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 12, 2011

This week's harvests are mostly tomatoes and eggplants.  Cantelopes all ripened at once and came off the stem when touched!!  Apples are not yet harvested, but seem to be ready.  I guess I'm not yet ready to do anything with them as my cantelopes and plums were all ripening at the same time.  Tomatoes are piling up and I need to do something to make space.  So this week, will be preserving week!

Daphne's dandelions hosts Harvest Mondays every week to showcase harvests from around the world.  Here's my entry for the week....

The larger ones are Roma

Blackberries

Multi colored eggplants

Tomatoes and some apples

Beans, cucumbers and okra

Another cantelope

4 more Cantelopes

Yellow squash(chewed by something)

More tomatoes

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!!

Saving the eggplants.....

Last week, I blogged about how something was eating my eggplants, even the newly set fruits were disappearing.  Each day, I saw eggplants eaten down to nothing and it was frustrating.  I would have shared, if it was once in a while, but whatever it was, it didn't feel the need to leave me any!!

I needed to protect them somehow.  I thought of all the ways to cover them, cloth, nylon etc., But they weren't feasible, because, I had atleast 20+ eggplants, and more on the way.  Finally I found the solution!!  Ziploc.  I cut out the two corners for drainage and covered the eggplants and since then haven't had a single eggplant eaten!!  Yay!  See the pics, to believe.......

Covering the eggplants

Filling up the gallon size ziploc!

Check it out!  Blemish free.....

11 inches!! 

I think the ziploc idea worked very well.  Inspite of hot weather and heavy rains, fruits were all nice and smooth.  I could now let them grow to their destined sizes, instead of picking them early to avoid being eaten by pests!!  Score!! 

Check out my Harvest Mondays for all the eggplants that I picked this week!

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.