Harvest Monday 7.15.13

Hey, Lookie there! It's Monday again! Harvest report time. I'm linking in like usual to Daphne's Dandelions. Thanks Daphne, once again for being such a great hostess. Make sure you stop by her place to see what is being harvested all over the world!

 

Here at my place it's avocado time! Of course, that doesn't man much. I only had about 6-8 set on the tree and then the dab-blasted squirrels got all but one before I managed to cage the thing. BUT, Oh but a harvest is sweet indeed when it is the first of it's kind. After all this tree is one of 5 avocado trees on my property. One of them was killed back this year and it looks like it will not be making a come back. It's no longer healthy so it's compost bin bound. The tree this fruit came from is Mexicola. It also got frozen not this past year, but the year before. It's only about 4 foot tall. All the other trees make fun of it. The most promising tree towers more than 20 foot taller than it. Yet, it was the first to bear. Go figure.

What? You wanted to see this luscious fruit? OK!

OOOO... It looks so large. It's only 4" long. LOL. But as they say a harvest is a harvest! It's going into guac. a small serving of guac but darn it guac non-the-less! We really lucked out because it started to ripen on the tree while we were away in Alabama and this is what it looked like the day we came home. If we had been gone another 2-3 days it wouldn't have been any good and I would have cried!

 

Also on our harvest menu this week, and only this week the Concord grapes. Of course I didn't bother to tell the husband and kids not to eat them and when I came back from harvesting the peppers for the guacamole - well it was down to this...

From 3 bunches of grapes to a few measly nibbles left for the Mom. They left me what had fallen off the bunches. Lovely. I hate to tell them but it still tasted just fine. The fruit only split because of how much rain we've had lately. But I did learn a hard lesson. I didn't trim the vines back last year in hopes they would take over the play house this year. They didn't. Not only did they not grow as much, they didn't produce as nearly much. MUST. CUT. BACK. the grape vines. :-(

 

Last but not least on my harvest list for this week are some more sweet potatoes. I saw a few mounded up and really was craving some so I felt around the base of a few plants and grabbed these out from under them.

YUM!

 

Not on my harvest list, but harvest here in Florida by my parents in Jacksonville and gifted to me while I was visiting this weekend:

 

 



A big bunch of yummy tomatoes and one of my favorite things, EVER... Canned tomatoes.

I have serious issues with canning. I just can't get post doing it all by myself the first time. I know once I do it I'll be fine, but until then I am over joyed by receiving gifts like these!

I should say I also received some beans, but there is no proof! They are all gone! :-D

Just like the first jar of tomatoes. ;-) YUMMO! Thanks again, Nancy!

 

Guess it's time to get back to work for me. Tonight I have plenty to do. I have to separate one of my flock who is picking on another member. I'm hoping to curb the behavior even though I don't think it will work. I'm going to start with a week of isolation. Wish me luck!

 

See you soon!

Barbie~

Garden Bloom overview (partial/May)

 

I splurged on one plant to see what it was all about this spring. I'm glad I did. It was a "super Roma" tomato plant, and so far, it's been SUPER! It's taken our extreme temperatures and my lack of care and spat back loads of tomatoes.

Zucchini is still going strong for now...and the potatoes are still taking turns flowering. This is the last of the taters to flower. In the back you can see the single radish I've let go to seed. This bed hasn't been productive in a year, except for radishes so I figured why not?

The apple tree is blossoming. The first blossomed failed. I wonder how the trees are doing in Alabama?

I'm so curious, and my hubby is going on a quick trip in 2 weeks. It should be early blackberry season there, too. Wondering if I can talk him into bringing back some and taking pictures of my trees...

Pomegranates are doing well this season. I can't wait for them. It takes SOOO long for them to ripen. It nearly hurts to wait so long!

I've got grapes on the vine, too! Not as many as last year, but that is my fault, and it's OK. I knew better with my choice of plants but I just had to have the Concord grapes because I love them so much. They are worth it. Delectable little jewels that they are. 

There is so much more just since the 10 days that I took these pictures. The mulberries are blooming again... Joy? The cantaloupe, watermelon, cucumbers, string beans, Lima beans, all going like gang busters right now. 

The weather is changing daily again. I know that everyone has been talking about how weird the weather is, but well and truly I've never in my lifetime seen 50's in the middle of May, and yet this morning that is what I awoke to. Absolutely amazing.  

Oh, did I mention I fixed a sprinkler head that my hubby tried to fix for the last year? He even replaced the entire head and that didn't work. It was the pipe that was stripped causing the sprinkler head to sit wrong. It just took a little finesse and a lot of muscle and determination to get it right. I do get the feeling at some point in the future we'll have to re-do the entire line section there, but for now it's working again, and I'm rubbing it in that a woman fixed what the man could not.

