Harvest Monday 6.24.13

Ah, it's Monday again! Time for another installment of Harvest Monday!
It's almost the end of June and the garden chores are getting interesting. The giant zucchini plant disappeared, but not willingly so. It took a chunk of me with it. The corn fell down. I'm still hoping and praying for the remaining 8 stalks to mature though it is doubtful.I did clean up the stalks that were broken. I found a little surprise there.

It may not be much, but apparently one of the stalks hadn't broken all the way through and one of the ears had matured before the others did. I don't know how it did that as the other ears are still not mature, but I'm not complaining. At least I got one ear! Interestingly enough my cucumber plant had sent out a side vine and low and behold a GIANT cuke had set up residence in the corn stalks. A freebie. A little on the hollow side, but it was still perfectly edible in my book. Sucker weighed in at almost a pound by itself! (OK 9 ounces, but I was still impressed) It was larger than my 9" ear of corn after all.

 If you've been around the blog at all you know I did a little taste testing earlier in the week. My fig tree granted me 4 more of these little beauties for a total of 5 figs this week. YUM. I think I need more fig trees. They were delicious!

The first batch of limas are in. Tropical storm Andrea stole a good half or more of the first crop of them. The only good news about that is that MAYBE some of those limas are now growing instead of just rotting because of all the rain. There was just enough here for a good side dish. Love me some limas. The holsteins were finished drying, too. But, they aren't as pretty dried so I took a picture of the few that were picked last and still good shellies. These were finished with my limas for eating instead of saved for seed. They taste like a cross between black eyed peas and... well... I guess black beans. Me like.

Enter the seed for my Fall crop of beans. Daphne sent me the original beans, My first pole beans ever. Thanks Daphne. Unfortunately due to our rains and the garsh darned squirrels the tag is no where to be found so we'll call them Daphne's beans. Nice and beany flavored. Cooks up great. Get a string as it matures, but worth the effort for flavor. The beans are rather huge and it may be worth growing for the beans themselves if I didn't like the green beans so much!

 

So while the garden is slow to produce now it is giving me my seeds for next year. The long term summer crops are doing their thing and all I'm doing is trying like mad to keep up with maintenance. Oh, and since I like to keep records here I had a complete crop failure due to the rains and it looks like that was my dragons tongue beans (bush) :-(  Shame. There are just not many green beans you can get this time of year here. Hoping the yard longs give me something soon or I'll be eating the cowpeas as green beans instead!

 

See you soon!

 

Barbie~

Harvest Monday 11.7.11

Ahhhh... November, my Love. How I have missed you. How I have longed to be held in your cool embrace. :-)
Now - don't let that go to your head my lover. One of my favorite things about you is the warm days that come along with your cool nights. Decembers chilly winds are too cool for my Floridian body to enjoy so don't go off getting too cold on me just yet!

Linking in for Harvest Monday with Daphne's Dandelions. Thanks Daphne for allowing us to crash your pad and hang out each week!

My garden gave to me this fine November week -

Tomatillos and  a bell pepper. There are many more of both of these waiting for me in the garden!

Hot peppers, green (and yellow & purple) beans. This variety of purple bean doesn't do as well as some of the others I have trialed and once my seed stock of these are gone they won't be replaced. They are good but the plants are not nearly as sturdy as this springs planting of purple beans.

Another pound of lima beans for side dishes and mostly these are mine because I adore them!

Some greens and more green beans and a pepper that needed saved.

In honor of the berry patches (2) being completed I celebrated by baking up a bag of my spring berries:

Muffins, mini loaves and pancakes will make breakfasts easy for the beginning of the week.

I'm looking forward to sharing the final expansion of the garden during the week - but now that daylight savings has "fallen behind" I don't know that I will be home during daylight hours to take any good photos. The project is complete and 24' x2' of space has been added (and already planted out!) to my garden. I love knowing the space is there and this spring I won't have to juggle which veggies I want. I should have enough room for just a little of everything. :-D WOOHOO!!!!

If all else fails I'll share the cell phone pics that were taken at the end of the project so I can at least show off my hard work. My back is still yelling at me for trying to do so much so fast but my brain is happy and in the end that makes it all better.

'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~

(Not Quite) Harvest Monday

Well Harvest Monday fell on Labor Day and I'll be darned if I didn't slack off on my day off!
We swam, and had a cook out. We relaxed and yes I did do some gardening too- but NOT MUCH!

