September 10, 2012 - Harvest Monday

These were the best carrots of the season, even though the harvest was really small.  This was the last small cantaloupe, but there are still four really big ones that are not yet ripe.  Zucchini is producing a couple a week now, which is just about right for our needs.  The one pot of three cucumber plants has also been just perfect for what Mr. Granny can eat, producing about a half dozen a week.


 I pulled the last of the carrots from one of the beds.  I wanted to get some spinach planted there, but time is running short for me.  The bush beans are beginning to give me some big pickings.  We had the butternut squash for dinner, along with a big pot of beans, carrots and summer squash.  The volunteer Cherokee Purple tomato plant has given us several nice slicers.


The broccoli are still giving me a good harvest of side shoots, and the sweet peppers are finally beginning to turn color.  My youngest son is taking the sweet peppers home with him as fast as I can grow them.  Eating them raw, with ranch dip, is his new passion.   I won't let him have those super sweet orange Happy Yummy peppers though.  Those are strictly mine, for adding to sandwiches and coleslaw.



I'm still not getting very many tomatoes, other than the small salad and cherry types.  Luckily the small tomatoes have been prolific enough to make a few batches of sauce, ketchup and sweet chili sauce.  Those pink tomatoes in the bottom photo are from a volunteer plant.  The only variety I've ever grown that were that color, was Clear Pink Early.  


A really large haul for one day, 56 pounds of produce.  Of course the butternut squash added a lot to that total, weighing in at 42 pounds.  I've already harvested a total of 111 pounds ( a new record for me) of winter squash, and there are still several large butternuts and quite a few small acorn squash in the garden that are close to ripening.  The summer squash also broke a weight record this year, producing over 87 pounds so far, and still going strong.


Harvest for the Week of  9/03-9/09

Beans, bush - 74 ounces (4.63 pounds)
Beans, pole - 24  ounces (1.5 pounds)
Broccoli - 14.2 ounces
Cabbage -  70.4 ounces (4.4 pounds)
Carrots - 63 ounces (3.94 pounds)
Cucumbers - 50.6 ounces (3.16 pounds)
Melons - 19.5 ounces (1.22 pounds)
Peppers, sweet - 43.4 ounces (2.71 pounds)
Squash, summer - 66.3 ounces (4.14 pounds)
Squash, winter - 710.3 ounces (44.39 pounds)
Tomatoes - 189.1 ounces (11.82 pounds)

Week's total - 82.8 pounds
Year to date - 766 pounds

Daphne's Dandelions is the host for Harvest Monday, where everyone can share links to their harvest for the week. Please visit her blog and leave a link, so we can enjoy your harvest photos!


26 comments:

  1. Holy cow look at all those butternut squash. You and Daphne both make me jealous. So the happy yummies are sweeter than other small sweet peppers? My kids eat them as fast as I can grow them too. I pack them in their lunches. What a healthy thing for them to munch on. I would love to try a sweeter one.

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    1. Shawn Ann, the Happy Yummy peppers are some that happened to cross in another blogger's garden. He'd saved seeds, and the next year some turned out sweet, some hot. He then shared seeds from both, but all of mine turned out to be sweet. I'm saving seeds from them, and hope the sweetness carries on for another generation. They are really good!

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  2. wow that is a lot of squash! really pretty harvest this week

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    1. Mrs. P., it was one of the biggest harvests of the year. Green beans have been frozen, and I doubt I can get another bag of anything in the freezer.

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  3. Just awesome! Leaving my carrots in the ground and only pulling as needed

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    1. David, I am just pulling the last of the early carrots, but have an entire bed of late summer planted ones to pull as needed.

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  4. I'd love that many butternuts. I could give them away to people. No way could I eat that much. Last year I had very little squash and had to eat it in dribs and drabs. This year I out to have plenty even if not enough to share.

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    1. Daphne, I'm not parting with many of mine. We both like them so much, there would be no problem with serving them once a week through the winter.

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  5. Awesome harvest! That's a lot of pounds for one day! And everything looks perfect. I really like your new header photo!

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    1. Nutmeg, thanks. The photo is quite large, but I couldn't crop any more off the bottom without ruining it.

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  6. Beautiful harvest especially the perfect carrots. My peppers are ripening too which is very rare for me.

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    1. Rachel, my peppers usually color up much earlier and I normally have so many more than I do so far this year. It hasn't been a good year for peppers or tomatoes!

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  7. Love those squash! They look like soldiers standing on your counter!

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    1. Susan, they do look like they are standing in formation!

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  8. Great looking harvest! I'm envious of thos butternut squash. I may try them next year instead of tomatoes.

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    1. Ed, you'd better have a lot of room. Those vines grow to about 40 feet in length!

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  9. All those tomatoes are really pretty. I love the varying colors of them. Are your tomatoes always so perfect? Mine have scars or spots or tears, etc., but very few perfect-looking ones.

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    1. Langela, you should know by now that I only grow perfect vegetables. None others are allowed in my garden ;-) Actually, the small salad tomatoes and cherry tomatoes are perfect, not many of the larger ones have ripened yet. I did finally pick a few today, and the Cherokee Purple wasn't the prettiest I've seen. No spots, scars or tears, but splits and lumps and bumps!

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  10. Beautiful header! Great harvest and especially envious of the butternuts! Nancy

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  11. Those orange peppers look in shape like my Pizza My Heart. Wonder if they're related? And I have to tell you what counter envy I'm having. I have too few very short counters... I'd love yours. Perfect for a gardener!

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    1. Stefaneener, from what I understand, they originally came from a bell shaped pepper. Dave- http://www.ourhappyacres.com/ saved the seeds and the next crop turned out to be elongated, as well as some being hot and some being sweet. He separated the hot from the sweet and again saved the seeds and shared as an experiment. Mine all turned out to be long, sweet and orange. His were also long and sweet and orange. Some others grew long but red (hot or sweet?) I'm just assuming the first year the orange bell crossed with a hot red elongated. I'm saving seeds and hoping they hold true to long and sweet. They are also exceptionally early to turn color.

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  12. I guess I better start digging my Kennebecs if I want to catch up to your poundage! I doubt that will happen since my fall garden is basically a bust this year. Some Bunny has been having a field day at the plots!

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    1. Robin, I hope my larger tomatoes get ripe so I can keep ahead of you! I still have some real large butternuts, a bed of beets, a bed of carrots, some small cabbages and four giant cantaloupes, but nothing else of any weight.

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  13. What an awesome harvest! My winter squash are not really ready to come in yet, still have green stems, but maybe by the end of the month some will be. We won't freeze until Halloween or later

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    1. Mary, we had a very cold night last night, much earlier than usual. It's supposed to warm up again, I sure hope it does. We shouldn't get our first frost for at least another month, but I don't trust Mother Nature lately.

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