September 17, 2012 - Harvest Monday

This week the garden passed the 800 pound mark.  That's still just slightly (about 20 pounds) behind my 2009 garden, but well ahead of the 2010 garden and nearly doubling the 2011 garden total for mid September.


 I'm finally getting a few larger tomatoes.  Although the cherry and small salad sized tomatoes have been quite prolific, the regular/large ones have been very slow to ripen.  I found one last small cantaloupe, hiding under the ladder.  It had harvested itself,  I don't know how I missed it earlier.


 The broccoli side shoots just keep on coming.  I don't know how many bags I have in the freezer by now, but certainly enough to last us most of the winter.  The Fortex beans are beginning to produce again, the yellow crookneck has never stopped producing.  The squash went to my son, as we are quite tired of them, and I have enough in the freezer for our future needs.  Peppers are still slow to turn color, but there are lots of green ones in the garden.


 Beans, beans and more beans.  I thought the zucchini had given up and quit producing, but now it has several small fruits forming.  The first of the four large cantaloupe was finally ready to pick.  It was beautiful, and perfectly ripe, but lacked the sweetness of the smaller melons.  I wonder if it was because of our much cooler nights.  We actually had near freezing temperatures for two nights in a row, which broke the record low for September.


 What it lacked in flavor, it made up for in size.  At nearly 6 pounds, it was the biggest one I've ever grown.  Here it is, sitting on a Good Housekeeping magazine for size comparison.


 It wasn't long before two more large melons were ready to pick.  They went to daughter Amy on Sunday, so I haven't yet heard whether they were flavorful or not.  Another large picking of beans gave me two gallons for the freezer this week.  More broccoli, and it looks as though I'll be getting lots more.  More crookneck squash, but at least there was only one.  Five acorn squash, one was served for dinner and it was very good.  Butternuts are still my favorites, but the acorns are a close second.


On Sunday, the last of the melons was brought in.  I may have nudged the stem a little too hard, it probably could have stayed on the vine for another day or two.  Son Scott has asked for this one, and I'm such a pushover, he'll probably get it.  Total melon weight for the week was nearly 20 pounds, and nearly 53 pounds were harvested in total this year!  Yes, that's one lone tomato from the volunteer unknown plant, and one lone zucchini which is just plenty for Mr. Granny's next meal of fried zucchini.


Harvest for the Week of  9/10 - 9/16

Beans, bush - 30.3 ounces  (1.89 pounds)
Beans, pole - 53.5 ounces  (3.34 pounds)
Broccoli - 25.9 ounces  (1.62 pounds)
Cucumbers - 13 ounces
Melons - 307.6 ounces  (19.23 pounds)
Peppers, sweet - 14.7 ounces
Squash, summer - 54.9 ounces  (3.43 pounds)
Squash, winter - 108.8 ounces  (6.8 pounds)
Tomatoes - 245.9 ounces  (15.37 pounds)

Week's total - 69.6 pounds
Year to date - 819.48 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!

32 comments:

  1. Over 800 pounds! Wow! I'm more than impressed, and very, very envious.

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  2. Nice pictures of your harvest this week. You are still getting some of everything and I think harvesting 800 lbs of produce would be wonderful. I hope to weigh my little bit next year to see how much I actually get! My crookneck has slowed down and I thought my zuke was done but see one small one growing so hoping! We have a son Scott also! Nancy

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    1. Thanks, Nancy. Once you start weighing you produce, you'll have to push yourself to increase the poundage every year! I always have to try that, even though mine went down for two years in a row. Sometimes Mother Nature doesn't want to play nice.

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  3. What a wonderful harvest! Over 800 pounds! And everything looks so good and healthy.

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    1. Thanks, Nutmeg. I grew way too much for our use, but I'm sure my kids appreciated it!

