This past week found me cleaning out the refrigerator to make room for more garden goodies. I packed up more than 16 pounds of squash, zucchini, cucumbers, potatoes, tomatoes and peppers to take to the youngest son. Then I started all over again, and I'm once more looking at a refrigerator that is bursting at the seams.
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The Red Sails lettuce is still holding up well through this heat wave. Several days in the triple digits didn't phase it at all. It's still sweet and shows no sign of bolting. I picked another "purple" pepper, but I think the variety is actually Lilac Sweet Bell Pepper - Plant produces good yields of large 4 ½" long by 3 ½" wide lilac-lavender (not purple) sweet bell peppers. Turns from ivory, to lilac-lavender, to red. This one still had a spot of ivory color on it. The potatoes that were brought in this day were some I'd missed when digging them earlier. I found them as I was digging trenches for composting kitchen scraps.
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Still picking strawberries!
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My first two Fort Laramie strawberries were huge! Although they are at least 4 times the size of my Tristar, I do think the smaller berries are more flavorful. I'm letting the Ft. Laramie put out runners, so I should have plenty of plants for a full bed of them next spring.
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This picking of corn was cut off the cobs and frozen for five future meals.
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Sunday's harvest basket #1
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Contents of the first basket were baby beets (roasted for dinner), cucumbers, zucchini, summer squash, tomatoes, lettuce and basil. The Anuenue was beginning to bolt, so I pulled out one bed of it. I still have another small bed, but no room for it in the refrigerator right now.
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The second trip to the garden yielded another full basket.
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Basket #2 held bush beans, corn, cucumbers and sweet peppers. The beans were snapped, blanched and frozen. I have a glut of cucumbers.
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The third trip to the garden, in 100 degree heat, was a short one. One hill of potatoes dug, and the strawberries quickly picked (I probably missed a few, but it was hot out there!) I've now picked over 28 pounds of strawberries from that 4'x8' bed, more than any previous year. Then I had to bake an angel food cake, to serve with the berries, for the evening dessert.
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The Red Norland potatoes are getting huge! This one weighed in at just over one pound.
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I made one last trip to the garden for my Sunday evening snack of cherry tomatoes.
This Week's Harvest
Beans (bush): 49.8 ounces
Beans (pole): 7.3 ounces
Beets: 12.7 ounces
Broccoli: 1.8 ounces
Carrots: 1.6 ounces
Corn: 121.4 ounces
Cucumbers: 149 ounces
Herbs: 3.2 ounces
Lettuce: 20.6 ounces
Peppers (sweet): 13.5 ounces
Potatoes: 133.9 ounces
Squash (summer): 243.1 ounces
Strawberries: 56.7 ounces
Tomatoes: 98.2 ounces
Total for week: 912.8 ounces (57 pounds)
Total to date: 267 pounds
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Another huge zucchini was made into Mock Pineapple. It tastes pretty good, but it reminds me more of diced pears canned in pineapple juice. I think they would be good in a crisp, or just chilled and eaten as a breakfast "fruit".
Daphne's Dandelions is the host for Harvest Monday.
I see you have some of the black Cherry Tomatoes! Those Strawberries are HUGE!
ReplyDeletenBoer, those Black Cherry toms are sooo good. I wish my Una Hartsocks would hurry and ripen. All of my cherries are in a places that really don't get enough sunlight, but they are all loaded with green tomatoes. I have single handedly eaten every single cherry tomato that has ripened so far, but I'm giving Mr. Granny most of the large tomatoes!
DeleteI have never, ever in my life grown strawberries that big. Those two were enough for my entire breakfast, with a slice of toast!
Oooh, now I know what I'm going to do with my zucchini! I made fritters with a HUMONGO one last night and thought about turning the other big ones into cake or bread, maybe brownies. This Mock Pineapple sounds like something Jax would be all over, though, so I've just put juice on the grocery list. THanks!
ReplyDeleteTeresa, there are several recipes if you Google for them, but I used the one I know is safe, at
Deletehttp://www.sbcanning.com/2013/07/faux-pineapple-yes-its-made-with.html
Some of the other recipes use less lemon juice, so might not be totally safe for canning. If you were going to eat it right away, or maybe freeze it, I think you could cut back on both the lemon juice and the sugar.
Great harvest. Your corn looks way better than mine! Pests have been getting my strawberries more than me so far.
