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.

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Hornworms: Where is a parasitic wasp when you need one?

I knew they were there even though I couldn’t see them just yet. I could however see the damage they left behind:

I’ve been finding a few small hornworms on tomatoes in another part of the garden, so I knew one had to be in there somewhere. I searched among the foliage for him carefully. It took a while to spot him, then almost as an optical illusion he appeared on the stem he was perched on all along:

It was almost like drinking a magic potion that gave me special abilities to see invisible things, because just then another one appeared on a leaf near the first one. “Ah, two!” I thought as I ran inside to get a fresh jar of soapy water and the camera.

As I scooted down on one knee to focus the camera on the hornworms, I was alarmed to see two more!! There were four very large hornworms on one tomato plant!

Now these guys creep me out, so after taking a few hurried pictures, I donned a glove and reached in, snatched them off the plant, and quickly dropped them into the jar of soapy water.

I’ve been watching my tomatoes carefully for signs of disease and have found and killed quite a few small hornworms over the last few weeks. I don’t recall ever having such a population. Curious about their lifecycle, I did some research and was surprised to learn that their eggs hatch in only 3-5 days. Also, the ones in my garden are tobacco hornworms, not the expected tomato hornworms. The difference is in the horn color and markings on the body. Tobacco hornworms are usually green with seven diagonal white lines on the sides and a curved red horn. Tomato hornworms have eight V-shaped marks on each side and their horn is straighter and blue-black in color. Both feed on the foliage of various plants from the Solanaceae family.

The eggs can be found on the underside of leaves and sometimes even on top. They are translucent green and measure about 1 millimeter in diameter. Tobacco hornworm life spans over 30 to 50 days. The eggs hatch into green larvae which can grow to 70 millimeters long. The larvae become the tobacco hornworm pupa that finally matures into the adult Sphinx moths or hawk moths.

A new task has been added to my evening routine. Now armed with gloves and a large jar of soapy water, I hunt hornworms to keep my tomatoes safe.

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Home Grown Tomatoes

The first tomatoes of the season

Written by Carolyngail at Sweet Home and Garden Chicago All rights reserved

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GARDEN BLOGGERS' MUSE DAY -AUGUST 1, 2010

"Let me enjoy

this late-summer day of my heart

while the leaves are still green

and I won't look so close

as to see that first tint

of pale yellow slowly creep in.

I will cease endless running

and then look to the sky

ask the sun to embrace me

and then hope she won't tell

of tomorrows less long than today.

Let me spend just this time

in the slow-cooling glow

of warm afternoon light

and I'd think

I will still have the strength

for just one more

last fling of my heart."

- John Bohrn, Late August

Written by Carolyngail at Sweet Home and Garden Chicago All rights reserved

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Harvest Monday: July 19, 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.

This was an exciting week in the garden spot as more variety of fruits and vegetables were harvested. The warm weather has continued and with some supplemental watering, the growth has been abundant.

We will begin with a few pickling cukes and small carrots:

I pulled a couple carrots to see how they were growing. I believe these are Little Finger Carrots. They were about 4-inches long and skinny but tasted great. Hopefully they will fatten up soon.

A large bunch of cucumbers were harvested on Thursday:

I left some small cucumbers on the vine and by the following day they were also ready for picking:

The harvest of cucumbers from the two days amounted to about 6 lbs of cucumbers. I weighed them because I wanted to use them for “Granny's Favorite Bread & Butter Pickles.”

Some of the last of the Swiss Chard that was planted in the spring. There will be more planted for fall:

More young Dark Red Norland Potatoes. We are really enjoying these:

The Blueberries are beginning to ripen up. We are now harvesting a small bowl full each day:

Celery and more Cucumbers:

The first Zucchini and some small Red Onions:

The first Raspberry from the new Heritage Raspberries planted this spring:

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

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Tomato Update

We had some wicked thunderstorms work though our area last Wednesday evening. Tornadoes even touched down in several locations in southern Maine. The National Weather Service has confirmed three E1 tornadoes so far.  Surprisingly no one was hurt but there was some damage. One story in particular touched my heart. A barn collapsed in Gorham, ME. As soon as it happened, the community rushed to the site to help rescue the animals trapped in the fallen debris: Portland Press Herald “Farmers find friends indeed.”

No tornadoes here at the garden spot, but we did have some strong winds that knocked over most of the Early Girl Tomatoes in the garden:

The tomato cages bent right over. We propped them up, pounded in additional stakes, and secured them as well as we could. It’s not pretty, but it will serve for now:

So far, there were only minor casualties. Only a few stems were damaged and trimmed off and about a dozen green tomatoes were lost. The tomatoes in the Square Foot Gardens (SFG) and in the Self Watering Containers (SWC) are fine.

San-Marzano Tomatoes in the SFG:

 Roma Tomatoes in SWC:

 Bush Boy Tomatoes in SWC:

If I decide to grow tomatoes again next year, I will have to plan on a more secure support structure for those grown in the ground.

Wait, did I say “if?”

::sigh::

Well, it seems that Late Blight is creeping its way through the area once again. Earlier this week, MOFGA reported that Late Blight was confirmed in Waldoboro, Maine. Since then, a fellow home gardener and blogger in my town has also discovered late blight on some of her tomatoes. Late Blight spores can travel on wind, I fear it may be only a matter of time. So now I wait and watch and try to hope for the best, but prepare myself for the worse.

Unlike last year, at least we will enjoy a few ripe tomatoes this year:

Info on Late Blight:

MOFGA's 2010 Pest Reports - Compiled by Eric Sideman, PhD 

Cornell University “Late blight on tomato” 

Cornell University “Late blight on potato”

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Harvest Monday: July 26, 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.

Here in the Garden Spot, the Early Girl Tomatoes are living up to their reputation by ripening the first in the garden. The ones pictured below were allowed to ripen on the vine before harvesting:

Since the danger of Late Blight is near, all other tomatoes will be picked at first blush and placed on a windowsill inside to finish ripening. I know from my devastating Late Blight experience last year that this disease hits fast. Once you detect the tell tail signs, it will be too late to save any tomatoes. I would rather have a few ripen on a windowsill than lose them completely. I will consider them a harvest and include them in Harvest Monday photos once they are red.

Cucumbers pictured above were combined with those left over from last week’s harvest and made into Granny’s Bread & Butter Pickles.

It is a great year for blueberries. We are picking a bowlful every day and eating them by the handful, in our cereal, and as dessert topping:

Almost 5 pounds of Dark Red Norland Potatoes were harvested this week:

Again with Late Blight near, I didn’t hesitate to harvest whatever we could consume in a week. We enjoyed garlic-mashed potatoes, hash brown potatoes and onions, oven fries, and potatoes baked on the grill.

Not pictured are onions, celery, and herbs that are harvested as needed. It is so nice to run out to the garden and pick what is needed to use right away. Some cucumbers also missed their photo opportunity as I gathered them quickly to give away. I definitely overdid it with cucumber plants this year.

We are between lettuce crops now that we have cucumbers and tomatoes for salads. The last of the lettuce harvested several weeks ago and stored in the fridge was composted this week. There wasn’t much left. I am amazed at how long the lettuce stayed fresh in the refrigerator. It will be a while before the new lettuce is large enough for salads.

The melons are growing, the pole beans are flowering, and the peppers are finally forming. I am trying to keep a positive attitude, but the fact that Late Blight is in the vicinity is weighing heavily on my mind. There are 34 tomato plants and 32 feet of potatoes in the garden. All can be lost in a matter of days if Late Blight hits the garden spot.

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

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