Harvest Monday 4.28.14

It's Monday again! Welcome back. :-)

I know it's sporadic around here but there is a LOT happening right now. The blueberry plants are producing well and I'm gathering close to a half pound a day now. I'm in h.e.a.v.e.n! We love blueberries around here. They are the best part of our day. Only problem is every other day I only get a small handful because the birds get to them first. I'm willing to share some things (mulberries for instance - take them ALL!) but I'm possessive of the blues. These babies are the best!

Well- I went to place the pictures here and they are all messed up. I don't know why but apparently I can't save files anymore. This is going to be interesting.

We've been having a lot of tea parties in our house as of late.

The girls really enjoy this and they are begging for them every day. Many a  friend has joined us and the parents are astounded I can get them to drink tea. It's hibiscus and passionfruit tea. Delicious absolutely delicious and so good for you, too... helps that it's pink for those girls that want pink everything. ;-)

The irises are in bloom again. I do love the blooms so much. I divided all of my iris plants this year and gave a bunch away. I really wanted to replant them, but I love my garden friends and have gotten so much from them that this was only a hitch in my step. I'll divide again next yer and replant throughout my walkway.  

I still have the fortnight lilies as well even though I completely destroyed 2 plants because the tubers were so large they were wedge under the sidewalk and impossible to remove. I only kept 1 or 2 divisions of those because they are so aggressive in this space.

So things are happening. I'm gathering strawberries, blue berries and purple pole beans for now. There are some green tomatoes out there teasing me and the bush beans are flowering now, too. Things are beginning to look up now!

See you soon!

Barbie~

Harvest Monday 4.29.13

I can't believe I almost missed it!

 

It's Harvest Monday y'all! ;-) I don't know where all my pictures went this week. I only have 2 to show you. But one of them is mighty impressive. Well, at least to me anyway.

 

My shelling peas? They are blooming profusely because our nights are still cool. Problem is our days are now hitting 90* regularly and they just don't like that. At all. So they are past there prime. Taste is down, toughness is up... I'm thinking I'll have to pull the vines soon. Problem is those darn blossoms make it hard to just yank the vines. LOL. Must do it soon. I know that the peas they are producing are inferior and all I'm doing is creating a mess. Something else could be growing there. Good bye peas. See you again in 7 months. *sigh* The snap peas aren't far behind. :-(

One harvest this week:

Oh, yep. That reminds me. The strawberries are still hanging around. They seem to be shrinking these days. I'm also still getting a handful of blueberries each day. I'm having a hard time measuring them though. Only a few make it into the house... It's like the Bermuda triangle out there. Somewhere between the bushes, the garden and the house. *Poof* they just fall off the radar. The mulberries are still coming by the buckets, but I stopped picking them. I hate them right now. I despise the suckers. I...OK I love the tree, I just don't like it right now.

 

BUT! The cauliflower beast has been harvested. I have harvested a few small (normal for me) heads as seen in the above picture. They usually get to be you know- 3" or so but not this one!

This one weighed in at 4lbs 7oz! WAHOOO!!! I made a cauliflower pizza dough... well I should restate that. I TRIED to make a cauliflower pizza dough. It didn't turn out very well so I scrapped it off the pan turned it over and baked the crap out of it and made it into crackers instead... AWESOME flavor. Oh MAN... <3 serious cauly love here. 1/3 of it will be mashed cheesy cauliflower (like mashed potatoes) and the last third is destined for butter and salt and pepper and steaming.

 

YUM.

 

I've been spending a lot of time int he pool and even went out to the beach this weekend. It was relaxing and Oh so nice to get away even if only for a single day. Now it's back to the grind!

 

 

See you soon!

 

Barbie~

Harvest Monday 4.22.13

What a week!

I don't have all the pictures for this week, because it was a complete whirl wind. But I do have a few.

Snap peas, and shelling peas are the stars of the show, but those blueberries? Well, the ones that actually make it into the house... Oh they are DIVINE!!!

I also got 5 jalapeno peppers this week, a radish a carrot (salad, LOL) a tiny tomato, a whole bucket full of eggs and I am keeping an extremely close eye on this little sweetheart: 

This cauliflower has at least doubled in size this week, if not tripled! I'm checking it each day and I'm ready to pull the plug! It's starting to get these little hairy things around the florets and I've never seen that before. I don't know what it means, if anything at all. Also I think it might be a crossbred variety as it's starting to turn slightly orange as it is getting larger.  I CAN NOT WAIT! :-D This one is destined to make a pizza crust and a side dish - it's actually large enough to do both!!! EEEK! (Over the moon here) I also have another heading up the normal way of - oh, that should make a good 3" head. LOL. Oh well. I'm just thrilled I have this one! You should see it on harvest Monday next week.