 

I did harvest this week though. Broccoli as a matter of fact. 1.2 stinking ounces of wonderful yummy *tiny* goodness. 1 lb of limas, a couple limes, a lemon, a pound of dry beans,  a cup and a half of mulberries, 2 cups of basil which was about 3 ounces maybe.... and some hot peppers for our burgers, an onion... when you are cooking out sometimes things just jump out of the garden at you (like those limes, for the beers)
I also made the yummiest, moistest, most delicious cake with one of my packets of pumpkin. One of my neighbors who swore up and down that she didn't like squash or pumpkin was there to give it a try, boy did I show her.... She liked it! :-D Her kids all gobbled it up and they don't eat any veggies so we definitely have a winner! (We didn't tell the kids. teehee)
There will be no pictures of this cake because, well it was devoured while still warm. While it was cooking all of us were drooling over the smell of it. Once it came out it was game over!
See you next Monday!

'Till next time!

Barbie~

Harvest Monday 8.29.11

Welcome back to Harvest Monday! I'm joining in at Daphne's once again to see what everyone is harvesting and how people are using their harvest all over the world. Be sure to stop by and check it out!

This weeks harvest again focuses on dry beans:

As well as a few hot peppers and lima beans.

I also managed to get a single Brazilian cherry. It was sweet, and juicy and.... all alone. The other 3 fell off the tree while still green. I wish my tree was bigger but for now it is a tiny little bush, and I'm almost positive the fallen fruit had something to do with a soccer ball and 2 rambunctious little boys. LOL. I didn't stop to take a picture as I popped that sucker into my mouth, but I did think to split it into thirds for each of the kids to taste. EVERYONE loved it. So now it is up to me to save this tree over the winter and protect it with blankets and Christmas lights. :-)

This week I also processed the last Lakota squash:

10 cups of beautiful sweet puree ready for pies, muffins and assorted fall baking goodies, and a cup and a half of seeds cleaned and ready to go! The seed cavity was relatively small, and this puree was without a doubt the least watery, while not the sweetest it was the least stringy of all the winter pumpkins I have ever grown. This squash will have a place in my garden from now on! Those seeds are big and meaty, too. Now I have more than enough to save, trade and eat! :-D

We are still getting rain daily so yesterday I ventured out to plant some Kurdora carrots. Between the heat and rain the only kind I thought might hold up. Thanks Dianne for the seeds! My broccoli is beginning to head up just as anticipated but it looks like tiny heads for me. I guess pushing boundaries heat wise will leave me wanting something. In this case perhaps size. But the fact that the plants are producing at all makes me happy. I'll keep you posted on flavor in the coming weeks.

The excessive rains killed back my cucumbers once again. I may have to start growing them indoors. As for 'Diva' I am completely unimpressed. 3 cucumbers on 2 vines does not a happy gardener make. So much for 'large fruit set' I'd rather take a paint brush to my picklers and get a better harvest. HUMPH! On to another trial for me. If only I had a sun room.

'Till next time!

Barbie~

Harvest Monday 8.22.11

Make sure to stop by as we join in at Daphne's Dandelion's each week for Harvest Monday. She is a most gracious host and showcases harvests from all over the world!
As we near the end of August the cool weather veggies are sprouting and the hot weather ones are coming to an end.
This weeks harvest?

Dried beans (rice peas and Holstein) Hot peppers, Bell peppers and Lima beans.

Here is a closer look at the Holstein. Have I posted this before? Hmmm... sorry if I have but they are really beautiful beans.

Also this week a sweet potato. Oh yes only one. Go me. HA! It met it's destiny as Cinnamon sweet oven baked fries - YUMMO! Too bad that is my entire harvest. (plus a store bought one!) Guess we'll have to see about what happened next year.

But in abundance around town and in homes near my work (an hour+ South) are loads of mangoes... I absolutely ADORE these fruits and if I had the gall to beg for more I would. But I did get busy with the ones I was given...

a pineapple and mango upside down cake... and pineapple mango chutney for my fish - no picture cause it disappeared too quickly. Not to mention we had mango slices a few meals and after a week of mango I love them all the more!

*insert sappy love song here*

Let's say the cake didn't last long. Oh my. I need more.... I MUST HAVE MORE!!!! LOL.

The expansion of the garden is finally under way. It took long enough. I won't be ready to plant anything but the blue berry bushes until spring though. Going from grass to garden is a rough transition and I think I'll solarize for the winter.  I know patience isn't my strong suit but it would be best. Unless others have better (quicker) ideas.... :-D teehee... The frame is nearly complete but the grass still must be finished off and the dirt dressed and pressed and readied for the ball. We'll need to borrow a truck and trailer to get a few loads of compost. The inside width ended up at 28" and the outside is 35. I hope the weeds and grass stays back from between the fence, but I know better...I'll just have to formulate a plan I suppose. Hopefully next week I'll have some pictures of the initial lay out.

'Till next time! (and I hope I'll be tilling soon!)

Barbie~