Monday, August 4, 2014

Harvest Monday 4 August 2014

The mild but humid weather has continued with a lot of cloudy days and some rain. The garden is in full production and keeping me busy. The local food pantries have benefited from the excess food produced by me and fellow gardeners, including two Girl Scout troops who have plots in the community garden dedicated to growing food for the pantries and the senior housing facility. The beans and squash in particular have been heavy producers, while the tomatoes' biggest production lies ahead.

 

pole_beans

 

Above are the Gold Marie and Musica pole beans. Many of these were frozen and I have been cooking large amounts for dinner. A lot of the Musica were donated to the food pantry.

 

bush_beans

 

Jade and Provider bush beans above.

 

tomatoes&peppers

 

Tomatoes above include the first Blue Beech paste tomato.

 

summer_squash

 

I am picking lots of summer squash now, some not quite in time. Since I said I kind of like the big ones, well I got one. It was stuffed with ground veal and baked in a tomato sauce.

 

weird_squash

 

The Y-Star in the photo above looks a little weird. Since some of the squash start growing squished between leaves, it looks like a branch with flowers was squeezed against the growing squash and fused to it.

 

veggies

 

First Crystal Apple cucumber above. I have also been pulling the Rossa Lunga onions and using them fresh in cooking.

 

summer_squash

 

More squash and some Jackson Classic picklers. I am hoping they start producing some decent shaped fruit so I can make some refrigerator half sours.

 

tomatoes

 

More Blue Beech paste tomatoes, plus Juliet, Esterina, Jaune Flamme, and a Big Beef. Below the Big Beef you can see my first and only Chocolate Pear tomato

 

turnips&onions

 

Jaune Boule d’Or turnips and more Rossa Lunga di Tropea onions.

 

In addition to the above, on Sunday I picked another five pounds of  beans and pulled the Patterson and Red Wing onions. I will photograph the onions when I clean them up after they cure. Only one or two of the tops had fallen over but the foliage is being affected by what looks like Botrytis leaf blight so I decided to pull them. You can see the white spots on the foliage of the Rossa Lunga in the photo above. The storage onions were worse.

 

That’s what happened in my garden last week. To see what other gardeners around the world are harvesting, head over to Daphne’s Dandelions, our host for Harvest Monday.

 

23 comments:

  1. I had the same trouble with my Red Wing onions. None of the other onions seemed affected though. I keep wondering if it was seed born, but it didn't affect them until late. So it may be that they are just very susceptible to it compared to my Copras.

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    1. I have never had a disease problem with onions but this year seems different in a lot of ways.

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  2. Looks like your garden is having a very productive week! Your beans look good.. I need to branch out in the varieties of beans I grow. I like how those Y-star patty pans have the green spot on the blossom end, very unique.

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    1. Actually there are two patty pans, Y-Star and Sunburst. Sunburst always has a small green spot. The Y-Star may or may not, depending on weather apparently. They are both good but I think I will go back to growing Sunburst only next year.

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  3. Beautiful harvest, and those runner beans look so buttery. Lovely variety of squash and tomatoes, and love that beautiful fresh purple onion.

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  4. Wow, what a colorful harvest! Especially all the different summer squashes. I only seem to grow plain old zucchini. I have to branch out!

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    1. It is worth giving a patty pan a try if you have the room. I like the Sunburst, it has a smooth texture and is not astringent like zucchini. So I have been slicing them up and eating them with hummus or French onion dip for lunch.

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  5. Lovely harvest! I really try to harvest and eat the patty pan as small as possible simply because they are so productive ... easy to get over-run. For the first time ever, I have not had a single zucchini this year. Last year's were planted in hay bales and were massive. This year they went into "straw" bales - not enough nutrients I suspect.

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    1. Ditto for picking the zucchini small. I couldn't get to the garden for a few days and that's what happens. Weird your zukes aren't producing, but I have had that happen with a zucchini once. It had massive foliage. It just didn't want to set fruit.

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  6. Beautiful harvests! Just love the pattypans - not sure why they have never ended up on my seed list - next year for sure! Also love the beans, especially the Gold Maire...I think I have a thing for yellow vegetables ;)

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  7. The pattypans are so pretty, I wish I liked them, but I'm not going to grow them for just their good looks. Do you love the Musica beans? They have been one of my favorite beans for years, tasty and productive, and they are good even if they get away and get extra large.

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    1. Yes, the Musica beans are great and amazingly productive. Never tough or stringy even when large. I'm also loving the Gold Marie beans. Both will be back next year.

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  8. I love that you work with 2 different Girl Scout troops to grow food for food pantries. It sounds like an idea for the group my daughter is in. :)

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    1. A Daisy troop started by creating a pollinator garden outside the garden, then when they graduated to Scouts, they started their own plot inside and passed the pollinator garden on to the next batch of Daisies.. Another troop started a garden plot inside, saw my raised beds, and decided to do that. They spent a winter fundraising to buy materials, then built and installed their raised beds. Lots of merit badges out of that project. Plus it's a public service project that teaches them about gardening.

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  9. Beautiful harvest! I have one zucchini plant that keeps producing wonky looking zucchini, but the other plants of the same variety all produce perfectly straight squash like yours. I grew patty pans for the first time last year and really enjoyed them... a bonus was that the seemed to do really well in my garden!

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  10. Beautiful and varied harvest, I grow Musica for the first time this year and loving it, will have to try Gold Marie next, is the texture similar to Musica or a bit on the waxy side?

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    1. No, texture and flavor similar to Musica, not like a wax bean, and great sunny color. Definitely worth trying if you like Musica.

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  11. I'm another fan of the Musica and Gold Marie beans. They have sure kept us supplied this year. I love the 'fused' squash photo. There's a local TV weatherman here who shows photos of unusual veggies all the time, calls it the Funky Fruit segment. That would be a great candidate for it!

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  12. Both varieties of pole beans are very nice. I like the flat beans myself. A few years ago I grew Sunburst pattypan. They made a massive production of squash over about two weeks then stopped. My onions this year (Ruby Ring) did great but last year many of them had a fungus that slowly destroyed the onion. Difference in region I suppose.

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    1. I don't like the Romano beans that are thick with big seeds. These two types make flat pods with small seeds, even when 10" long. Too bad about your onions. I never had any problems with onions until this year. It really depends on weather conditions to some extent.

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  13. Great harvest photos! I love the Gold Marie and Musica pole beans. They must look good all mixed together. Did you know that the deformed cucumbers like yours are caused by poor pollination? I just learned this recently. ~ Rachel @ Grow a Good Life

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    1. I wondered that, but pollinating a cucumber seems a simple task. Are the bees slacking off or is it the weather?

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  14. Here is a contest you might be interested in:

    SCAVENGER HUNT contest for a crystal apple cucumber photo! Tag it #gkhpichunt, share & win! http://blog.gardeningknowhow.com/giveaways/scavenger-hunt-contest-for-the-crystal-apple-cucumber/

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