 

Linking into Daphne's Dandelions for Harvest Monday like always! Be sure to check her place out. She's got the hook up of whats being harvested all over the world! When I checked out my archives last week I realized I've been doing this for THREE years now. Daphne - you are the BOMB for being such a wonderful hostess. 3 years and haven't missed a beat yet!

 

The rain that I was talking about for Saturday? It kind of spit on us here and there, but not enough to make me pull everything inside. (YIPPEE!) I made $230 and my parents made about $50 they only brought over one load of stuff. My friend sat out with me and she had brought one load of stuff. She also made $50. So between all of us $330 for 5 hours of sitting around? Not bad! I still have a table and chairs to sell on Craigslist. Hopefully it will be gone by Friday or else I'm going to take it to Goodwill. I don't like taking too much of my time to sell the stuff, I'd rather give it to someone who needs it. KWIM?

 

Time for some coffee. Hope you have a great day! It's looking like more rain today. I'm happy because this would make 3 days in a row! Remind me of this when I'm complaining in the Summer!?

 

See you soon!

 

Barbie~

Harvest Monday 4.15.13

Tax Day. Have you harvested those yet? We have ours done. We didn't get back nearly what we have in years past, and according to our accountant we will get back even less next year. Oh, joy! :-(  Ah, well - no use worrying about that now.

I'm linking in once again to Dahne's Dandelions. Be sure to stop by her place to see what people are harvesting from all over the world. Thanks Daphne for hosting, once again!

This weeks harvest included massive amounts of peas. The snap peas and the shelling peas were very abundant. I also harvest a few jalapenos, blueberries, mulberries, and the first carrot thinnings of the year. They seemed to grow much faster this year than in the past.

Here are the few pictures I got:

 

Tally: 4oz Blueberry, 1lb shelling peas, 8.3oz snap peas, 1.5oz Jalapeno, 1lb mulberries (I quit weighing them), 6oz radish.

Went to Silvia's this weekend and then came home and had some swim time. It felt great to unwind by the pool. I managed to pick up a blush rose, a coral rose, some purple sweet potatoes, some new starts for garlic chives, a rose geranium, a red angel wing begonia and Cheryl gave me a couple pansy babies that will be gracing my desk here at work as soon as they are strong enough to be repotted. :-) So a great big THANK YOU! to Silvia for opening her home and for all the hard work that goes into the garden swaps . I really appreciate all that you do! Besides, I always walk away inspired to continue to work on  creating the environment that I really want to see in my yard for the future.

Lots of work to be done this week. Those new babies all need to be tended to, plus I have a VERY big garage sale to get ready for. It seems we are trying to sell nearly the whole garage! ;-) I'm kicking my precious car out of the garage, so you know i"m getting serious now.

 

See you soon!

 

Barbie~ 

 

Havest Monday 4.8.13

April is turning out to be a good month for harvesting. It always is, but since i had next to nothing for several months it seems that this month has just exploded. Feast or famine I suppose. :-)

This weeks pictures:

Mulberries are at the top of the harvest list yet again. They tend to steal the show this time of year. Here is just under 6 cups of the the little juicy wonders... I'm only harvesting them twice a week now. Not because I couldn't harvest them every single day, but because I can't mentally deal with them. I don't have time to tend to 2-3 cups each day and there are a few issues starting with them. I'll discuss this later in the week. I still love them, and the kids love eating them, but as in years past we tend to quickly get sick of them. So after about 10 cups a week I quit.

Snap peas joined the harvest this week along with my regular shelling peas, jalapenos, blueberries, strawberries, lettuce 

 

and always present eggs. My kids made me stick the feather in the picture. Apparently my girls are tired of carrying around the same plumage for the past year. Only problem is that none of them are molting entirely either so we have this half molt stage going on where they all look rather scraggly but non of them are doing anything about it. Yet another post I need to get to. ;-)

So tally this week: 5oz shelling peas, 3oz snap peas, 5oz blueberries (forgot to weigh the lettuce we just had salad with it and the strawberries) 1oz jalapeno, 4lb mulberries.

 

Hope your harvesting, too! Don't forget to check in with Daphne to see what people are harvesting all over the world! Thanks Daphne for always being such a great hostess and reminding us to link up!

 

See you soon!

 

Barbie~

Harvest Monday 3.11.13

It's HARVEST TIME!!!