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  4. Gorgeous harvests. I'm now officially up from last year. I'm surprised since I figured without tomatoes I couldn't produce more per square foot. But there were a lot of hits this year and few misses. And even some of the misses did OK (like the cukes that all died from wilt). I'd have to give away melons too if I grew 50 pounds of them. I had trouble at times keeping up with my more modest 28 pounds.

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    1. Daphne, I'm way down on tomato and peppers production this year. I still have about a month of growing weather left though. I think next year I'll try watermelons instead of cantaloupe. I get tired of cantaloupe, but I could eat watermelon 24/7!

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  5. So much produce! We found quite a few of our "Orange Glo" watermelons this weekend. One was about 3 1/2 times the size of your largest cantaloupe. They were super sweet, but some people had a hard time with the fact that they were orange inside.

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    1. Langela, I'd have a hard time with an orange watermelon, too. I like the really red ones. I made ketchup out of orange and yellow tomatoes last year, and we couldn't eat it! Orange ketchup is just all wrong.

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  6. lovely harvest!!! Looks like you are going to hit the 1000 mark soon!

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    1. Mrs. P., I don't think I'll hit 1000 this year. The heaviest thing, other than a few more butternuts, would be tomatoes. They aren't doing that great.

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  7. What an impressive harvest for both the week and for hitting the 800 pound mark! Wow. And it all looks so good and healthy.

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    1. Thanks, Foodgardenkitchen. It's been quite a good year, so much better than last year!

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  8. Granny, what is the total square footage you are using for your garden? Im sure you have already posted that somewhere, but I missed it. :-)

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    1. Angela, with the new (this season) garden area, I have roughly 1400 square feet total of gardening space. It's hard to be specific, as every square foot of it isn't actually gardenable. Some of it is buckets, there are a few raised beds, some of it is planted in perennial flowers. Some of it has so many old tree roots I can only use that as a spot to let the squash vines run.

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    2. So very productive...your garden is the size of a medium house...lol! What a wonderful use of the space! You are very thrifty! And Mr. Granny is very spoiled ;-)

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    3. Well, that last statement goes without saying....LOL!!!!

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  9. Replies
    1. Erin, not as in awe as I am over your peppers and tomatoes! I can't seem to get enough tomatoes to even drag out the quart jars, and my youngest son is eating the peppers as fast as I can pick them!

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  10. Impressive totals. And one very nice cantaloupe too! I know how ya feel about the tomatoes! I am up to my ears in cherry tomatoes with not a lot of slicers!

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    1. Shawn Ann, at least I'm getting enough cherry tomatoes to make quite a bit of sauce. I really would like some large tomatoes to can though.

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  11. Won't you have broccoli coming in all winter? I forget if you guys get year-round production. Crazy if you did -- you'd be in my kale situation, where I thawed a bag of last year's kale to eat after eating this year's earlier today. Sigh.

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    1. Stefaneener, I've never had spring planted broccoli last through the 100+ degree days of summer like this crop has. I've never planted it as a fall crop, either. I have no idea just how long it will continue to produce! Mr. Granny thinks I'm plotting against him, as he hates broccoli LOL!

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  12. Those melons look delicious. I am feeling much better knowing that even you in the warmer regions of southcentral Washington are struggling to get the larger tomatoes ripened. My plants dropped blossoms all through July because it was consistently too cool and once they set fruit finally in August I was unfortunately racing against a fast clock to get them sized up and mature. Especially since we never get that warm anyways. (sigh)

    Okay enough whining about the tomatoes (or lack thereof). It looks like your enjoying a good green bean and summer squash year too. Just when you think they are about done for the year they start producing again! LOL!

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    1. Kitsap, I've had lots of green tomatoes all summer, but they just sat there and stayed green. The plants also dropped blossoms during the heatwave we went through. I planted mostly determinates this year, hoping they would ripen all at once so I could can them and get it over with. It was not to be.

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  13. THAT is an amazing number! Congrats!!!

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  14. Thanks for your Italian Bean help!!! I had never seen that kind before! Nancy

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