Monday, July 30, 2012

Harvest Monday–30 July 2012

Not much to show this week. Tuesday was busy and by Wednesday I had some stomach bug that put me out of action for three days. First got to the garden on Saturday and found a few things overgrown, but everything is edible assuming my appetite comes back. We also have said several days of rain so I did not have to worry about watering.

I picked two pounds of beans, some of them a little large. Actually I welcome larger beans because it is a reason to make stewed beans with tomatoes. That’s comfort food to me and they freeze well, so a good way to use up the older beans and excess tomatoes.

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An assortment of small tomatoes, Juliet, Sun Gold, and Black Cherry. The cherries are very tasty but I’m not sure I like Juliet. Kind of tough and dry, not very flavorful. Fortunately none of the tomatoes split from the sudden rainstorms. I left a medium sized Cherokee Purple on the vine to sun-ripen for a few more days. Hope it’s still there. Yesterday I got an email from a fellow gardener who had surprised a poacher at the garden. This person drove their minivan right up to the gate of the community garden, got out with a shopping bag, and proceeded to do her produce shopping among the various plots. Most items I have plenty of at this point, but I have special plans for that tomato.

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Some of the squash got away, which happens. They are actually larger than they look in this photo. I think these two types of squash are still edible when fairly large, but I really did not need more squash right now. I think I might try stuffing the zucchini and turning it into a main dish. The cucumbers are two pickling cukes.

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I got some bad news while picking the beans. I noticed some small discolorations on some of the beans, like a wet spot. As I got down the bed, I found the reason. In the picture below you can see black lesions on the beans, sure sign of halo bean blight, a bacterial bean disease from infected seed (see an earlier post). The wet looking spots are the early stage of the infection. As it progresses, a lesion appears with a cream-colored center. You can see that on the bottom bean on the right. As the infection proceeds, you get the sunken lesions you see on the top, which turn black from secondary infection. I was surprised because usually the leaves are affected first, with brown lesions surrounded by a yellow halo, but this hit the beans first.

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This is a bit disappointing. I cleaned up the garden debris last year and the disease is not supposed to overwinter in New England. I rotated the beds and made sure I had seed from reputable sources. And it is supposed to be less likely to infect bush beans. All I can do is remove infected plants and hope it doesn’t spread further (wet, windy weather like we had the past few days will do it).

That is all from here. To see what other gardeners around the world are harvesting from their gardens, head to Daphne’s Dandelions and join the fun.

9 comments:

  1. Stewed beans and tomatoes, yum, I love that too. Too bad about the halo blight, I hope it doesn't cut into your harvests too much. Perhaps it came from a neighboring garden plot? I can't believe the gall of people who poach the hard earned efforts from someone's garden, for shame. Hope your tummy feels better soon.

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    1. Thanks, Michelle. I'm feeling fine now and a trip back to the garden showed the blight had not spread yet and my Cherokee Purple was still there and hadn't been filched.

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  2. we did not care much for juliet tomatoes either. And we had a lot of them when we grew them. They went into a lot of bruschetta and salsa. Too bad for your beans!
    And your poacher, how funny. Guess she needed some food!

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    1. I planted Juliet because my neighbor in the garden said her husband loved the and that's all he would eat. They won't be back next year and the bruschetta and salsa sound like a good use because they aren't real watery. The gardener who challenged the poacher didn't press the issue because he thought she could just be hungry, just tried too scare her.

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  3. Hope you are fully recovered and enjoying your lovely harvest. The nerve of some people stealing from gardens, how can they swallow the stolen produce?

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  4. Nice harvest! Sorry about the bean disease. I hope it clears up!

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  5. I am sorry to hear you were not feeling well. I hope you are on the mend and your appetite returning - because you have a garden of bounty needing to be used up!

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  6. Remember, last winter was unusually warm. Maybe the bean disease did survive the winter...

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  7. what a lovely harvest; sorry to hear about your beans, but at least you got a good picking! Hope it doesn't get worse. I think I'm going to have to try that Black Cherry, sounds good.

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