Look at what I harvested this week!

I harvested me up some Young 'ens!

 

They sure do grow like weeds some times. LOL. We had a blast out at the Strawberry festival this week. We enjoyed playing games and riding rides, and emptying my wallet most of all. But we did NOT come home empty handed. Nope. We came home with sushi! Yup. We always seek out the game that wins you the 'free' goldfish. I figure we can refill the pond and at least we are paying to play something that will be putting fish back into the system. :-) So far 3 are still alive. So a day of fun and 3 fish for $80 bucks... Nah, not worth it in my book, but definitely worth it for their memory books!

 :-D

 

We made more memories when we got home and added our strawberries to the ones we picked at the farm. Then we made strawberry jam!

THIS is my favorite thing all year y'all! Seriously. Nothing compares in my mind to the crisp, cool flavor and the sweet smell of fresh homemade strawberry jam. MMMMmmm.... I look forward to this weekend and THIS is worth my $80. Hands down. Yes, for just a few measly little pints of jam. HA! You certainly can't get anything like it in a store. I'm hoping to make another batch tonight so I'll have enough to at least get me through spring, but I know better. The more I have the faster it goes! It's also not the same made with store bought berries. I don't know what it is, but it's different.

Anyway I really did harvest stuff. A few of those berries are mine, and I harvested 4 head of lettuce and a single jalapeno. Of course I also harvested mulberries as well. What is it with single peppers? I guess they are better than no peppers, but they are kind of hard to use. Mostly when I use hot peppers I need quite a few of them. So this single one just went right into a pickle jar. The lettuce?

One set for us and one set for my sister. I brought it to work for her. :-)

 

The peas are setting pods, just in time for us to run to Alabama. I'm hoping that the squirrels don't find them before we get back, but I know that is a pipe dream. Potatoes are planted, late for me, but planted. I get the feeling the entire garden is going to be on a late schedule this year because of the new planter. I don't know why it bothers me so much. It's not like it's the first time it will be late. Usually it's MY fault directly. LOL.

 

Did I mention how happy I am that I have strawberry jam again?  :-D

Trying not to brag too much and dying to make more...

 

See you soon!

 

Barbie~

 

Oh! I almost forgot! Linking into Daphne's Dandelions for Harvest Monday. Keep the ball rolling. Stop by her place to see what people are harvesting from all over the world!!!

 

 

 

 

Harvest Monday 3.4.13

March already. It was frosty again this morning when I woke up, so it certainly doesn't seem much like March in these parts! Winter has been super strange here. It's been extremely warm with just these little blips of cold air.

Linking into Daphne's Dandelions once again for Harvest Monday. Thanks Daphne for always being such a great hostess!!!

This week the main harvest was the mulberries. The tree is doing extremely well even after I cut half of it down when I pruned it in late winter. I thought it might hurt the production some or even possibly kill the tree, but it seems to be doing wonderfully.

 

15 oz of mulberries this week. I am pretty sure that I could have harvest three times that, but the birds usually beat me to them in the mornings. I don't make it home to harvest them until the evening so by then most of them are gone.

My hens are still giving me an average of 17 eggs a week. Bless their little hearts. I feel bad for them when it gets to freezing outside after a week of 80 degrees or higher. It would be different if it was consistently cool. Their bodies would tell them to put on weight to help them deal with the lower temperatures. But, I suppose those down comforters they carry around with them will just have to be enough to keep them warm on those chilly nights. I'm not going out to keep them warm! LOL.

The peas are almost to the size where I'll need to start keeping an eye on them for flowers! I'm getting excited about that. I do love fresh peas, of ANY type!

On the bad news front I spotted a NEW stray cat in the yard yesterday. I'm not happy about that. He made himself right at home, too. Scratched in my blueberry bed,  sprayed my new box, laid down on my small tool shed and had himself a good old time. This now makes 4 cats that come and go as they please so anyone that has any ideas beyond hurting them that will keep them out of my yard, I'm all ears! I'm not against trapping them, but the only local place that will take them has a 3 day rule and I am against that. There is no need to destroy an animal because it isn't claimed in 3 days. I can't afford to get them all fixed (or I would, believe me) and just removing them? I'm not sure if they belong to anyone. So far I've not been slick enough to catch them with my camera so I'm thinking about setting up my game camera so I can hang a flier and ask around. Once I know if the cats belong to anyone in our neighborhood or not I'll remove them. After all if they belong in a different neighborhood.... well that would be THEIR problem. >:-(

OK - Rant over. Still haven't finished work on the new planter box. the wind and crazy rain and temps were too wild to do much outside this weekend. Next weekend we have to get ready to go out of town so I doubt it will get done then, either... *pout* Guess that project is on hold until Easter weekend now. That is unless I can talk my dear sweet husband into an early morning Saturday project. He's got a benefit to go to Saturday at noon so it's rather doubtful, but that doesn't mean I won't try! ;-) Ah, what we won't do for our gardens.

