What have you been Harvesting?

dipat2005

Although a garden seemed impossible this year, I was able to find a spot of 11 inches by 10 feet. I planted spinach, curly kale, swiss chard and lettuce around the middle of June. Now about six weeks later I am harvesting some leaves from the kale and swiss chard. The lettuce and spinach didn't grow at all. I did a second planting on July 6th. I have used 1/4 cup Hydrogen Peroxide in 1 quart of water as my only fertilizer and both plantings are doing well. It was 98 degrees yesterday and 94 the day before and the plants didn't wilt so I believe I watered them enough in the morning.

naomi.kohlmeier

I like how you found room for a garden! It's great to use any space available!

We are harvesting sweet corn, potatoes, green beans, onions, blackberries, swiss chard, cucumbers and tomatoes. We just got back from a 10 day vacation...who schedules a vacation during gardening season???...and they all ripened when we were away. I've been very busy since I got home. We even had a couple of ripe peaches! Yum!

JodieDownUnder

Yesterday I picked snow peas, lettuce, rocket, sweet potato, leek and chives. All eaten for dinner last night. Vegetable lasagna and salad. I did add a few extras to make the lasagna more interesting from the farmers market but got to say 2/3 came from my garden and I'm happy with that. At the start of this growing food adventure, I wanted to be able to eat something I've grown every day and I'm doing that, so I'm feeling satisfied.

VermontCathy

@naomi.kohlmeier "We just got back from a 10 day vacation...who schedules a vacation during gardening season???...and they all ripened when we were away."

Every year we take a significant amount of vacation in summer, and I worry that the beans will stop producing after not being picked for 10 days or so. I tell my neighbor to help herself, but I don't think she does.

I usually wind up stripping every bean, however tiny and unready for harvest, right before a big trip. That slows things down a bit, and the bushes are full again when we come back.

This is the first year in a long time that we are unlikely to take a long summer vacation far from home. Maybe we will get an unusually large bean crop. 😎

naomi.kohlmeier

@VermontCathy our vacation was touch and go right up until we left home. My niece was here taking care of our chickens and she picked some of the beans, but not all. I guess one person can only eat so much. Good idea stripping the beans. I think I'll do that and the cucumbers next time.

dipat2005

Thanks for all your comments. I have been lost in computer land wherever that is. I don't know but I couldn't get on this site. I loved everything that was posted. I really wanted to use the 5 year old pea seeds up for a fall planting but I couldn't get any to send out shoots after putting them in water over a night or two. Drat! Nothing happened. We actually got .04 inches of rain which helped everything smell much better and it cooled everyone down. Thank goodness! Just 1 rain day.

solarnoon.aspen

Our garden is just as good as last year's and last year was the best ever. So.....

Because of the weather here, our harvest started early. We've frozen peas, pesto, garlic scapes, green beans, kales, chard, cauliflower and broccoli. Been drying so much stuff: sweet basil, holy basil, catnip, oatstraw, mullein, burdock, thyme, curly and Italian parsleys.

eating fresh, onions, chard, celery, peppers, eggs. Cutting berseem clover for the rabbits.

We feel SO fortunate to have this bounty.

VermontCathy

5 years is a long time to store seed if conditions weren't ideal. Was it in a refrigerator or freezer? What were the temperature and humidity at the storage location?

I have trouble finding a good location for seed storage. It's so humid here that I can't meet the "temp + humidity less than 100" rule outside of a refrigerator or freezer.

Grounded

Even with the heat in the midwest, it has been a pretty good growing season. Yesterday, I harvested several zucchini, several cucumbers, several pounds of tomatoes, several pounds of string beans, several types of greens, one cabbage, some dill, some basil and some sunflowers. And lest I forget, I have been harvesting a bumper crop of weeds all season long :)

COWLOVINGIRL

We are harvesting tomatoes!

Lisa K

Just finishing up the lettuce (now that it is getting hot and they are starting to bolt), strawberries and my Japanese eggplant is just about ready.

KimWilson

Here in northern AZ I am harvesting green beans, elderberries, blackberries, nasturtiums, sage, basil, cucumbers, green peppers, tomatoes, chamomile, St John's wort, plantain, parsley, cone flower, calendula, radishes, valerian, yellow crookneck squash, and zucchini. I am still very frustrated with my pole beans. All the pods turned out to be flat. I will only be harvesting the bush beans as I do not like to bottle flat pods.

COWLOVINGIRL

I'm about to have a huge harvest of buttercup squash! Any ideas of how to use in the kitchen? Thanks!!!!

Torey

My garden has been terrible this year. A few things didn't germinate, even on a second planting. What few peas I got were supposed to be snap peas but some are snow peas and some are shell peas. Not enough of any of them to do much with. A friend had this same issue. Both of us bought different varieties of snap peas from the same reputable seed company so not sure what went wrong. Stuff didn't grow or bolted before it was really ready. Rain and hail knocked off all of my Haskap berries before they were ready. Slugs are bad because of all the rain so leaves of everything have been eaten. Only harvested 2 cauliflower out of 18 plants. Cabbage have big leaves but aren't heading up well.

