Harvests - Sept 20, 2011

Technically, it's tuesday, but I'll go ahead and add my Harvest Mondays post, at Daphne's Dandelions.  We had an early Frost last week, and as a result, I picked off almost anything that was close to harvest.  This will be the last major harvest of the season.  There will be smaller harvests for another week or two, then I will be done with the garden work for the year. 

I had to pick so many things that were getting closer, but not really ready.  This also meant picking green chillies, as they hadn't matured to red color yet!  I couldn't use that much green chillies, but after freezing a good amount, they were given off to neighbors and friends.  Apples are yet to be picked.  But I also didn't get pictures of everything that was picked, as it was too tiring to cover up plants, pick off harvests, store them and also photograph them.  I did the best I could, and there are more pictures than usual....

Tomatoes and 1 zucchini(hidden)

4 Butternut squash(2lb 13 oz - over 4 lbs)  This one 4lb 4oz!

More tomatoes

okra, eaten apples(not by us :), cantelopes, red chillies

Part of kung pao chillies

Some more tomatoes

Bell peppers and beans

More peppers

Some apples and cucumber

Eggplants

Cayenne Peppers

Banana peppers

Harvest Monday - Sept 6th 2011

This blog is a day late for the Daphne's Harvest Monday Submission, due to the Labor Day weekend.  The past week has been wonderful for our garden harvests.  We have a couple firsts of the season - Rose Finn Fingerling potatoes were harvested, first okra was ready for picking, first harvest of Zestar Apples, the first ripe Sweet 'N Early Hybrid cantelope fell off its stem!!

Tomatoes are ripening almost daily :) Still picking beans and cukes.......We even had a couple nights where the temps dropped to 40s.  3 more blackberries were harvested and went right into our mouths :)

Zestar apples

Zucchini, 1 plum and tomatoes

Fenugreek(methi) leaves

Tomatoes, okra, plums, cukes

Bush beans, red chillies

Rose Finn - Fingerling potatoes

Tomatoes

Cantelope

Harvest Monday - August 29, 2011

Finally, this week, I picked 8-9 large tomatoes.  First of the season!  It was a happy week. Also, in were the sweet plums.  After a few were pecked by birds, it was time to pick them all.  Since dealing with the pests, eggplants grew large and finally I had several nice sized eggplants to harvest.  First blackberry was ripe(not pictured).  Here goes my harvests for the week....

Zucchini, apples, tomatoes, plum

Plums!!

Tomatoes, chillies

Bush beans

Check out the size!

Tomatoes and plums

Cucumbers, zucchini and chili

Eggplants

Methi(Fenugreek) leaves

Sweet banana peppers and bush beans

For all other harvests, head on over to Daphne's Dandelions - Harvest Mondays!!

Harvest Monday - August 22, 2011

Thanks to Daphne for hosting Harvest Mondays.  This week the harvest was good.  It's always nice to walk into the garden and come back with some veggies.  I'm struggling somewhat with something that has been eating eggplants and tomatoes, even to the extent of climbing onto the plants and eating veggies that are atleast a foot off the ground.  I spent time reading online to find some clue and figured out that it must be either mice or field rats, since they have similar diets as humans.  Voles/moles do not eat veggies.  I had wrongly assumed that it was voles/holes eating up my eggplants, but I was so wrong.  I have come up with an idea to outsmart(I hope?) these mice/rat and will post a blog later on in the week.  Here are my harvests for the week.

Yellow Squash and two (bird pecked and why is it rotting?) plums

Green beans and two red chillies

Cucumbers, red bell, zucchini and TWO tomatoes!!

Carrots, 2 radishes, zucchini, eggplant, cucumbers, green beans, red chillies, 1 tomato

Eggplants, cukes, zucchini, green bell, and lots of green chillies

Red bell, 2 Roma tomatoes(mice/rat eaten), green beans

Sweet banana peppers, red chillies, cucumbers

In other news, Tiny Gardener has a birthday giveaway on her blog, so if you'd like to be entered into a drawing for a year long subscription of Hobby Farm magazine, head on over to her site to check it out.

Harvest Monday - August 15th, 2011

Thanks to our host Daphne's Dandelions for Harvest Mondays where everyone showcases their produce for the week. 

Today is India's 64th Independence Day, so Happy Independence Day India!!  This week has mostly been about cukes, beans and eggplants.  Still no sign of ripe tomatoes.... ok, maybe a couple tiny ones.  I guess we will see all of them ripen at about the same time.  In the meantime, we will certainly enjoy our cukes and eggplants(and everything else in between)!

Sweet Banana Peppers and Green beans

Zucchini blossoms, sweet banana peppers, cucumbers and zucchini

Green beans

Cucumbers

Eggplants

Yellow squash

Green chillies, eggplant, cukes, zucchini, tomatoes

Green chillies and Mint

Harvest Monday - August 1, 2011

This week, to my utter disbelief, we were invaded by Japanese beetle.  Plum tree was just a outline of leaves and clusters of beetles all over! yuck! yuck! 

Japanese beetle and skeleton leaves!!

Fortunately I had just read Amy's blog on the beetles and was ready with a bucket of soap water and my oldest son(I couldn't get myself to touch those beetles).  He picked dozens (wearing gloves) and the next day my dear husband did the rounds and picked off more and now the situation is under control(touch wood!).  We are still picking 10-12 everyday and will continue to monitor and watch the leaves and plants more carefully.

This Harvest week belongs to Eggplants and Yellow Squash!!  I was pleasantly surprised to find about 8-9 yellow squash all about the same size on a single plant.  Not that we eat a lot of them, but any large harvest that I pick from the garden, makes me feel on top of the world :)  Then came a harvest of eggplants and another bigger one!  I've never picked more than 1 at a time and not more than a few in the entire season!  Ofcourse, it helped that this year, I tried mixed varieties of eggplants and over a dozen plants :) 

Yellow Squash and zucchini

1 tomato and few beans

Fairy Tale Eggplants and zucchini

Yellow Squash and Orange beets with greens

Orange beets cleaned and trimmed

Green beans

Mint

First cucumbers, zucchini and Fenugreek leaves

Fairy tale, long purple and apple green Eggplants

Zestar! apple (dropped while picking beetles)

Garlic chives scapes

For other harvests, please visit Daphne's Harvest Monday.