Here is another weekend harvest...
Another small harvest from our small garden. The red tomatoes, four cucumbers (with 2 oddly shaped round ones and a forgotten giant), and two asian eggplants.
We're hoping to get more of the cucumbers before this happens to them...
...the rain really set these off and they have grown exponentially. In addition the ones I was able get in the first picture, there were these four yellow ones (we understand those are bitter) that were overripe and overwatered. We'll have to see how that levels out over the next few weeks of harvesting.
Yellow cucumbers ; besides getting too much water could also be a lack of nitrogen or a virus of some sort. Yellow cucumbers are generally not fit for consumption.
ReplyDeleteIf you decide on making ripe or overripe cucumber relish it's a good idea to peel them. As the cucumbers mature their skins get thicker and harder, they wouldn't taste very good in your relish! Making ripe cucumber relish is a great way to use up those big cucumbers.
Enjoy your day & have a wonderful evening.
Stay cool & stay safe.
The tomatoes look lovely, just waiting to be sliced and added to a salad. Although you have some unhappy cucumbers, nice cucumbers usually grown abundantly--so much so that you'll be tempted to leave a bag of them on some other gardener's doorstep, ring the bell, and run.
ReplyDeleteLove,
Janie
What are the four in the last picture. The tomatoes are making me salivate!
ReplyDeleteYou have enough for a good eggplant recipe and also a nice cucumber and tomato salad. Not bad, since you’re only there on the weekend.
ReplyDeleteThe big yellow cucumbers are over-ripe but they may not be a total loss. I also found a big one that had been hiding in my garden. To salvage at least part of it, I sliced and tasted it. If it’s bitter, it will occur more towards the stem end, so I started at that end. I sliced off a piece and gave it a little bite. It was bitter, so I made another slice and tasted it. After a few slices, I got to the part that was not bitter. I then sliced up the rest of it and added it to my batch to make Bread & Butter pickles. Those giants can also have big seeds inside, so I sometimes scoop them out.
The round cucumbers can result from insufficient pollination. At first I thought that the city’s spraying for mosquitoes was killing the pollinators. That could still be part of the problem but I also researched some more and found out that prolonged rains that occur during flowering can cause the cucumbers to not be fully pollinated. Also the overwatering they received during the three weeks of rain we had can cause them to be deformed.
Poorly pollinated (round) and over ripe (yellow). One of the hazards of living so far away is missing The Perfect Moment for picking :( Someday....
ReplyDelete