Boy, did the harvest totals ever fall off this week! The tomatoes are coming in slowly, and there's just nothing of any weight being harvested right now.
Luckily there were some large onions, although not that heavy once the tops were cut off.
The summer planted Red Sails lettuce is coming on strong, and tasting sweet and mild. Beans are the star of this week's harvest.
More beans, strawberries and a decent carrot from the later planted ones. Hooray! These aren't going to be stubby, fat deformed carrots! I'm still getting a few broccoli side shoots, even though the weather has warmed into the mid to high 90s now.
Finally, enough tomatoes to keep us happy. Not enough to can, but that's OK, I can wait as long as we have our BLTs and fresh tomato topped tacos. Here I have harvested Pink Brandywine, Cherokee Purple and Bloody Butcher. Sunsugar and Matt's Wild Cherry have also been picked, but eaten in the garden.
Of course there's the basil, more than I need or can use, but it's pretty and makes the kitchen smell sooooo good! The basket of Summercrisp lettuce is for us, not the rabbit.
Beans, beans and more beans. Strawberries are getting a bit more plentiful, at least enough to keep us in strawberry shortcakes. More Pink Brandywines, Cherokee Purples, Bloody Butchers and a few Sunsugars that finally made it into the kitchen.
I didn't get photographs of everything this week. There were more green beans and strawberries, a few raspberries (finished), and some Minigold tomatoes from the volunteer plant.
I have been whining about the yield from this year's garden, but it's actually not that far behind last year. Last year by now, I had harvested 226 pounds, this year I'm at 204. Considering I'm not growing potatoes, and the squash, peppers and cucumbers have yet to yield, that's not terrible. I'm just not setting my expectations very high this season.
Beans, bush - 5.6 pounds
Beans, pole - 4 ounces
Broccoli - 5 ounces
Carrots - 8 oz.
Herbs - 1.4 pounds
Lettuce - 2.9 pounds
Onions - 3.3 pounds
Raspberries - 3 ounces
Strawberries - 1.5 pounds
Tomatoes - 5.1 pounds
Total harvest for the week: - 21 lb.
Total harvest for the year to date: - 204.44 lb.
Beans, pole - 4 ounces
Broccoli - 5 ounces
Carrots - 8 oz.
Herbs - 1.4 pounds
Lettuce - 2.9 pounds
Onions - 3.3 pounds
Raspberries - 3 ounces
Strawberries - 1.5 pounds
Tomatoes - 5.1 pounds
Total harvest for the week: - 21 lb.
Total harvest for the year to date: - 204.44 lb.
I have been whining about the yield from this year's garden, but it's actually not that far behind last year. Last year by now, I had harvested 226 pounds, this year I'm at 204. Considering I'm not growing potatoes, and the squash, peppers and cucumbers have yet to yield, that's not terrible. I'm just not setting my expectations very high this season.
Please join in the Harvest Monday at Daphne's Dandelions!
I'm very impressed with your bounty. And how are you keeping your lettuce decent? I've tried everything-and it's bitter bitter bitter! This last hot spell was the final straw-I swear it bolted a foot tall in 2 days. I ripped it all out and will replant if we EVER get rain again. Dry as dust out there right now. Oops-starting a novel, aren't I! Why didn't you grow taters this year??? Did I miss something?
ReplyDeleteNice tomato harvest Granny!! I'm still (im)patiently waiting for mine to turn red!!!
ReplyDeleteHarvest a few rocks; that'll put your totals through the ceiling!
ReplyDeleteI have written this year off in terms of successes, and then Mrs IG pointed out that we've got too much veg to eat ourselves.
I better not hear any whinning from you..especially after you needed a second freezer or was it a third, to store all those goodies. Even lucked up on some surprise jars..
ReplyDeleteI'm jealous of all your tomatoes! I've had maybe 4-5 tiny ones so far, and not very many on my plants either. Same problem as you with blossoms dropping, not setting fruit on zucchini, tomatoes, squash .... list goes on! Not a great garden year, (sigh)...
ReplyDeleteSue, I attribute its success to its being situated behind the shed, with a 6' fence to the west. It gets morning sun, but it's shaded for most of the day. It's growing really fast right now, I hope it doesn't bolt. When I had it on the other side of the garden, I provided dappled shade by using a lattice cover, which worked well. I did not, however, have success with the transplants I set out the other night in another, sunnier spot. They fried to a crisp the very next day.
ReplyDeleteI didn't plant potatoes because I ran out of room. When I "lost" Pat, I lost the strip along her side of the fence, where she always let me plant tomatoes. I also started too many broccoli and cabbage plants that I couldn't bear to toss out. Something had to give, so it was potatoes. Now the tomato plants in the main garden are diseased and probably won't survive, and the broccoli, while not a disaster, was not as appreciated as much as the potatoes would have been. Potatoes will be planted next year!
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Thank you, Holly. I appreciate that I am getting some ripe ones now, and since I found the lost salsa from last year, I'm not as anxious for the heavy harvesting to begin!
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TIG, that's exactly how we are! I always grow way too much, much more than we could possibly eat. Maybe a poor year will teach me that I can actually make my garden smaller and plant less.
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Ginny, if I couldn't whine and cry and complain, life wouldn't be worth living ;-) Besides, Mr. Granny would think he was in the wrong house.
