Harvest Monday: August 2, 2010

Each Monday, Daphne’s Dandelions hosts “Harvest Monday” where everyone can share links to their harvest for the week. It’s fun to see what everyone is harvesting from his or her gardens in different areas.

I am a little late with posting my Harvest Monday post. It was a very busy weekend here at the garden spot. The weather was so beautiful with much less humidity than we have been experiencing. It was so much easier to work outside in the yard and garden without the oppressive heat. I was so motivated.

We ran out of tomato sauce, which is a staple in this household. So I needed to make a batch to tide us over until the garden tomatoes are ready. Everything that went into the sauce was from the garden except for the tomatoes, which came from cans. Good quality canned tomatoes, but canned nonetheless. I was thrilled to use my own grown garlic, onions, basil, parsley, thyme, and oregano in the sauce.  I can’t wait to use my own grown tomatoes.

I also took advantage of the cooler weather and canned up some Kosher Dill Pickles and some Salsa. In addition, the garden paths were weed whacked and gardens weeded. The plants were pruned, fertilized, and watered.

I am so thrilled to have tomatoes coming in fast and furious this year. The ones pictured below are Early Girl, but the paste tomatoes also began ripening this week as well. I will have some to show for next week’s Harvest Monday:

This week I also harvested a few of the first Nante carrots from the Square Foot Garden. These are shown below with some celery thinnings. The celery growing in the SWC was looking a bit ratty, so I took some scissors and cleaned it up and thinned it out. Some of these trimmings went into salads, but most were chopped and frozen for later use in soups this fall and winter:

More cucumbers were harvested:

I gave away some cucumbers and will probably be giving away much more in the future. I’ve made one batch of Bread & Butter Pickles and this weekend canned up 12 pints of Kosher Dill Pickle spears. We now have more pickles than we could ever consume. If they taste good, most jars will be probably given away as well. Here is the Dill harvest that was used for the Kosher Dill Pickle recipe:

I also harvested another batch of basil that was turned into pesto and frozen for later use:

The first Fast Break Melon was harvested on Friday. I don’t expect much from the first melon. It has usually struggled to grow and is pollinated early when the temperatures are quite cool and the plant is still trying to establish itself. This one was small, a bit deformed, and only about 4-inches across. It had already slipped from the vine when I found it. I ate this first melon for breakfast this morning, it was delicious:

A few more Fast Break Melons ripened over the weekend:

More Dark Red Norland Potatoes were harvested:

Blueberries, a few raspberries, and blackberries:

The first Kentucky Wonder Pole beans:

These were snacked on right after the photo. I usually grow bush beans for an earlier harvest, but decided against them this year as we had too many beans last year. Kentucky Wonder and Purple Trionfo Pole Beans were planted and they have just begun to form beans. Soon I will be harvesting beans every day. I can’t wait.

Be sure to visit Daphne’s Dandelions to see what others are harvesting this week.