The September garden gave me one last good week of harvests. The total for the year went over 950 pounds, but unless we get several more weeks of warm weather for ripening tomatoes (not likely, a frost is now predicted for Thursday) there is probably no way I'll break 1000 pounds this year. There's really nothing very heavy in the garden now. I have quite a few carrots, a few pole beans and some peppers. If I end up using the final five butternut squash, I might come close. In any case, it's my second biggest year of pounds harvested. It beats out 2011, 2010 and comes really close to my record year of 2009.
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Son John took home this nice mini-cabbage. It was big for the Pixie variety at just under four pounds. I also sent a couple of the butternut squash with him.
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I kept the other two cabbages picked that day, along with Fortex pole beans, lots of Velour bush beans, carrots, sweet peppers, tomatoes, a cucumber and a sweet potato.
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A nice variety of tomatoes, and some more pretty carrots. Hardly any of the carrots got very large this year. Those that did tended to be split open and inedible.
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Of course, way too many butternut and acorn squash. They'll join the others in storage in the garage. The last two cucumbers were picked, and the vines pulled.
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Son Scott was begging for sweet peppers, so he picked and took home a bag of them, nearly 3 1/2 pounds.
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Zucchini and pole beans are still producing, and the strawberries are just beginning another round. These might be the last three cabbages harvested. There are several more in the garden, but they have been badly chewed up and stunted in growth. I'm starting to pick any tomatoes that have even a little color, and I've given up on getting any more red, orange or yellow peppers this year.
Harvest for the Week of 9/24 - 9/30
Beans, pole - 40.5 ounces (2.53 pounds)
Cabbage - 229.8 ounces (14.36 pounds)
Carrots - 56.1 ounces (3.51 pounds)
Cucumbers - 19.4 ounces (1.21 pounds)
Peppers, sweet - 136 ounces (8.50 pounds)
Potatoes, sweet - 3.8 ounces
Squash, summer - 42.6 ounces (2.66 pounds)
Squash, winter - 536.3 ounces (33.52 pounds)
Strawberries - 4.6 ounces
Tomatoes - 223.5 ounces (13.97 pounds)
Total for the week: 84.36 pounds
Total year to date: 951.71 pounds
I'm always surprised by how much gets pulled out in a week. You might find that you make your 1000 lb mark. I'm rooting for it.
ReplyDeleteDaphne, I could make it in green tomatoes, but I don't weigh what we don't use!
DeleteWow, you are so close to that 1000 pounds! I hope you make it! So far, I am about 70 pounds ahead of last year, which was my best ever, but my September harvest was way less than 2011 primarily due to the poor tomato harvest. Everything you picked this week looks perfect! I wish my son that lives locally would take the slightest interest in eating vegetables. The son that likes them and wants to eat healthy lives too far away to get more than a few from me but he's very glad to get them when he can since he lives in the city!
ReplyDeleteNutmeg, I'm actually ahead of my best year, but that year I had pumpkins yet to bring in. I don't have anything heavy this year.....unless I let the last zucchinis get gigantic!
DeleteThat's a whole lotta pounds.
ReplyDeleteWhat fall and winter crops do you do? Cole crops? Kale?
Stefaneener, none. The only thing I'm going to plant is garlic, and my butt in the recliner in front of the fireplace. I was going to do spinach, but I lost the darned seeds!
DeleteGrow! Grow! Grow! I'll send you some of our warm temps for some of your cool temps?
ReplyDeleteNartaya, our daytime temps are still in the high 70s to low 80s. With luck, if we get past this expected two day cold spell, we might stay in the 40s at night until the last half of October.
DeleteThat's really amazing! No fried green tomatoes?
ReplyDeleteNo, David. I really do not like them! About the only way I like green tomatoes is in green tomato mincemeat. If I can find a bit of room in the freezers (doubtful), I might just make some!
DeleteI don't know how you have the energy to take care of all those veggies! So many! And beautiful as always!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Shawn Ann.
DeleteBeautiful as always Granny!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Susan!