:-)

 

See you soon!

 

Barbie~

Harvest Monday 6.18.12

Linking into Daphne's Dandelions for Harvest Monday. Make sure to join the fun over at her place. Stop by to see all the different things being harvested all over the world!
Harvests are much slower now.

This is the main harvest this week:

The onions I harvested? Just over ten pounds worth and when all was said and done I was only able to save my sanity and 25 ounces. Talk about a let down.  19 ounces in garlic. 1 pound of leeks.

This weeks harvest totals - 1lb 2oz concord grapes, 8oz tomatoes, 2oz broccoli, 6oz okra and a few measly greenbeans I'm not counting because I fed them to the hens (next door) I also got 2oz basil and a large fistful of parsley that I started to dry until I realized there was something wrong with it. (looked like pin holes through the leaves...*sigh*) so I'm yanking out the old parsley and starting a new batch. This one was 3 years old so I had to expect it to have something wrong sooner or later.

The garden is (mostly) bare and awaiting turning under. I got all those spots yanked out that needed it and now summer planting can start as soon as I can get the turning, compost topping and sowing done.

'Till next time!

Barbie~

Harvest Monday 6.11.12

This is the last large harvest for the Summer. The rest will be the drabs and dribbles that happen due to the heat. That is until the cowpeas start setting in large numbers. That won't happen until I'm ready to start my fall garden late in the year when everyone else is already turning under and ending their gardens for the year. The cycles are wacky here for sure.

To clear the way for the summer crops a lot of the beds needed cleared the bush beans,  the allium bed (and carrots with them) both had to be cleared:

before....and after.....

It was so steamy out. It even fogged up the camera!

*note the now completely covered trellis~!* 

Green garlic, and red and yellow onions - sorry y'all get the dirty pics - they are still drying on my kitchen table. I had to run out right after ripping all this out. I had a birthday party to go to, and no time to purty up the pictures.

 

But I did get a great harvest this week. Unfortunately it's all the carrots until winter unless there is a stray hiding somewhere. I still have about 20 onions in a planter, but I don't expect them to do anything. I'm only leaving them because I didn't find time to do anything with them and I sure don't need 'em. If I run into a neighbor or a friend who would use them I'd give them away.  I also pulled the leeks in the above photo. Wrong time of year for them but I'm not arguing. They are a good size and they cleaned up really nice. They just got knocked down when I took out one of the old less productive broccoli plants. I've got 3 that produce for me still and a few that haven't been so I was getting rid of the ones that don't.

Here are the tomatoes that were harvested a little green -boy did they turn! And a single cuke.  A day's picking of the concord grapes and the rest of the carrots.

*WHEW*  What a week. Unfortunately I won't have much to show for a while, and now I have a lot of planting to do. I still need to get rid of the big old zucchini plant and start those tomato seeds for fall. It may be sweltering out now, but that is just the time to get things ready for fall!

Linking in to Daphne's Dandelions. Don't forget to stop by her place and see what people are harvesting all over the world. Thanks Daphne for being our ever present - FANTSTIC hostess!

'Till next time!

Barbie~

Harvest Monday 9.19.11

It's Harvest Monday again. Autumn edition! Linking in once again to Daphne's Dandelions to join in the fun and see what people are harvesting all over the world.

This Monday we are featuring HOT PEPPERS galore.

Nearly a pound of these hot little beauties were harvested. They'll be chopped and frozen flat to be used in soups and stews and chilis and stir fries for the rest of the year. We should have enough pickled peppers to see us through until spring now and I certainly have enough dry cayenne.

I harvested another 2 cups of basil that I made pesto out of. This one was a pesto cheese sauce that was astronomically delish on pasta.

The beans finished off the majority of the harvest. The final Holstein beans were harvested. Any more that I might find would be seed only if they weren't molded. Most of what I harvested were mildewed or moldy. The rains finally stopped but it was too late. Most of my garden has succumbed to either mold, mildew or bugs now. 

 The itty bitty rice peas are still hanging on but they are looking a little rusty. The limas are too, but considering their age that is not one little bit surprising. The beans are still good and I got about another pound this week so they are not at risk of losing any territory yet. :-) A copper spray will hopefully help them hang on a while longer. It's one of the few sprays non organic that I seem to always turn to in times like this.