However, on a better note. I got to go harvesting in the bush yesterday. I got nettle seeds, yarrow, hawthorn berries and cow parsnip seeds. My friend picked plantain, eyebright and chamomile for herself. We feasted on wild raspberries and saskatoons for breakfast. And best of all, we located several large groves of wild hazelnuts. Very excited about this! Seems to be a good year for the nuts, so we are going back in about 6 weeks with buckets and a shovel. To harvest nuts and to bring home some young plants to see if they will survive the winter. I think they will do better if we get them in the spring but going to try a couple this fall.

@COWLOVINGIRL I love butternut squash soup! One of my favourite soups. You could roast chunks and then puree and freeze for soups. I have done them roasted and then pureed with a bit of maple syrup and grated orange peel as a side dish. I have never tried this but have often wondered how butternut squash would be as a substitute for pumpkin or sweet potato in a pie. Is there anyone else with the same thought who has tried it?

VermontCathy

Yesterday I brought in a large bowl of tomatoes (New Girl and Sungold), pickling cucumbers (Boothby Blonde, Cool Customer), and green beans (Provider, Dragon Tongue, Maxibel, Fortex).

However, many plants are definitely showing signs of late season wilt. The tomatoes are still producing, but I've removed a lot of shriveled leaves and stems. The tops of the early potato varieties (Yukon Gold, Reddale, Caribe) are definitely starting to die back, while the later All Blues still look pretty healthy.

I'm thinning the leaves of the beans and cucumbers to avoid mold. After removing many leaves and stems, the tomatoes and cucumbers are much more open than they were in the picture I posted.

I'm starting to pick the pods of the remaining fava beans and dry them for seed next year. I may not plant them next year if other seeds are readily available, but it is good to have something to fall back on. Some Lincoln peas have already been dried and frozen for a week to kill insect eggs; Tall Telephone peas are still drying for seed.

The fall peas (Oregon Sugar Snap II) were planted a couple of weeks ago and are growing very well. I tend to wait too long to plant these and then they don't yield before frost, so this year I planted them a couple of weeks early.

The first wave of fall spinach and lettuce have sprouted nicely. It's about time to plant the second wave. We still have some chard growing from the spring planting.

My I'itoi and Syboe perennial onions are supposed to arrive tomorrow and will be planted right away. The potatoe onions and shallots did well, but I'm saving most of them to replant in the spring and multiply out. A couple of local friends will receive some as well to get their own multiplier onions started.

Carrots were a total failure this year.

I'm getting lots of blueberries from a local grower. We've also bought 3 gallons of maple syrup from a neighboring producer. Don't hesitate to buy locally the stuff you can't produce yourself!

VermontCathy

@torey I haven't tried Butternut squash in pies, but Blue Hubbard works very well as a replacement for pumpkin in pumpkin pie recipes. Blue Hubbard is sweeter than pumpkin, so you may want to reduce the added sugar a bit.

Try your Butternut in a pie and see.

dipat2005

I am in the process of harvesting mostly swiss chard but some kale. Those bugs that eat the leaves have been out at night and since I have been so busy and don't go out at night; I guess I need some suggestions as to what to look for and when I should look. I did add a lot of egg shells. My egg shells have been disappearing at a rapid rate. It may be that they are getting watered into the soil but I have never had that problem before. Any suggestions?

Lisa K

My pole beans are flowering so I hope to be picking some soon and my Japanese eggplant has three good size eggplants that I need to pick.

MissPatricia

I did not get much of a garden in (sob) so I have not harvested anything but garlic, which was hidden by the pumpkins vines so was harvested long after they should have been. Finished blueberry harvest this past week--80 quarts worth. So rain and lack of energy kept me from picking much last week and the berries got overripe, attracting bees, wasps and beetles. That seemed to have ended the harvest. Not able to check this week because we are on vacation, but I noticed that we had some miniscule blueberries coming so I may have more next week--or maybe they won't mature. It would be very late in the season to harvest. I also have another group of raspberries coming in a week or so.

VermontCathy

@MissPatricia As long as the garlic didn't rot before you harvested it, it should be fine once it dries.

MissPatricia

Oh good, VermontCathy. I was planning to plant some and hope for the best. It does not appear to have rotted, so I am relieved.

RustBeltCowgirl

Eyeing the neighbor's apple trees, so much fruit that some branches are almost touching the ground. i have permission to help myself to whatever I want. That might lead to some harvesting this weekend.

dipat2005

I am still harvesting greens and green beans. I am wondering do I leave the beet greens on until harvest?

JodieDownUnder

Yesterday I picked, leek, celery, parsley and broccoli. I made a stir fry with that and added capsicum, onion, garlic, mushrooms, chilli and ocean trout and noodles. Yummo!

dipat2005

I have been air drying (in my living room on trays) a lot of my kale, spinach and swiss chard. It has been so hot and muggy that it seems to dry fairly fast. I am going to use a food processor to blend it into powder to add to soups and smoothies.