Harvest Monday 9/20/10

The tomatoes continue to ripen, but slower now with the cooler nights. This week I harvested 14 pounds of tomatoes. I'm not canning any more, but rather am freezing them whole for use in soups and sauces this winter.I also picked kale and a few carrots. I also harvested my second eggplant. There are a few more that may mature before the season is over. In all, the eggplants weren't much of a success this year with only 2 so far from 6 plants.
I shelled the dried beans that I picked last week and weighed them. They were just over a pound.
I also harvested my first and probably only sweet red pepper. There are some green ones on the plant finally, but they don't have time to ripen.
Ripe winter squashes were harvested and set on the front porch to cure. I picked 25 pounds of buttercup, butternut, and Delicata squash. I also picked one 15 pound Jarradale pumpkin. There are 3 more Jarradale pumpkins that are not yet ripe, as well as a few butternut squash that are still developing. There are also about 6 pie pumpkins that are turning orange and I hope to pick soon.
Sunday night's harvest was at dusk, hence the flash in the photo. I picked 2 oz of arugula and spinach to make a pesto, along with tomatoes and 2 very small melons. The tomatoes are all larger then the melons.I picked the melons because they smelled ripe, though they only the size of tennis balls. The larger one tasted alright, but the smaller one was bitter. I hope to do much better with melons next year.

Total this week: 58.48 pounds
Total this year: 297.7 pounds
You can see what other gardeners harvested this week at Daphne's Dandelions.

Harvest Monday 9/13/10

The tomatoes are still coming this week with over 29 pounds of slicing tomatoes. I made another batch of Annie's Salsa this week and plant to make tomato sauce next week.
I also harvested more arugula, carrots, dried beans, leeks, chard, tomatillios and the first winter squash( a buttercup).
The large pile of dried beans have not yet made it in to my totals because I weigh them after I shuck them. The forecast calls for rain tomorrow so I figured I should pick them while they are semi dry.

Total this week: 36.12 pounds
Total this year: 239.2 pounds

You can see what other gardeners harvested this week at Daphne's Dandelions.

First Winter Squash

There is a Fall chill in the air and so Friday night I had a craving for winter squash. I'd been trying to resist picking one for a week or more and instead enjoy the tomatoes we're still getting for a few more weeks. I finally succumbed and picked a Buttercup Squash for dinner last night. I choose this one because it looked like someone else was starting to nibble on it.
Inside it was dense, orange and wonderful. We scooped out the seeds. We baked it for about 45 minutes in the oven, topped it with nutmeg and butter and enjoyed it. The flesh almost melts in your mouth. No photos of it baked, we sat down and ate it too quickly.

Winter Squash Update

I've decided that I planted some of my winter squash too close together. They're running over into other beds and the paths, though they may do that even if I space them out more.

In one bed I have my buttercup squash with at least 6 fruit set.In the same bed, I have two butternut squash hills and I've seen at least 4 butternut squash.There are also two hills of delicata. They have been shaded out a bit by the other vines. There are at least three squash set, though this one is the only one this far along.
I did better spacing the plants in the pumpkin bed. Even still, the vines want to take over other parts of the garden. I have about 5 pie pumpkins set.And last but not least, I have one large Jarrahdale pumpkin set. It is so beautiful I'm hoping others will set and mature too.
We're looking forward to enjoying lots of squash this fall and winter.

Flowers in the Vegetable Garden

Here's what's new blooming in the vegetable garden. The first zucchini blossoms.The first sunflower, a volunteer. Almost all the tomatoes are blooming. Many of the heirlooms seem to start with a funny double or triple blossom.

A Scarlet Runner Bean which is climbing the tomato trellis The first female buttercup squash. My carrots that I wintered over and moved are going to seed. They look just like queen anne's lace. The pink flowers are from the purple haze hybrid carrots. In the front perennial garden the lavender is in full bloom. And yesterday this self seeded volunteer started blooming all over in the semi-shaded part of the garden. It is only 4 to 6 inches tall, and has feathery foliage. A google image search tells me it may be Nigella, though some of the results have more petals than mine do and the descriptions say they are much taller.

