July 9, 2012 - Harvest Monday



 This past week the summer squash began coming on strong, and the raspberries began winding down as the strawberries started bearing.  A few side shoots started appearing on the broccoli plants.

 Dark Red Norland potatoes continue to be our favorites, the tomatoes are beginning to ripen, and here come the zucchinis!

The lettuce is getting tattered and eaten by earwigs, and I found the first slugs of the year in this batch.  It's still sweet and crisp, despite being a bit overgrown.  I haven't kept up with the successive plantings like I planned, we just got a bit tired of so many salads!  

 This was definitely the week for beans.

 Minigold continues to give me more yellow cherry tomatoes than we can possibly eat, so I've decided to eliminate two of the three plants.  The strawberries, although not hugely plentiful, are huge in size for this variety and so deliciously sweet and juicy!  Both red tomatoes turned out to be mealy and tasteless, not unexpected for the first of the year.  The Yukon Gold potatoes were pulled from near the top of the plant just to show off to Greg, who was visiting that day.

 All of the cabbage matured at once, which is fine.  I hadn't made sauerkraut in years, and Mr. Granny loves that stuff.  The large zucchini got away from me, as happens at times, so it made two delicious loaves of nut bread for the freezer.  Broccoli and yellow crooknecks rounded out the day's harvest.

 The Velour bush beans are unbelievably prolific.  These came from a single 10' row, and I was rushing to get them picked before I keeled over from a heat stroke.  I'm sure I missed quite a few.

 Washed, bagged and weighed, they came in at over 4-1/2 pounds.

Tiny but good, Victor gave me two little morsels on Saturday, along with another big bowl of Minigold cherry tomatoes that I forgot to photograph.  Believe me, they all look the same, LOL!


Harvest for the week of 7/2 through 7/8 

Beans, bush - 114 oz. (7 lb.)
Broccoli - 7.8 oz.
Cabbage - 113.8 oz. (7 lb.)
Lettuce - 5.3 oz.
Onions - 159.8 oz. (10 lb.)
Potatoes - 147.4 oz. - (9 lb.)
Raspberries - 12.7 oz.
Squash, summer - 157.3 oz. (10 lb.)
Strawberries - 17 oz. (1 lb.)
Tomatoes - 26.3 oz. (1.6 lb)

Week's total - 47.43 pounds
Year to date - 187.72 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!

48 comments:

  1. Zucchini. . . aaaaiieeee!
    You seem as though you have the means to deal with the onslaught.

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    1. LOL, Stephaneener! We haven't yet had our fill of zucc bread, fried zucc and Rainbow Potato Pancakes!

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  2. Oh Granny, you are going to overtake me in no time now. I loved my early lead, but I know you get about a 1000 lbs out of your garden and mine only comes in at 600, but I'm hoping to beat last year record even if I don't have any tomatoes or potatoes. It's going to be hard though.

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    1. Daphne, I have to get out there and dig the potatoes. That should help me toward that 1000 pound goal. I haven't reached it since 2009, thanks going to pumpkins and squash. I got under 550 last year :-(

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  3. I have to try planting Velour variety next :) Unfortunately most of my fortex got eaten by deer who pulled them through the fence and chumped off all leafs :( I only have few plants left but even they're damaged.

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    1. Jenny, it looks like I might get some Fortex after all, but certainly not the amount I thought I would. Earwigs ruined most of my plants. I actually have some beans on the bucket full I'm growing for next year's seeds!

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  4. Yum! My beans are growing fantastically this year, so much better than the abysmal beans of last year. No harvest yet but I can see the tiny little points of them growing out from the flower petals. Maybe another week or two.

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    1. Anywhere, I cleaned out my freezer and was surprised to fine I already have a dozen packages of beans in there! I'm running out of room already :-(

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  5. I am suffering a serious case of tomato and bean envy right now! Those Velour beans look beautiful! Do they taste as good as they look? I think I'll be picking my first tomato tomorrow and the green beans are all blossoming so should be coming in next week maybe. Til then, I will just have to keep being envious!

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    1. Nutmeg, I think they taste just the same as the green French beans I always grow, and just like the green ones they are delicious if picked very young, but tough if you let them get too large. The green ones freeze well, I haven't tasted the frozen Velour yet. Velour cooks up a bit darker green, a very pretty, slender bean.

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    1. Thanks, Mrs. P. It's 100F out there now, and I need to dig potatoes for dinner :-( Harvests aren't too fun in this heat.

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  7. Lookin good Granny! Those beans are awesome, especially the purple ones. I can't wait for my beans to start coming in, so for now I will live vicariously through you. I hope they are tasty!

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    1. Tiny...hah! Now I can call you Ashlee :-) They are very good flavored, but like I told Nutmeg, they must be picked very young or they get tough. My green French beans are the same.

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  8. Your harvest looks great as usuual!

    What did you think of 'Velour'? I found the taste good, but I'm not sure about the texture. How did you like the taste of 'Victor'? Production is amazing, but last the year they were bland. Of course, I did water them like crazy ;)

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    1. Ed, try picking Velour very young and I think you'll like the texture. I guess I need to take a picture of the size I pick them as compared to, say, a dime.

      I only got a sliver of one Victor, the rest went on Mr. Granny's lunch salad. I thought it was just OK, but par for the course for the first tomatoes. My first Bloody Butcher was delicious, the second, from a different plant, mealy and bland. My first Marglobe Supreme was mealy and bland. My first Mountain Princess had blossom end rot, after I told Greg I haven't had a problem with BER!!! The Mountain Princess is the one that was getting watered most often, as it kept wilting badly. Now I'm only going to water them every three days, regardless what they look like. If that is successful, and I don't lose any, I'll go to four days.