See you soon.

Barbie~

Harvest Monday 2.25.13

The end of February - already? Wow time flies! It's nearly March already, hard to believe. But, I do have a harvest to report! Linking into Daphne's Dandelions. Make sure you stop by and check out what people are harvesting from all around the world! Thanks Daphne for hosting. It amazes me that you still host when you are off and running on vacation. LOL
This week brought the first mulberries!

The tree is loaded to the hilt with them. I thought surely I'd lose them in the freeze, but they were safe and sound!

Look at them all getting ripe and juicy just for me and my gang. Later in the year they'll be given to the chickens but the first crop of the year is ours to devour! :-D

Last years first ripe berries came on March 19th. So a full 3 weeks early this year...

Also on the harvest list is:

 

 

A decent leek. I'm hoping for potato and A leek soup. LOL... I only had one at harvest size. I tried to move the rest of the juveniles. I hope they hold up all right. I dug them nice and deep, moved the soil surrounding them. Hopefully they'll make a good transplant and still be good to harvest in a couple months. I figure after eating something in the allium family I'll need something to freshen our breath. Some MINT perhaps? :-D I needed to transplant the Mother plant so I harvested as much as I could, and transplanted the heart of the plant. This time to a POT! I also have a chocolate mint and I am temped to plant them together but I"m afraid I won't be able to tell them apart until it's too late. I don't want them to intertwine and I don't know how I would keep them FROM getting across to each other. What other herb could I plant in with the mint that wouldn't be completely strangled out by it? I don't do a lot of gardening in pots. I only grow a few trees that need frost care in pots, so call me clueless!

 

I also harvested a side salad. Not enough for all five of us mind you. Just one side salad. Mine, that is. ;-) 1 small tomato and a couple strawberries on top of it made it rather delicious if I say so myself.

 

OK- gotta get back to work now.

 

See you soon!

 

Barbie~

 

 

Harvest Monday. 7.30.2012

This July has been the worst yet for me on record. Of course, my record is fairly short. But this week things are finally picking up again.

There have been long beans, rice peas, mulberries, a strawberry here or there (for the chickens as they are seedy and kind of tart now) a pomegranate, some peanuts that ended up getting pulled when I pulled the marigolds last week, and a few other assorted things here and there... I didn't get a lot of pictures, but I did get a few. :-)

Peanuts, pomegranate, mulberries, an overgrown cucumber (was still good, btw)

a load of peppermint, rice peas,

 

and lady peas as well - these were delicious!

My gals. the little fluff butts. We got the first eggs this weekend. My what a raucous! You'd have thought the world was coming to an end. Sheesh. I'm afraid the chicken sharing with the neighbor will be coming to an abrupt end very soon. There is no way the HOA will put up with this. :-( It makes me sad.

This proud young lady is definitely the owner of one of the little eggs. Can't you tell? That  waddle looks like it's on fire! LOL

My son is showing off his bounty and contribution to the harvest this week. He and my husband went out with some friends... and my, oh my, did they contribute...

Nomnomnom....

So, while i"m busy eating, Y'all have fun.

Linking in with Daphne's Dandelions. Don't forget to stop by her place and see all the wonderful things that everyone is harvesting from all over the world!

'Till next time!

Barbie~

Harvest Monday 4.30.12

April is on it's way out. This is the last Harvest for April, and it seems like it just got here. This Spring is nearly done here. The bugs are out in full force by 10 am yelling up a storm announcing that it's too hot to be out. Yet if it's the weekend I'm braving the heat sweating my booty off in the sun. The nights are still strangely cool thanks to the cold front that came through last week, but the highs in the daytime are hitting 90 religiously now and there is no more turning back I'm afraid.

The garden is starting to show the heat stress already and the humidity is in full force now. Fun times the next few weeks!

This weeks harvest:

Mulberries continue to come in at 2 cups (1lb 6oz)every day or two,  or whatever I feel like picking at the time. 3lb 5.6oz green beans, 3lb 2oz onions, 1lb 5oz carrots, 4lb cabbage, 5oz parsley,  6oz broccoli, 4oz strawberry, 5oz blueberry.

a bucket of parsley for drying and chimichuri sauce...

