Harvest Monday 6.8.15

A week into June and the main harvest has been AVOCADOS! Yippee! We got a few last year, but this year I have lots and lots. There has been avocado slices on salads, and mashed avocados in sandwiches, some guacamole and now I'm at the point where I can't quite keep up eating them all as they come in. So- Now I will start trying to figure out how to preserve the stuff. I've heard of people freezing it but I just don't know how well it works. Anyone have experience? I know I can at least vacuum seal and freeze the guacamole, but I'm not sure about any other uses for it besides that. Shame, too because what I see on the trees should be the perfect amount for 9-12 months...but no way to keep the fruit from falling and becoming useless.

Such is the gardeners life. Oh! I almost forgot the other big harvests have been tomatoes (2 bushes are diseased already but the fruit is mostly edible)lemons, limes and jalapenos. I mean - seriously? Could the irony here escape anyone at the moment? It's the perfect guacamole ingredients. I'm adding some garlic to it, but other than that it's all homegrown. :-) LOVE IT!

Pomegranates have been coming in, too. Unfortunately they are not ripe, they are bursting from the rain we've had. :-( Booo!!!!! Normally our springs are really rather dry and that just hasn't been the case here. Our daily rain pattern doesn't usually pick up until late June but this year it started in March. So the not-quite-ripe burst fruit is going to the chickens who just don't seem to care that the fruit is more tart than sweet. LOL. They are also eating my aphid ridden kale and unfortunately the butterflies that seem to be showing up en mass this month.
Hope all is well where you are. Don't forget to stop by Daphne's to see what gardeners are harvesting all over the world!

See you soon!

Barbie~

Harvest Monday 6.2.14

Ah, yes. Harvest Monday. I missed a few weeks, and didn't link into Daphne's place a few times so it seems I've been gone forever. But, I haven't. I've been harvesting little bits here and there. The last of the blueberries are in and I'm already mourning their loss. It's only been a few days since the last picking but my fridge seems empty without them.

Also harvesting tomatoes, beans, peppers and carrots. It's been a good couple weeks and I've had the best harvest ever of beans. These beans are a bush variety and thanks to ducks and chickens - well fertilized. :-) I don't know if that is the main difference or if the weather was just perfect for them lately, but this is the smallest planting I've ever done and I harvested almost twice as much as my Romas in twice the space. I plan on cooking them tonight to do a taste test and if they are nearly as good as the roma beans I will be letting them go to seed.

Here are the pictures for the week:

 

The ducklings are doing well and the chickens still hate them. It's something I'm going to have to deal with soon...they need to be housed together and soon. We plan on taking the majority of the ducks to Alabama on the 4th of July. But, the one that stays needs to stay in the chicken run. This should be interesting. I don't know what to do to help the situation as the ducklings where inside the run in a wire cage for weeks with no attitude change from the hens. I would think about replacing the hens at this point to introduce an entirely new flock together but it's not chick time at the feed stores anymore so I would be forced to buy from a hatchery and I'm not sure that is a good answer. I'd need to find homes for the rest of the chicks.. Ah well- so I keep trying. They do well together in the yard, but not in the run.

 

See you soon!

Barbie~

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~

Harvest Monday 5.20.13

I think I've hit the peak of harvests now. It will decline fast. So while I'm happy at the moment I know that it won't last long.

For instance? In the last 48 hours my zucchini plants when from having one green worm boring into it - to a complete infestation. the blossoms now have worms, the leaf stems have worms, the baby zucchini have worms. I do not have worms, but I do have a bad attitude. I knew it was coming, but I'm just NOT happy about it. If Mr. Giant corporation can come out with super germ warfare why can't it come out with a zucchini plant that fights back? LOL. Then again, as big as those plants get? Maybe having them fight back isn't such a good idea. What would happen if they decided they wanted to keep their bounty? That wouldn't be a pretty picture!

OK - On to serious matters. This weeks harvest!