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  9. I definitely have bean envy. We are still waiting here as we got off to a slow start this year and had to plant 3 times before seedlings survived. But thankfully we have a long growing season and should get some good stuff when it's not too terrible outside. I cannot even imagine 100+ degrees. I melt in anything over 90! Love your harvest.

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    1. Nartaya, I went through an entire $8 packet of pole beans before I got some to grow this year! You'd better believe I'll be saving some seeds!

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  10. You always have such beautiful harvests! The work that goes into them - whew.... You tire me out! ;-)

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  11. Granny those beans look so yummy. What type of green bean do you grow?

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    1. Lisa B. The green ones are French Gourmet Green
      http://www.humeseeds.com/beanfr.htm

      The purple ones, a gift from Ed, are Velour
      http://www.territorialseed.com/product/12908/367

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  12. OK I have to know with harvests like that how much room do your bean plants have and how many squash plants do you have? Because I am not getting anything like you are.

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    1. Vanessa, I have a single 10-foot row of each, green and purple. I planted the seeds 4 inches apart in the row. Both varieties are quite well behaved and confine themselves to a one foot width in the row. I have a row of peppers planted down the middle of the 3' wide bed.

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  13. yummmmmy! I love the look of those velour beans! Where did you get those seeds?

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    1. Texan, they were a gift from Ed (Tales from the Mountainside). You can find them here:

      http://www.territorialseed.com/product/12908/367

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  14. Wow! You weren't kidding about the beans! I am gonna have to tri the velour beans! Dd loves the purple beans and I can't grow enough! Your harvest is looking great as usual granny!

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  15. Those velour beans are really lovely. I only got a few purple beans in this year (royalty) and they're struggling.

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    1. Lisa and Robb, the Velour beans are such a dark purple, they are nearly black! I find it interesting that as they lose their purple color while blanching or cooking, the water I pour off is green, not purple. Where does the purple go? LOL!

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  16. What a harvest! Nice work Granny.

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    1. Thanks, Dan. Hey, you've been noticeably absent this year. I miss your posts!

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    2. Yes, I have been slaking! The garden is doing well though. I'll be posting more now that things are in full swing.

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  17. What a beautiful and varied harvest. Hopefully the next red tomatoes will taste better. Dark Red Norland Potatoes are our favorite too. I haven't checked to see if any are ready yet as they were planted almost a month after the Kennebec I have been harvesting. I will check on them tomorrow.

    Velour Beans look to be very productive. I am in love with the purple color and will have to make note of this variety for next year. Seeing your bean harvest has made me very eager for fresh beans. I just spotted some blooms on some of mine today. So it may be a while.

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    1. Thanks, Rachel. I always grew Kennebecs, too, but I couldn't get the seed for them this year. I got Russet Norkotah for my whites instead, and I'm not too happy with them. I do like the Yukon Gold, but those Dk. Red Norlands just can't be beat.

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  18. My MIL cans all our beans, so I didn't even grow any. Then I tasted some of my parents' dill pickled beans. I need to plant them next year just to pickle. You can always send some of your extras my way.

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    1. Langela, I make dilly beans for my daughter. These beans are really slender, I'll probably plant a different variety to harvest later in the summer/fall for that.

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  19. Here is my cabbage idea list for everyone:cabbage rolls, bubble and squeak (potatoes, cabbage and sausage steamed in a pan...you can find a recipe on google), then good old corned beef and cabbage, veggie soup with cabbage/zucchini/carrots, etc. in a tomato soup base, cabbage borscht (http://allrecipes.com/recipe/cabbage-borsht/detail.aspx?event8=1&prop24=SR_Title&e11=cabbage&e8=Quick%20Search&event10=1&e7=Recipe%20List), cabbage and noodles, cabbage cooked in foil packet on grill, etc. Need more? I've already had my share of coleslaw but i like it, and the sourkraut sounds yummy. Reminds me of my trips to Leavenworth where we had bratwurst on a bun with saurkraut. You're a rockstar, granny, for being so productive in the garden and the kitchen! I'm tired just reading your blog and then you're blogging too! Where do you ever get all the energy?

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  20. Amy T., that made me tired just reading it! Like I'd spend my life in the kitchen cooking cabbage, LOL! You left out my favorite....turkey keilbasa stew with vegetables and cabbage. Which leads me to....I found two more heads of cabbage in the back of the fridge, and then picked my last two tonight. That puts me back to four, but at least they're small. I need to go buy some turkey kielbasa! And plant more cabbage ;-)

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  21. Your harvests always make me smile...you are such a wonderful gardener! Hopefully my winter garden will fare better then my summer garden. If things had not self-seeded we'd be starving at my house!

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    1. Thank you, Lynda. I'm hoping to have a decent fall garden, but scratching my head over what to plant! The current garden has been so productive, the freezers and the bellies are getting awfully full already!

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  22. Your harvest looks great. Really loving the beans!!

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    1. Thanks, Debbie. I'm loving eating the beans and freezing the beans, but not picking the beans!

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  23. Jumping Jehosaphat! Your weekly tops my YTD! It all looks so good!

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  24. wow that is an amazing bunch of beans and those Velour are very pretty!

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    1. They are pretty, Mary. They cook up to a really dark green.

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