ReplyDeleteShawn Ann, the corn seems to have pollinated well, but it's ripening at such different rates because of all the replanting I had to do this spring. It's really hard to tell if the early corn is mature, the ears are so small. I pick it when the silk turns brown and begins to dry, but that's hit and miss. I usually end up with probably two out of every six ears being too young, but I don't like it over-mature at all. Knock on wood, but the bugs have not been bothering my strawberries at all. Pill bugs took out a few early on, but they have all moved on to other crops now :-)
DeleteNice harvest this week Granny!! I forgot to plant squash this year. DOH! Looks like you Eastern WA-ers are a few weeks ahead of us here in Portland (or just me). LOL!! I picked a my first few ripe cherry tomatoes this past week.
ReplyDeleteHey, there's still time for planting summer squash, Holly! My cherry tomatoes are loaded....with green tomatoes. I just get a handful of ripe ones every couple of days. Most are eaten before they even get in the house.
DeleteLooks great! You are really getting the strawberries! Ours were very disappointing this year. I am goint to plant some in August using Herrick Kimball's E.P. Roe and Hugelkultur method.
ReplyDeletehttp://thedeliberateagrarian.blogspot.com/2013/06/strawberries-of-largest-finest-quality.html
Ray, the strawberries have really been producing for me this year. I have to weigh myself every morning, just to make sure I'm not gaining too many pounds from all the shortcake, LOL!
DeleteYour harvest is wonderful! And still getting strawberries! Yummy corn too! I wondered about Mock Pineapple. Sounds like it might be worth a try! Nancy
ReplyDeleteIf you try the mock pineapple, Nancy, be sure to use the safe canning recipe at http://www.sbcanning.com/2013/07/faux-pineapple-yes-its-made-with.html
DeleteA beautiful harvest again this week. Sounds like you are in the thick of it right now. We are still a few weeks away from our "glut" where we will be needed to start preserving. But things are gearing up!!
ReplyDeleteStoney, I fear I'm getting a bit behind. It's so hot out in the garden now (99 in the shade), it's hard to get out there to do anything!
DeleteYour trench composting sure seems to do the job! Of all the great harvests I see yours takes the cake! Beautiful as always. Lucky son that gets the extras!
ReplyDeleteNutmeg, it should be even better with the addition of the chopped leaves + grass clippings that I'm adding in this year!
DeleteSon says he's ready for more already! I told him he missed out on fresh green beans yesterday, because he didn't answer his phone. Now they're in my freezer, and I won't part with them.
I cannot believe your strawberries are still hanging in there! My Fort Laramie and Ozark Beauties are completely done with the first fruit set. they will do another round in August, but the first production cycle is over for us. Luckily they wrapped up just as the raspberries started producing. You are getting an amazing variety of things from the garden right now and the volume is pretty impressive too!
ReplyDeleteKitsap, in past years they were just beginning around the first week of July, and this year they began bearing mid-May! Last year they stopped mid-August, but usually they go until at least mid-October. If I get a mid-October year this time, that would be great!
DeleteNow I've seen it all. You are magically turning zucchini into pineapple. I'm always amused (and sometimes amazed) by what people do with all their zucchini. Sadly I haven't had enough in recent years that I have to use my imagination with it. I've never even made chocolate zucchini bread. Isn't that just sad?
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm really jealous of your corn. Mine is just starting to ear up. I can't wait.
Daphne, don't forget the "apple" crisp. That one really did taste like apples, but I wish there wasn't so much sugar in it....it's hard on the figure, LOL! You haven't lived until you've made my Zucchini Fudge Cake :-) Oh, the warm zucchini donuts/fritters dusted with cinnamon sugar are pretty darned good, too.
DeleteWow.. you had an impressive week! Everything looks so delicious especially that corn. I'm not expecting a lot out of my corn this year since it decided to start flowering at 2 ft tall! Crazy corn.
ReplyDeleteJulie, my early corn was disappointing, as it tasseled when it was only about 3' tall! The ears are very small, and the kernels are not as sweet and tender as other varieties I've grown. I hope the later corn will be better.
DeleteLook at your huge haul and all the different vegetables you're getting! Your giant red potato and never ending strawberry harvest makes me smile. Strange that the early corn tasseled at such a short height, maybe it was all the weird up and down spring temperatures.
ReplyDeleteI've been canning up a storm as well, making salsa. I'd forgotten how terrible it is to de-seed and remove membranes on 12 pounds of hot peppers, at least it's worth it in the end.