 5lbs 6oz of new potatoes, a few bell peppers, jalapenos, 6lbs of tomatoes, the last of the snap peas (the vines are still there but no more weight will be recorded. The vines will come out this week)
Zucchini, Beans bush and pole, carrots, cucumbers, eggs (of course!) strawberries - but most get eaten in the garden because we only get a couple a day and a leek.

Oh, and that is 6.2 ounces of mint y'all! I made a few drinks this week that needed mint. Some hot tea, and some cold drinks. I'm weird. I really like cold mint. But I prefer it in my chocolate. LOL.

 

 

This weekend saw phase 1 of the big major project done. I"ll share here in a day or two. I also have a couple lovely recipes to share this week with some recent harvests. But, for now I'm late posting this so...

 

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 4.1.13

No April Fool's Jokes here. The only joke is the way I feel after a ton of work in the yard this weekend.

Not only did we get the new container filled up, but the playground got cleaned up and newly mulched, the hedges got trimmed, the lawn got mowed, the seeds got sowed, the chicken coop got cleaned... we spent the entire weekend outside. Except for the 3 hours Easter morning that we spent hunting eggs and doing the whole bunny thing.

 

Harvests this week? Peas, Jalapenos, mulberries, a head of lettuce, radishes and...

THE! FIRST! BLUEBERRIES!

Nom, Nom, Nom. Just for Easter morning. I didn't tell anyone. I didn't show anyone. I scarfed them. Most of the berries have been disappearing just before ripening. Much like my peaches. :-( But these I got to in time! Next year I'll net the bushes, but this year I just don't have enough on the poor bushes to make it worth my time and effort. I'll have to decide what to do with the bushes when they are done producing. Around here it's pretty common to see the big producers cut them hedge style at the end of picking in order to allow the new canes time to grow again before next season. I might do this as this is the second year these plants are int he ground. (They spent one yer in pots getting nursed back to health) They are now just barely large enough to sustain that treatment.

Of course we also harvest eggs. And, given the nature of the week and all, you probably figured out what I did with those eggs, right? Right. I boiled them suckers up and we played with them! The kids a blast this year. I don't think that they even really remember dying them last year. They remember seeing them dyed of course, but not the process and just how messy and fun it can be. I'm always on the look out for special things to do with our eggs, and since I'm just not willing to spend the money to go and buy WHITE eggs for this singular occasion we have to get creative to make them stand out. I think we did a pretty darn good job. If I do say so myself. :-)

 

As for the outside work? I don't have all the pictures, but the two boxes I have pictures of.

The newer box still needs the top finished in brick. They are there and waiting, but they were holding up the side bricks while they dried. LOL. The first box is fully planted now. I snapped a picture from the window of my living room. I don't know if you can really see or not, but it has lettuce, tomato, potato, leek, and strawberries. :-D

 

I'm really enjoying the height of the boxes. It makes it nice to have a seat and be able to garden without breaking my back. No aching knees and no itchy grass, either.

 

Sown this week: Early Sunglow? corn, Henderson bush Lima beans, Top Crop green beans, Burmese okra,  Sierra Gold & Minnesota Midget Cantaloupe, Sugar Baby Watermelon,  Kubocha Sunshine, Yard long cucumber, Cilantro, Genovese, Sweet & Giant basil

(BOX) Contender bush beans, Holstein beans, Sun Spot sunflowers, Eureka, & All Season cucumber, Ground cherries

 

I think that is everything. I may have missed something. I only sowed half the box. I'm still undecided on the other half. I may just wait 2 weeks and fill it in with green beans. Can't go wrong with them around here. :-)

 

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 6.25.12

Monday. Dreary Wet. Rainy. Monday.

Here is the main harvest for this week. Pathetic - but it's a harvest!

A small eggplant, a large jalapeno, a bunch of broccoli side shoots and a single deformed cucumber. At least I had something to harvest. Considering how bleak my garden looks right now... I'll take it!

Update on Debby later. We are VERY wet.

Linking into Daphne's Dandelions on this very wet Monday. Make sure yous top by and check out what others are harvesting all over the world! (I bet they aren't so wet!)

'Till next time!

Barbie~