A few zucchini blossoms, I only get these on the weekend when I'm there to go out in the morning.

Oh and the best of all- a pool that is FINALLY ready to swim in... Did I show you this already? I apologize if I did - but it is VERY exciting news around here!

This is probably the best news so far. It gets the kids approval for sure! ;-)

Off to check my seeds and see what type of cowpeas I'll be trying this year....

'Till next time!

Barbie~

*ETA* Linking in to Daphne's Dandelions - I'm so embarassed that I forgot!!!! Don't you forget!!!

Harvest Monday 4.23.12

Hey hey hey! It's Harvest Monday again. Well, What do ya know? Monday's tend to roll around pretty quickly around here. Joining in over at Daphne's Dandelions once again. Don't forget to stop on by her place and see what people are harvesting from all over the world!

This weekend was a rain filled one. It started Friday and didn't end until last night. It was certainly good for our parched Floridian soil. Most of our local wildfires are out, but I haven't heard yet about statewide. Hope to hear from other bloggers soon. At my house we got only a little over  a quarter inch Friday, 1.5 inches Saturday and close to another inch yesterday. You'd think we'd be drowned in that, but our sand wicked that up lickety split and it was dry as a bone this morning. Windy and cool with a high of only 74 today. It actually feels like Spring! Woah - weird for us. This whole weekend is strange for us. The temps never got very high and it is always odd when the skys don't turn blue after a rain shower. Normally rains only last a few hours tops. Even the times when I report several inches of rain it is typical that that accumulates extremely rapidly.

This week was a good week for me again. I pulled the rest of the beets and turnips so they are done for Spring. The green beans turned on production this week, Some broccoli, strawberries, the potatoes of course, some carrots, a green garlic some green onion as well. But, some how the tomatoes (just a couple romas) blueberries and cucumbers keep slipping out of my pictures. I'm not sure how I manage that! Here are the pictures I do have:

 

 

Ah, I do love living in Florida this time of year. Soon I'll be cursing the okra, and cow pea - lucky to have a watermelon posts - but for now I'm still loving it!



'Till next time!

Barbie~

Harvest Monday 4.16.12

WOW~!  What a week. I've been sooo busy it's not even funny. That is of course a double edged sword.
The garden was wonderfully generous this week, and I have another 'first' harvest for me this week. (I'm a tease though, so I'm saving it until the end!)

Linking in a bit late to Daphne's Dandelions to join in the fun! Be sure to stop by all the wonderful party hoppers and see what people are harvesting all over the world!

This weeks harvest is chock full of pictures, and I didn't even catch ALL the harvests, LOL>

The week started with a turnip, some smallish carrots that I needed out of the bed, and some broccoli side shoots so I could pull the plant and put it out of it's heated misery. I still have a few plants, but these were the hottest plants, in the most direct sun. The mulberries are still coming at about a cup a day, sometimes more. I REALLY need to find something to do with them. We are all sick of eating them now and they just don't freeze well, at all. Mushy and gross, nick!

Midweek I had a nice glutton of some of everything.

and more mulberries

and more.....and I pulled some of the cabbages to turn part of the bed.

AND here is my 'first' harvest. :-D My first ever home harvested 'tater. *beam* I got too anxious to eat it though, and ended up snarffling down and half cooked (grilled) spud and burning my mouth in the process. It was still good. I had 4/15/12 on the calendar as the first date for harvest on the potatoes, so I dug through one of the buckets and found this little jewel at the bottom. After digging in the garden bed I was worried I wasn't going to find any. I guess I just hadn't dug deep enough, because the bucket spuds are not as far along and yet here is my first one. Four ounces of wondrous goodness. 

I'll wait another week until I dig the rest up. The main bed that the others are in the plants are withering and turning yellow so I know the timing is certainly right, but if this spud is an indicator I'd like just a little more size. Besides, there just isn't much time between now and then to 'dig' into such a project. *Snort*

Tally for the week: Blue berries: 3lb 12oz, Mulberries4lb 2oz, Snap peas 14oz, English peas(final) 1lb 3.6oz,  yellow wax beans 1lb 4.3oz, Green Beans 7.5oz,  Broccoli 2.1oz, Turnip14oz, Cuke 4oz, Cabbage 7lb 3oz,  Tomato 5oz,  Potato 4oz, Carrots 4oz, Greens 13oz, Lettuce 12oz

Thanks for stopping by for Harvest Monday!

'Till next time!

Barbie~