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Random, I still don't have any tomatoes on at least four plants, just blossom drop. If they ever bear fruit, it will be awfully late in the season.
I have solid blossoms on one of my squash plants! Every single one of them is a male blossom :-(
That's a pretty good harvest Granny...now stop your whining! Before you know it you will be up to your ears in veggies and won't have enough time in the day to can them!
ReplyDeleteRobin, you know me too well ;-)
ReplyDeleteWeight or no weight, still impressive :)
ReplyDeleteGreat harvest. Your pictures are always just lovely.
ReplyDeleteI have so much to catch up on here at your blog, one of these nights I will enjoy reading about what you have been up to of late. :)
ReplyDeleteAllison, thank you....but where are the zukes and cukes? ;-)
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Thank you, Mrs. Pickles!
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Kelly, not up to much this year, darned cold spring/summer.
Wooo-eee! Three cheers for beans! :) Looks like your helper in the first photo is checking out those onions...hee hee...
ReplyDeleteHanni, I think Annie was looking for green beans or carrots, but all she found were onions and lettuce :-)
ReplyDeleteI thought you pulled your Royal Burgundy beans, are those still RB or something else? You have quite a nice harvest this week as usual! It has been in the 90's here and will probably be for a while yet. Not too easy to get out there in that heat!
ReplyDeleteYou have tomatoes in the harvest - stop whining! LOL! I would be thrilled to have a basket with some yummy looking tomatoes AND onions like you are getting. Each year brings it's winners and losers. Unfortunately, ever since moving to western washington almost every year the tomatoes are on the "losers" list. Hard to grow in my climate and I have lowered my expectations to just getting "some" before the plants succomb to fungal diseases and die.
ReplyDeleteShawn Ann, I pulled them right after that harvest. As you can see, there aren't a lot of them compared to the green ones, and they all had the same amount planted, an 8' double row. They consistently yielded less than the other two varieties.
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OK, OK, Kitsap. I'll stop whining....UNLESS my new carrots are crooked and hairy, then I'll whine some more.
Company for lunch, and I served BLTs with the Brandywines. I'm not whining about that, they were delicious!
Wow, over 5 lbs. of beans is awesome. Your numbers are really going up quick.
ReplyDeleteKris, I'm loving the 8 bags of green beans in the freezer. They are all between 1 1/4 and 1 1/2 pounds, and there's room for more. Plus we've eaten quite a few fresh. I think beans are one of my garden favorites for yield vs space to grow.
ReplyDeleteImpressive harvest! Your tomatoes are just beautiful - I hope mine ripen soon...
ReplyDeleteThank you, Zentmrs. I'm thankful for the tomatoes, but they are very small. I'm still waiting for the big slicers.
ReplyDeleteThe tomatoes look wonderful. Ours have just started to come in. They are not so lovely, but they taste good. Very nice harvest, and you have a very nice harvest total for the year. Thanks for sharing your wonderful garden with us.
ReplyDeleteQuick question: Did you grow the bean plants you planted 2 and 3 weeks ago from seed?
Jody, yes I did direct plant the bean seeds. I have never grown beans for transplanting, they germinate quickly when planted directly. In this warm weather, it probably takes them less than a week to pop up out of the soil.
ReplyDeleteI think I need to do this too. I'm just afraid the space won't be available for our later fall crops. Maybe if I space them enough, I can plant other stuff between them? This is really our first year at an attempt to have a productive fall harvest. Any thoughts?
ReplyDeleteJody, just remember each bean plant will become about a foot wide. I plant mine in rows, two rows with the seeds placed about 6" apart and the rows about 6" apart. When they are full sized, they will make a "hedge" about 2" wide. Anything wider than 2 rows I find too hard to pick. Bush beans only take about 50-60 days until they are ready to harvest, so you should have plenty of time to grow them if you sow them now.
ReplyDeleteBeets, lettuce, spinach and radishes are other crops you could begin to sow now for a fall harvest, the latter three throughout this entire month and radishes right through September. Carrots would be touch and go, it's getting pretty late, but if we have a long warm autumn they could make it, and they can overwinter. Garlic and shallots can be planted around the middle of October.
Well your totals may start picking up now that you finally have some heat. And you could always feed that mound of basil to the rabbit. Or does your rabbit not like basil?
ReplyDeleteThank you Annie's Granny, we're putting in a couple of rows of bush beans this weekend. We'll also add a row of spinach to our back-door garden and maybe even a row of beets. You've really helped us fill a gap in the growing season.
ReplyDeleteGood luck, Jody. I think you should be safe with those fall crops, but of course it's always touch and go trying to figure out just what Mother Nature is going to do to us, she's so fickle! I planted beets and lettuce today, and you're only a week behind my final planting of bush beans. I'm planting fall spinach sometime this week, as soon as I get a spot cleared and amended.
ReplyDeleteJody, I forgot to mention August is the time to plant fall peas, so that's another option for you. I think my schedule says Aug 1-Aug 15. Your zone should be quite close to mine, I'd think.
ReplyDeleteI'm only a week behind in blog posts. Making my stop here, first!
ReplyDeleteLooks like you had a great harvest last week. Kinda sad to not see more onions, though ;)
LOL, Ben, you are behind! Hey, I still have a few onions in the garden. It might be a while before I need them though, I seem to have a bit of a glut of them at the moment ;-)
ReplyDeleteActually, there are a few pictured in the August 1 Harvest Monday post.