Harvest Monday - 23 September 2013

Welcome to another Harvest Monday, courtesy of Daphne's Dandelions. I hope you too are having fine fall weather. And there are no predicted frosts in the foreseeable future. That means more tomatoes (take that, Kitchen Goddess) and maybe even some more eggplants.

We started the week with 10 lbs. of tomatoes left over from last Sunday's canning. What to do, what to do? Well, how about a gallon of Bloody Mary mix? It's like tomatoes for breakfast! Just add Vitamin V.

 

On Tuesday, 2.5 lbs tomatoes and a cup of seedless red raspberries. On Thursday, 12.5 lbs. tomatoes, many of them drops and not immediately usable. Also a weird fall harvest of radishes, more raspberries, the last melons (lemon-sized), and the last cucumbers (misshapen). We take what we can get this time of year.



I took another 2 bushels from the mystery green apple tree. There are still more up there, but we really have enough. And the easy ones (and not-so-easy) are already picked.

 

I did not think it would be possible, but one of the volunteer tomatoes has produced ripe fruit. I guess this is due to the mild early fall weather we've been having, or maybe the pure compost it's growing in. I never water it, and it really does not get much sunlight.

 

I gave the chard a haircut.

 

 

I grew 2 varieties of chard: Fordhook and Perpetual. Neither has done especially well, but the Fordhook is better.

 

On Saturday, another 13 lbs. of tomatoes. The weekly total is 28 lbs. (12.7 kg.). Tomato production is really on the downward slope of the Bell Curve. No time to make sauce this week, so fruit in varying states of ripeness is piling up on the counter.

 

 

That's basically it for the harvests this week. Now a little foray into my fall gardening, or lack thereof. I really have never had luck with it. I'm never sure when to plant things, despite reading a lot on it. It probably doesn't help that the available space at this time of year is shaded a lot. But I try anyway.

 

My kale is just sitting there. Something's wrong. It was planted at the end of July.

Same with the carrots. But in this case I'm not so upset since we got so many spring carrots this year.

And even the radishes are scraggly! Kids can grow radishes! Why not me?

The "fall" broccoli and Chinese Cabbage really turned out to be summer crops, and are either all picked or tired now. The cabbage was nice but the broccoli has only produced small heads and not a lot of sideshoots. I don't really like Asian greens so I don't try them, and we had so much lettuce earlier this year we got tired of salads, so I saw no need to grow it in the fall.

Well, I guess we'll be picking Brussels Sprouts and the winter squash one of these days, so we will have some fall produce. But I'm envious of all you gardeners who are able to extend the season with nice green stuff. Enjoy!