August 31, 2009: Monday Harvest



Each week Daphne's Dandelions hosts
Monday Harvest. Be sure to visit her blog to see who is harvesting what this week!

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8/24 - 40 oz. melon, 48 oz. tomatoes, 7 oz. pole beans, 10 oz. cucumbers, 3 oz. jalapenos, 14 oz. strawberries, 13 oz. zucchini.



8/25 - 8 oz. tomatoes, 25 oz. bell peppers, 11 oz. jalapenos, 11 oz. cucumbers, 42 oz. crookneck.


8/26 - 22 oz. crookneck, 21 oz. tomatoes, 22 oz. cucumbers (no photo).


8/27 - 22 oz. bell peppers, 15 oz. tomatoes (no photo).





8/28 - 18 oz. strawberries, 28 oz. pole beans, 129 oz. cucumbers, 31 oz. crookneck, 7 oz. peppers, 152 oz. tomatoes, 12 oz. zucchini, 120 oz. beets.



8/30 - 25 oz. tomatoes, 346 oz. butternut, 17 oz. crookneck, 60 oz. cucumbers, 288 oz. pumpkins. The bottom photo has all nine butternut squash harvested today, minus the one my son took home for his dinner.




Total for week: 98 pounds

Total for year: 679 pounds



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Preserving the Week's Harvest


8/24 - Seven half-pints of sweet relish, three pints of tomato juice and a loaf of zucchini bread



8/28 - Nine half-pints of strawberry jam, four half-pints of dill relish (I lacked about a tablespoon of having enough for five jars, so that went into the fridge), and four pints of pickled beets. *I left the canner on the stove that night. In the morning, I started to dump out the water and there was another jar of relish! It would be terribly over processed, so I doubt it is any good. It is sealed though, so we'll give it a taste test.



8/30 - Eight pints of Annie's Salsa, 5 pints of pickles, and a 16 ounce bottle of tomato juice (refrigerated, not canned) from the cherry tomatoes.


12 comments:

  1. I'm sure I've commented on your blog before about how I am craving strawberries during my current pregnancy, I had one tiiiiny strawberry turning red that I was just drooling over! Well my darling 3 year old son decided to squash it. Needless to say, I was devastated!! You are very lucky to have so many beautiful vegetables!! -(My boys also smashed a near-ripe cauliflower to pieces). I truly envy you :)

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  2. I notice you have a LOT of crookneck in your harvests...
    Sick of them yet??
    I grew them last year. I TRIED to keep up with them. OMG-I NEVER want to see one again......
    :D

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  3. As usual - WOW. :>

    I was going to say you haven't moved to your fall harvests at all, you are still in summer mode. Then I saw all the squash at the end. Then again you were harvesting pumpkins in the middle of summer so maybe winter squash are summer fruits for you.

    I love all the cans, but what are you going to do with them all. I guess you have Christmas gifts to give to all the neighbors. I actually made three pints of dill pickles this week from last weeks and this weeks cucumbers. Yes two weeks worth and I just made three pints. I need to get a pot that is tall and thin and can do one jar at a time, but still cover a pint jar. It is silly heating up my canning pot that can take seven pints.

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  4. How many butternuts do you have growing?

    Once again, great harvest!

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  5. Impressive haul AG! The pumpkins and winter squash really shot your harvest weight up a lot! My August totals are quite a bit by weight - but my September weigh in will be significantly bigger due to the potato lift and first harvests of pumpkins and winter squash that will occur. I may yet catch up with you but it will be several months behind!

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  6. Granny - what kind of zucchini is that? It looks just like a spaghetti squash that isn't ripe yet. That certainly is alot of stuff canned for the year, and mine is yet to come. I may have to create something on the sidebar when everything is canned for the year.

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  7. Marrissa, I'm loving these strawberries! I started with 20 plants of Tristar this spring, and they have given us non-stop berries. I don't get huge amounts, but I do get every other day picking, and they are still blossoming. I'll bet I'm getting berries until they freeze. Next year I'm going to plant some around the patio as a ground cover.

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    Sue, you're reading my mind. Actually, I don't get that tired of them because I also like them mixed with other veggies (corn & green beans), and both of my boys love them, so they take a lot off my hands. You should see how many big ones have ended up in the compost! If only I had weighed them......LOL! Anyway, I began ripping out my two plants last night, only because they were tangled up with the pumpkins (and I just got carried away).

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    Daphne, I supply three of my kids with canned stuff, so it doesn't stay around long. My daughter took all but one pint of dill pickles home with her, and my youngest son is already begging for more salsa. I did get carried away with the relish, but I think we'll be able to use up everything else. Relish is so easy to make, it was actually fun ;-)

    I use my largest stock pot for canning, that's why I put everything in pint or half-pint jars. It's so much easier to lift, and it holds 8 small mouth pints. No rack with handles, but it's no problem to just use a jar lifter. I used the regular canner twice...for 2 quarts of tomatoes and one quart of dill pickles. That thing is HEAVY!

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    Kelly, I only planted two seeds! I ended up harvesting eleven squash, and there would have been a lot more....I ripped out the plants last night, and there were another half dozen immature (some very large) fruits on them. If they hadn't been all tangled in the pumpkins, I'd have left them be until winter. The vines were really long (20 feet or more) even with cutting off the ends of them every week.

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    KitsapFG, you'll catch up, and probably surpass me!

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    EG, those are Gray Zucchini. http://www.birdsonghollow.com/node/90 I bought the seeds at the dollar store for about 15-cents after my "good" zucchini performed so poorly. They are a little fat for frying, like Mr. H likes them, but good for shredding for bread.

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  8. My canner is a small one so doesn't fit quarts. Its size is just about right for me except with I need to do one jar at a time. I've never needed a bigger one. I just don't do that many jars. I rarely ever fill it up and it only takes 7 pints at best.

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  9. Daphne, one of these would be perfect.

    http://www.ikitchen.com/granwarpaspo.html?CS_003=740477&CS_010=granwarpaspo

    I love mine...or I would, if I could find the bottom pot :-(

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  10. Wow! Fantastic!

    Your garden production continues to be an inspiration!

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  11. I was just going to ask how many butternut plants you had but it was already answered. That is pretty amazing that two plants produced that many squash! Everything looks great.

    By the way, I started to ferment a bunch of Cherokee Purple seeds tonight as I am all out of seed. I can send you some in the new year along with those sungolds. I probably have well over 300 CP seeds. I can't guarantee that they have not been crossed by the bees but it is unlikely being they are open pollinated and regular leafed.

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  12. Dan, if I hadn't pulled those squash vines today, I'd guess I would have ended up with at least twenty squash from two plants.

    I would LOVE to get the Cherokee Purple seeds! And the Sungolds! Thank you so much!

    I got the first cherry tomatoes from my volunteer plant today, and they are so much better than the Tumbling Toms I had planted. Not real sweet, but good nonetheless.

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