full...

The herbs are growing by leaps and bounds...

Eggplant in raised bed

And what is this?  

Why it's an eggplant!  Almost ready, still a bit small...

The other plant in the same bed is a bit smaller and no blooms but hoping that changes soon.

Okra in raised bed

Here is the okra.  It's getting large.  The other plant in the bed is catching up too.  And of course, there are our perennial chives, ha!

Basket of Tomatoes and Jalapeños 

BEHOLD!  

This weeks haul of tomatoes and jalapeños!  We're going to have to have some meals where we can use fresh, yummy tomatoes.  I'm suggesting burgers later this week.  We'll see what happens!  

We're very happy with the garden this season, small though it may be.  The whole point of this season was to see if we could make it work.  We got a late start because of the rainy Spring but things are finally producing.  This gives us a hope for not only next year (when we can plant earlier since everything is set up and ready) but also for a Fall garden.  Might need to start planning that, take our mind off the hot weather.  

Off to eat some tomatoes!

HARVEST TIME

Got to the farm and saw red! 

Tomatoes that is!

And a ton of herbs!  (OK, maybe not a ton but a lot!)

And here is the basket...full of two kinds of toms, and 5 kinds of herbs...and there are a lot more green tomatoes still to ripen.

Some of them I pulled while a bit green on the ends. Any advice on ripening them?  There will lots more next weekend and we'll be pulling as many as we can to keep them going for the next week.  

Just a window ledge for a few days?  

HARVEST MONDAY AUGUST 25 2014

Every Monday, Daphne's Dandelions hosts "Harvest Monday" where bloggers can post their harvests.  Click her link above to see what others are harvesting and see below for what we harvested recently:

These are the last of what we harvested before I pulled up the garden plants for peak Summer heat.  I thought I had posted this but I realize I didn't.  Since it still counts toward our year to date totals, I'll post it now*

(*and I decided to do it with a different kind of photo, ha)

Jalapeños are now done, they did really well considering we just had one plant.  Next Spring, a couple of plants at least.  There were ten six (garden snacking, don't judge, ha) cherry tomatoes and they were so good.  Still, they didn't do as well as we had hoped.  Might be too late of a start and the heat got them before they really started.  Same for the tomatoes, these are Homestead 24's, they did the best in our heat.  Will try them again next year.

Also harvested some herbs, but no picture of them, standard basil, chives, oregano and thyme.

Vegetable harvest:  2 lb 10 oz

Herb harvest:       15 oz

_________________________________

Total harvest YTD:  15 lb 12 oz

Happy Harvesting!

P.S. For those who missed it, look at yesterday's post for a weekend update.  Hope you had a nice weekend!

HARVEST MONDAY JULY 21 2014

Every Monday, Daphne's Dandelions hosts "Harvest Monday" where bloggers can post their harvests.  Click her link above to see what others are harvesting and see below for what we harvested this week:

First up, herbs...

Herb harvest

As always, a great haul of herbs.  Oregano, chives, basil, some flat leaf parsley I forgot to photograph.  We've just been keeping them in the fridge in glasses of water and they stay fresh during the week and we use them up when we're cooking.

Then veggies...

Vegetable harvest

This week, it's like a basket from the show "Chopped". Make something out of this, LOL.  Our first eggplant.  Not sure what we can do with just one, ha, but there are a few more small ones on the plants and more blooms.  Also a few peppers and then jalapeños and more cherry tomatoes.  I picked a few that weren't fully ripe so we can let them ripen.  Then we have a few garlic heads!  Garlic didn't do so well this first year, these have been drying.  There are a few more that were pulled at a different time that are still drying, but I planted about 2 dozen seed bulbs.  Pulled up the tomatillo, it was just WAY too big and overshadowing the tomato plants.  There were still small tomatillos on it but I had to sacrifice them to hopefully get more tomatoes.    

And fruit...

Pears

Yes, fruit!  I suppose I should have included the several pounds of dewberries we got earlier in the season but I didn't (next year!).  Anyway, these are pears.  They are pretty good size (hard to tell in the photo).  There is apparently a procedure to ripen them, you have to pull them while hard and then force ripen them.  I'll have to Google that.  Anyway, we are happy to have some fruit.  Figs will be coming soon as well.  Then that will do it for fruit this year.  But the trees are all still growing well and so we are hoping next Spring will be a great year and then every year after that it will just get better!

Vegetable harvest:  2 lb 8 oz

Herb harvest:       11 oz

Fruit harvest:       1 lb 8 oz

_________________________________

Total harvest YTD:  12 lb 3 oz

Happy Harvesting!

P.S. For those who missed it, look at yesterday's post for a weekend update.  Hope you had a nice weekend!

HARVEST MONDAY JULY 7 2014

Every Monday, Daphne's Dandelions hosts "Harvest Monday" where bloggers can post their harvests.  Click her link above to see what others are harvesting and see below for what we harvested.

