Monday, September 1, 2014

Harvest Monday 1 September 2014

 

Still lots of squash and tomatoes from the garden, but at least the beans have slowed down. The food pantry was closed Saturday for the holiday so the kitchen counters are crowded and my refrigerator is temporarily stuffed with the excess.

 

Crystal_Apple_cucumber

 

I finally got a couple of the Crystal Apple cucumbers to reach size. They are shown above next to the slightly larger Richmond Green Apple cucumber. They are a little fuzzy and have white spines compared to the black spines on the Richmond. Taste and texture is similar for both. They are both juicy and crunchy and if not picked too big, don’t need the skin peeled. You can eat them like an apple or slice them for salads.

 

squash

 

An assortment of vegetables, including more of the Bay Meadows broccoli and a nice Summer Dance cucumber. I only showed a sample of the four types of beans I picked.

 

squask

 

More squash, cucumbers and a Revolution bell pepper. That pepper has lived up to is reputation of being a good producer of bell peppers in the north. For the last few years I have avoided bell peppers because of their poor yield and grown only smaller peppers like Lipstick and now Carmen that are productive and ripen quickly.

 

tomatoes

 

Some of the tomato glut. The large, good looking tomato on the right is a Cherokee Purple, so not all of them are completely ugly.

 

tomatoes2

 

Another sampling of tomatoes, most of these are Brandywine and Pineapple heirlooms. The weird one at the bottom is actually two tomatoes that set on the stem opposite each other and were pressed together as they grew.

 

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

20 comments:

  1. Quite interesting shapes and colors of tomatoes!
    Were they delicious?

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    1. Yes, they are heirloom tomatoes with great taste. I like them sliced with a little truffle oil.

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  2. Beautiful harvests. Next year I think have to try some interesting cucumbers. I've done the same variety for too long now.

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    1. At least if you are lucky enough to get a glut of cukes again, there would be some variety to it.

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  3. Nice harvest. You're making me wish that I had done a second sowing of squash earlier this year. Our zucchini plants are quickly fading. You have a great assortment of tomatoes as well.

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    1. Mine got started a little late and were slow to take off this . Fortunately they have been somewhat resistant to the PM as well, but they are just about done.

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  4. Dave- you are going to laugh at me, but I don't like fresh tomatoes. I only grow them to share with others. But I can tell you my tasters LOVE both Bumblebee and Black Plum. Black Plum keeps getting descibed as having a smokey flavor and bumblebee was reported as the best cherry they had ever had. So there you go! Very interesting cukes that you are growing. So many cool varieties to try each year.

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    1. The black plum does look interesting. I tried black pear this year and it was OK. Yielded better than black cherry did for me.

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  5. You do grow some interesting cucumbers. I love cukes but they do not love me back. If I ate one like an apple, I would regret it! But then I eat raw garlic and onions, and my wife regrets it instead.

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  6. How many variety of cucumber do you grow? Like how you grow many varieties of the same crop great way to make comparisons.

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    1. I'm growing five different cukes this year. You need at least 2 types, slicers and picklers. The rest are for fun.

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  7. Revolution is one short season bell pepper that I haven't tried. The standard types of bells don't necessarily do well in my climate either, they don't like the cool weather that extends well into "summer" here, Our warmest weather is just kicking in now. I've had good succes with Lady Bell, this is my third year growing it and it looks like it's going to be a great harvest this year.

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    1. You are in the situation where you can maybe winter over your peppers. Here the clock is ticking, killing frost in maybe 4-6 weeks.

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  8. Love all the different varieties. So often I find myself thinking that there are just too many wonderful varieties to try and not enough garden space. Will definitely have to add "Revolution" to my pepper list - which keeps growing every week it seems! Only two of my sweet pepper plants produced more than one pepper so I'm hoping to improve on that next year.

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    1. Try some of the smaller fruited varieties, like Carmen, Lipstick, and Jimmy Nardello. More to add to your list.

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  9. Nice harvest, interesting cucumbers, I've never try the round varieties, I used to grow Armenian cucumber and like it a lot.

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    1. I have not tried Armenian cucumbers. Maybe next year.

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  10. Again, I must compliment you on the variety of your harvests. You know, I'm of the belief that if you want perfect-looking tomatoes buy 'em at the supermarket. I'll take superb taste over looks any day (in that department, anyway), and I find the funky shapes to be interesting.

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  11. I wish I had an array of tomatoes like yours. Mine have been very poor this year. As others have said, I think the irregular ones are more interesting. Have you had enough beans to be able to freeze or can some of them for winter use?

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    1. I have frozen quite a bit, and also made a couple of batches of stewed beans and tomatoes, which I also froze. Freezer is stuffed, maybe I will try dehydrating some next year. The surplus went to the food pantry.

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