June Update: Cucurbit Crops

I have three beds of Curcubitaceae Crops, Beds 3, 6, and 9.

Bed 3 has the obvious row cover and trellis.
The row cover is my attempt to warm the soil to help my melons. They had to wait in their seed starting blocks for the longest time and did not transplant well. I recently reseeded directly in the ground in the hope I might get some healthier plants going.
The middle of the bed holds my zucchini. I'm growing 2 hills of Golden Yellow Zucchiniand three hills of Dark Green Zucchini. I'm showing off my largest plants, others that were transplanted later are smaller.
At the far end of the bed are my cucumbers. Matt built these frames with props and I strung twine to be the trellis. I hope this is a better year for cucumbers than last.
So far I'm able to push some of the larger plants through the first square of the trellis so that they will begin to climb. I have 3 plants of slicing cucumbers and about 18 plants of pickling cucumbers.
Beds 6 and 9 are harder to see in the overall photo because they are next to taller crops like the brassica row. Both rows are for pumpkins and winter squash which look pretty similar. Here are some of the plants. Again, the earlier I got them transplanted, the larger they are. In bed, 6 I have 2 hills of Jarrahdale Pumpkins and 2 hills of Pie Pumpkin.
In bed, 9 I have 2 hills of Buttercup squash, 2 hills of Delicata, and 3 hills of Butternut Squash. Here is what row 9 looks like from the end.
With the exception of the melons, many of the cucurbit crops have signs of buds that are developing. We hope to have some zucchini soon.

In the ground this week

This week I've been working to get my squash and cucumber seedlings in the ground. I finished digging another whole bed and a half and up to 7 and a half of my 11 beds dug. Only 3 and 1/2 left to go.

Here's the squash and cucumber variety lists:
(18) National Pickling Cucumber
(3) Burpee Hybrid Slicer
(2 hills) Golden Zucchini (Fedco)
(1 hill) Dark Green Zucchini
(2 hills) Buttercup Squash
(2 hills) Delicata Squash
(3 hills) Butternut Squash
Here's a row of the cucumbers. We still need to build a frame for support.

I also seeded my first batch of Romano Green Beans and placed a few Scarlet runner beans near the frames for the tomato supports.

My pumpkins and melons await my finishing of another bed and a half. They are sprouted in newspaper pots and awaiting transplanting on the front porch.
I plan to get them in this weekend.
(2 hills) Jarrahdale Pumpkins
(2 hills) Pie Pumpkins
(2 hills) Minnesota Midget Melon
(2 hills) Iroquois Melon
All these seeds are thanks to Miss M.

After I finish my squash, the final two beds are for my peppers and eggplant and for more brassica crops.

Squash

Today's harvest focused on the squash and dill. The winter squash were dying back and they weren't getting any bigger so we decided to have them for dinner. Each plant only produced one. Both are rather small because I crowded the squash and because my soil could have used more improvement this past spring. Here is the delicata off the vine.
And here it is sliced open. The buttercup squash, And the beautiful orange interior. We also cut a few tiny Zucchini (For some reason my plant is only putting out female blossoms right now). I also harvested some of the dill seeds today.
This small section was picked green a few days ago, and the rest should look that way soon.

First Tomato!

Today I finally picked the first tomato. It's off one of the two paste tomato plants. There are two more that look like the will soon follow on these plants, but no where enough to make a sauce. Still no sign of ripening on my heirloom and beefsteak type plants.

I took advantage of a break from yesterday's rain and the time before this afternoon's thunderstorms to examine the plants. I found more tomato hornworm caterpillars and saw their damage. The small ones got squished, the larger one I tossed into the hedge. Another variety of caterpillar was also making a snack of my green plants. I took care of him. There were also a handful of slugs around near the lettuce plants.

I also noticed a fair amount of yellowing of my tomato leaves and this weird bulls-eye type rotting happening from the center of the leaves. I know it's probably due to all the rain we've had. Yesterday was rain pretty much all day and the forecast for the rest of the week includes showers or thunderstorms every day.

Also my buttercup squash is doing well but I don't know how I'll know when to pick it. Any ideas?