The garden is suffering. We've gone from massive monsoons straight into drought. Tides will change a few more times before the dry weather stays for the winter but right now the pepper plants are defoliating in answer so some of the hot peppers are getting sun scald and the leaves are getting spotty but I'm pretty sure the plants will be fine over all. The bells I'm not so sure of. It seems the fungal/spots have set into the stems and while the hot peppers are setting like crazy they are not even blooming. This is a major disappointment. I've saved 3 bell plants through our horrible summer and that is no easy task. I thought I made it but maybe not after all. It's a wait and see game for them now. 2 other bell plants I wasn't sure about have shown that they indeed have lost their battle. They are too diseased and stressed and need to come out before spreading their ickyness.

The corn is down to only 7 stalks. That is worrisome but there is nothing I can do at this point.

Oh I nearly forgot. I also harvest a pint of grapes. I FINALLY brought the grapes into the house. :-) Rather than eating them as they ripened I actually got enough at once to bring in. Of course that is the final grape count but I actually got a bowl of them!

The final tally to add is a half cup of mulberries. I have to constantly try to remember to get out there in the morning to get them. Otherwise they are gone before I get there. The trees all need pruned but the weather is so good I am afraid to prune what really needs to be done. If I do what is necessary I'm worried they will all start regrowth and then get burned in an early frost. It would hurt my heart to see such tender young growth get hurt so I'll try to hold off another month or two before I prune. It's so hard to wait when everything NEEDS pruning now! All the trees are in need, not just this one. *sigh*

'Till next time!

Barbie~

Stiches, and little bits.

Right now everything is in little bits.

Like this:

 

Little bits of handfuls. Little handfuls of grapes. YUMMM

Little handfuls of Everglades tomatoes...Usually in my little bits hands. The girls eat these like candy. They are technically a wild tomato possibly more closely related to a currant. And, I like them so much better than most other cherry tomatoes. Those and Grannies Sungolds - the rest of the cherries will be pulled from the garden this week I just don't like the others flavors.

Little handfuls of parsley, basil for daily doses of cooking, dill, and green onions, and mulberries, too.

But what is coming in by the bushel? Rosemary! I wish I'd have taken a picture. AFTER taking off the wood I harvested 9 OUNCES of the stuff. Some people at work asked for some and I really wanted to get some back in my cupboard as well. This is one thing that grows with a vengeance in my garden and NO BUGS care to even look twice at it. I should have planted it at the end of the row rather than the middle - but that being the worst of my sins it could be moved if I really wanted to.

I haven't abandoned my blog, nor my garden. I've just been busy. Hubby went to the Spinal Institute of Florida this week and Thank GOD - no surgery. At least not yet. There are other options to explore first and so far he seems to be recuperating fairly well. THat is to say beyond the emotional scars that competitive tennis may not be in his future quite the way it has been in the past, and he may have to come up with a new hobby, sport and stress reliever. Tennis will have to be only for fun now. Poor guy. It's like taking oxygen out of the air for him. But, in time he'll adjust I'm sure.

The other thing I'm experiencing a little bit of is whiskers. It seems my son has grown some -

3 stitches. *sigh* When it rains it pours. And speaking of pouring - we've gotten over 6 inches of rain the last weak. It was great for some things in the garden, and not so great for others. It did finish wiping out what was week - and strengthened the things that needed that so all in all it was a good thing. I just don't have the heart to rip out some of my favorite things when there is a chance they could turn the corner and come back. This helped make my decisions easier. And with that another 30 gallon trash bag full of the suffering plants from 'the incident' have gone out of the garden. The turn around is nearly complete now and hopefully by the weekend the garden will be completely back to planted again.

Meanwhile I have no cucumbers producing which is a major shock to my system. It's very odd for us not to have some cukes in the garden at any given time that there hasn't been a frost. I'm trying to console myself with barely dilled pickles, but it's not working well. I may have to resort to the box store just for faster turn around. The rain dampened off all my seedlings I had started a couple weeks ago.

And, it's time for starting my fall tomatoes! My list for this seasons plants are (3 each):

 Stupice, Mountain Magic, Black, Matina, Tomande, and Chocolate cherry to trial

and my stand bys:  Roma, Cherokee Purple 

I'm running into problems with my HOA so I'm trialing the semi-determinate and determinates (and the cherry) to see if I can deal with the flavor/texture/maturation rates and sizes this fall. In the spring if all goes well I'll have a few of these determinates as well as some of my favorites again. So this weekend I will be planting up my first set of tomatoes for fall. I'm starting to worry about space for all of them, but I'm sure that my schedule will hold and they will go in the ground just like planned. Some day the second part of the garden will get done. At least part of it anyway.

'Till next time!

Barbie~



The newest update.

In pictures of course. Because I'm hot or cold with them. Either all or nothing, and today you get 'em all! Well, gardening ones anyway.