DeleteI do hope you make your 1000 lbs of harvest this year but even 950 lbs is wonderful amount in my eyes!! Lucky children to be able to share your wonderful bounty. I hope they appreciate you. Nancy
ReplyDeleteNancy, I'm more than happy with my 950+ pounds! That was way more than we could eat, and yes, the kids do appreciate it. In fact, I have been given a hint to make more sauerkraut, so now I know what to do with those four heads of cabbage in the fridge.
DeleteI don't believe for one minute that this is the "last good week" for you LOL! You continue to amaze. Do your neighbors have any big vines with some heavy pumpkins you could just toss those vines over your fence and say they are yours and make that 1000 mark!
ReplyDeleteNo, Erin, but she does have those humongous weeds. Heck, I could probably shake 5-10 pounds of weed seeds off of them. Oh, wait. There are no more weed seeds. They've already blown into my garden.
DeleteWell done on reaching 950 pounds!! The way you are going I wouldn't be surprised if you did reach 1,000 pounds. The garden expansion was well worth the effort. I bet your family is very grateful that you were able to share so much with them this year.
ReplyDeleteRachel, at least it gave me enough room for those squash! Mr. Granny even ate two pieces of pie, and admitted it tasted just like pumpkin. I'll be making many "pumpkin" pies this winter :-)
DeleteI swear if you had a couple acres you could feed the world! You are one amazing gardener! I have always been impressed with your talent!
ReplyDeleteAwww, Lynda....*blush*
DeleteThank you!
Yea, I'm with Lynda. You are an amazing gardener. 1,000 pounds nearly killed us this year. And thank you for the tip you shared with Rachel. We have so much butternut squash. "Pumpkin pie" is a great idea. You're so close to 1,000 pounds. Could you maybe reach it by harvesting green tomatoes and using them is a salsa recipe or something?
ReplyDeleteJody, I did a recipe search for "butternut squash" today and found a bunch of them that sound really good. As I try them, I'll post those we really like. As far as the "pumpkin" pie, I use the one from Libby's pumpkin, just substituting 2 cups of butternut puree. I also use canned milk for richer flavor.
DeleteHow about just picking lighter colored tomatoes before frost? They do ripen inside! That's what I did as we already had out first frost a week ago... Also, wondering do any of your sons have a garden of their own/did your interest in gardening rub off of them?
ReplyDeleteRandom, I always harvest any tomatoes that have begun to turn. I can usually have them ripening clear into December. I just don't have a lot of the larger varieties this year, most are small and cherry types.
DeleteJohn has a small garden, and so does Amy (her first, but now she has the gardening bug). Scott lives in an apartment, without even a balcony on which to grow. He is the one who raids my garden every week! Shannon doesn't have the garden bug, and they aren't big veggie eaters, but she does like the onions and potatoes. The onions and potatoes are all gone now, by the way. We used every one of them!
I was wondering how many pounds of potatoes you harvested this year and how long do they generally store. I know you've used them all up for this year, but how long did they store(and variety) at the most over the winder - in any previous years? I'm thinking I might grow potatoes for our whole years use(if possible) for next season.
DeleteRandom, I grew 110 pounds this year. I didn't have a cool place to store them, so we shared with the kids. The Russets were beginning to shrivel a bit (they were our least favorite), but the Red Norlands were still really nice. We ate all the Yukon Golds early on. I did dig all of them early. I've never tried storing them over the winter.
Delete2009 really was a good garden year wasn't it?! I am going to be close (maybe exceed it) my poundage from that year too - depending on my last push with the tomatoes and the winter squashes.
ReplyDeleteLove the butternuts and acorn squashes. I really need to rotate acorns back into my squash line up next year. Such a good sized squash for our now smaller sized family and they are good growers too.
Kitsap, my 2009 garden was smaller in size, but way more productive. That year I had over 500 pounds of tomatoes!
DeleteHats off to you and your amazing harvest!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Gardener on Sherlock!
DeleteYou were so good in gardening and harvesting. Maybe you have a gift in doing that thing. Keep it up!
ReplyDeleteCotswold Kitchens, I've been at it for over fifty years, so maybe one of these days I'll get it right!
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