After a rainy first couple of days of the long weekend, I was finally able to get out to the farm Sunday and check things out.

First up herbs...

Herb basket harvest

Got another nice batch.  The two basils, some oregano, chives, and marjoram.  We used up all the last harvest batch, so I didn't get to dry them.  But I think this batch will be put into the dehydrator tonight.

Then veggies...

Vegetable basket harvest

Here is the vegetable haul.  Not too bad!  Quite a few cherry toms and a bunch of jalapeños.  There were only two regular tomatoes this time but still quite a few green ones on the vine.  Whatever was eating the others can't reach up to the level these were at so that's good.  Then lastly, quite the load of tomatillos.  And they are huge!  Need to figure out a use for those soon.

The eggplants are producing, they are small but there are two small eggplants already and a bunch of flowers.  Ant problem is overcome.  The only problem we see is that the tomatillo plant (wished I had gotten a picture) is SO huge, it is starting to tower over some of the tomato plants.  A note to us for next time is that the tomatillos need their own bed.  They just grow too well, too fast and leave the tomatoes competing for light.

Still, as the garden this first year is an experiment/test to see what works and what doesn't (for us), this is not a bad harvest.  I can only imagine if we were there daily to water by hand...sigh.  That's coming someday!

Vegetable harvest:  3 lb 6 oz

Herb harvest:    9 oz

_________________________________

Total harvest YTD:  7 lb 8 oz

Happy Harvesting!

Giveaway update:  I will post the result when I talk to Ball brand jars company because I am asking them a question about something regarding the contest.  Hope to hear from them today.

HARVEST MONDAY JUNE 23 2014

Every Monday, Daphne's Dandelions hosts "Harvest Monday" where bloggers can post their harvests.  Click her link above to see what others are harvesting and see below for what we harvested.

Harvest Monday Basket

Kinda looks pretty all together huh?

Not too bad this week.  Tomatoes are still slowly coming in, but we are losing a few, I'll blog about that later.  There were quite a few jalapeños ready and it looks like we have enough to make some jalapeño poppers!

It was kind of hard to see in the above picture how many herbs there were so I took this picture to show you the bundles:

Herb harvest bundles

These are bundles of oregano, chives (both garlic and regular) and two types of basil; regular Italian basil and Thai basil.  I think we're going to put them in the dehydrator and see how that goes, unless anyone has any other suggestions.  We'll probably get this many more again next week.

One of the eggplants has bounced back, the other two died (ants) and I pulled them up.  Squash is still struggling.  Once again though, not too bad for being out there once a week and not getting them watered by hand on a daily basis.  This is a test this first season to see what we need to change for future seasons and we're taking good notes on what does and doesn't work.

Vegetable harvest:  1 lb 8 oz
Herb harvest:         9 oz
________________________

Total harvest YTD:  3 lb 2 oz

HARVEST MONDAY, OUR FIRST

Every Monday, Daphne's Dandelions hosts "Harvest Monday" where bloggers can post their harvests (click her link above to see what others are harvesting). We're hoping that each weekend now, for a while anyway, will provide us with something to post about each Monday.

Behold!

Garden Harvest

It's our first ever harvest! (don't laugh)

Almost missed the two tomatillos as they were hidden up under the bush.  I was worried because there are so many blooms but no actual tomatillos that I saw.  Then I spotted these two.  As you can see, I think they were a bit late in being harvested, because they outgrew their husks.

The large tomato is a Homestead 24.  There was another larger one but it had been half eaten by something.  Since it was eaten from the top, I'm guessing a bird was the culprit.  Dang it!

The cherry tomatoes were so good.  I say were because they didn't last long after this photo was taken.  Warm off the vine, they were like candy.  I swear, one tiny tomato has ten times the flavor of the biggest store bought regular.  I did notice the some of the cherry toms split.  Any suggestions?  We used all the rest of the tomatoes in a nice salad.

The peppers are doing well, we should get some next weekend.  The eggplant, sadly, is getting overrun with ants but it's hanging in.  The squash bed has been a failure.  I watched the automated watering system while there and that raised bed was getting flooded.  My guess is they are getting OVER watered.  I'm going to need to change the soaker hose on that one to something more like a drip line hose.  I disconnected it from the system for now, I'd rather sacrifice those two small plants in order to keep the tomatoes, peppers and herbs coming. 

Herbs

Speaking of, I also harvested a bunch of herbs (see plants above) but forgot to weigh them.  They will be dried and saved for future use.

Total weight of this harvest, 10 3/4 ounces.

I think we started our plantings a bit late this season while fiddling around with getting the watering system worked out. Now it's hot (really hot) and some plants are struggling.  I know it's not much, but hey, it's our first and we couldn't be happier.