I came home the other day with this lovely basket. All for the sake of sharing a little knowledge, and a lot of wind (talk, not toots!)  with a friend of mine. I sent him home to his wife with a grab bag full of seeds all labeled with when to plant and what would tolerate the frosts and what wouldn't, etc. I certainly didn't expect this, and now turn abouts fair play - if anyone is looking for the best AFLAC agent in Florida just let me know and I'll be glad to send you his info. :-) His wife C. made this basket by hand. Talk about talent. OK she didn't hand weave the thing, but she put it all together and made such a wonderful presentation. I can't wait to find the perfect place to put a few of these things, and the Burt's Bees already managed to find a place, my purse! :-D

Now, for the garden side. It's the end of April now so the cooler season crops have all dwindled down. I expect that the very last peas will be brought in on Saturday. All what, three, five? of them that are left. In their place I'll need to decide quickly if I will plant the limas or the black beans, or the cow peas, or.... *sigh* such cramped spaces is bad this time of year. In the winter it's good because I don't do a lot of cole crops but in the spring and through fall it is pure torture.

Believe it or not my corn is tasseling! It's a mere 3.5 - 4 foot tall! I am certainly not complaining. Early corn is all good by me. I'm just concerned because something inevitably happens to my corn. I typically harvest only 1/5 of what is planted. Oh, and I have a few silks peeking out, too so at least the plants aren't insane, they are doing what they are supposed to do, just early it seems.

The tomatillos - well they are insane still - both bushes but as of yet none of the fallen flowers have filled in well enough to tell for sure that we have set fruit. It seems we have, but no guarantees yet. I'm wondering how the 'papers' will do in our humidity, but so far the plants are certainly thriving on absolutely no attention whatsoever. I've decided next year to plant them behind the pool pump and let them grow wild, like weeds. We had a lantern grow there last year for only 2 months and it was willing to dominate the entire pumpyard. I'm thinking these plants look identical and act identical and would do very well there, completely ignored.

There are monsters in my garden lurking! This behemoth weighed in at over 2 and a half pounds! And it DID NOT BULB! Hello!? Can you imagine if it had? Yikes!
It has siblings i left in the ground, but curiosity got the best of me and after playing tug of war for a few minutes, I finally got this one out to give it the once over. Hopefully the others will see the massacre and get scared into bulbing. Hey, cound happen. Never know! Meanwhile it is perfectly usable, just not for storage. Soup, here it comes!

 

Every tomato plant I have it setting fruit now. Not as much fruit as I have seen in years past, thanks to a very hot start to our spring, but a faster start then previous years so it is a trade off. Even the smallest plants at only 4" are setting fruits! The one in the screen enclosure is as well and it is small, too. It's a everglades currant if anyone in Florida wants to know. I'll be planting more of those. Tom says they will set through the summer. I'm yet to see a tomato that truly sets in Florida summers, but he lives not far from me, so we shall see. I'm certainly excited to try, and Tom is someone I definitely trust, so I'm very excited indeed! (even if it is a tee tiny tomato something is better than nothing!)

The beans are still producing well, spilling into the lawn.
The first to produce (harvester) are finished with their duty and ready to be pulled and replaced with a summer staple. Hard to do that when the plant itself is so darn healthy. But it would be another 4 weeks before it would bloom again and then it would be too hot to set. Of course the decision of which plant will replace it is yet to come.

 

Sunflower, Winter squash Lakota and Pomegranates ready for pollination.

 
Pesky cuke finally took after weeks of getting after it with a paint brush. Just look! It's already over grown the 4' lattice. sheesh! I'm so happy to see this little fella hanging on!

The blackberries are uh- brambling. The grapes are setting....

 The peaches are ripening and as of yesterday fully half of them were stolen and our back gate was open. Grrr...

I've decided I'm going to fertilize this guy, grown him big and get him a collar. Then I will sick him on anyone who walks back there unannounced! Bad news is we had just showed off our garden to a neighbor. We don't think she did it, but we think she may have talked it up with her neighbors and word spreads. I just hope it was someones kids who did it and not an adult. I will seriously hurt someone if I find them stealing my food. (adult) Ask, and I will gladly share, but do NOT steal! Grrr...

I think that is it. The rest of the pictures are for Harvest Monday so come on back y'all. I have them uploaded already so at least you'll have the first half of the week waiting for ya! This week the garden harvesting is going gangbusters -relatively speaking for a 100 square foot garden- as the cool season stuff is on it's way out and needs harvested before it bolts. Get this- I FINALLY (successfully) grew carrots! Sweet success. Only problem is that the kids are eating them straight out of the garden (after rinsing them with the garden hose) and not many are making it inside! I guess that is a good sign that they at least taste good. GO ME! *snicker*

'Till next time!

Barbie~