2015 Garden Report Card

Every year I like to assess how the garden grew. It pleases me that I grow 40 different vegetables and fruits. As always, some are successful, others not. So here's 2015's report card:

Crop	Grade	Remarks
Apples	A+	2 trees. Over 10 bushels, still left some unpicked.
Artichokes	A	Started with 6 plants, voles killed 2. Harvested 11 'chokes.
Asparagus	C	12 row feet. Decent production from young plants. Planted a 2nd 12 foot row this year.
Beans, Green	A	24 square feet, great initial harvests, dwindled rapidly. Still got plenty.
Beans, Dry	B	Approx 80 row feet yielded 4.5 lbs. Still think we could do better than that.
Beans, Runner	B	Sowed 50 seeds, yielded 1-2 meals of dry beans plus next year's seed.
Beets	C-	Planted 16 squares, 9 plants per square. Not a good year for beets.
Broccoli	B+	12 plants. Heads not as large as last year.
Brussels Sprouts	A+	12 plants. Excellent production.
Carrots	B	32 square feet. Decent production, but not as great as prior years.
Chard	B	8 square feet. Got a slow start and had vole problems.
Cherries	A	2 trees. Incredible fruit set--birds got most.
Chinese Cabbage	A+	Grew in summer only, 6 plants. Outstanding production.
Corn, Sweet	A	Early corn not productive, mid-season very productive and tasty.
Corn, Flint	A	Approx 50 row feet. Yield 8 pounds shelled kernels.
Cucumbers	B+	First planting did not get off to a good start, second planting did well.
Eggplant	D	Slow start, production low.
Grapes	A+	2 bushels, made 5 gallons of blush wine, aging now.
Hops	A	This just keeps getting better and better
Kale	A+	6 plants. Large yield.
Leeks	A	First time growing. Quite a nice haul of fairly slender leeks. Took a long time.
Lettuce	A+	More than we knew what to do with.
Muskmelons	C+	Finally got some large fruit, but still not enough.
Onions	A+	Better production than last year on fewer sets.
Pears	B	2 small trees. 25 small pears.
Peas, snow/snap	A	Big improvement over last year.
Peas, soup	A	First time growing. Got about a quart of dried peas.
Peppers	C	Got off to a bad start. Low production.
Potatoes	B+	29 lbs. from 2.5 lbs seed. Plants not as large as last year. Variety "Kennebec."
Pumpkins	D	Terrible year compared to last.
Radishes, spring	A+	Row cover greatly helped root maggot problem.
Radishes, summer	A+	"Watermelon" variety, summer planting. Got even better yield than last year.
Raspberries	A	Picked several gallons over the weeks.
Spinach	D-	I still cannot grow spinach! Grew slowly, then bolted.
Squash, winter	C-	Got off to a bad start. Low production.
Sunflowers	A+	Grew "Mongolian Giant," which lived up to the name.
Tobacco	A	Grew 4 plants of the "Orinoco" variety. A very pretty plant with a "benefit."
Tomatoes	B+	8 determinate, 4 indeterminate. Initial yields good, but plants taken down by blight quickly.
Watermelons	C	Finally got larger fruit, but still undersized.
Zucchini	A	4 plants this year. Production good.

 

Harvest Monday - 2 November 2015

Welcome to another Harvest Monday update from Eight Gate Farm! As you probably know, Harvest Monday is hosted by Dave at Our Happy Acres, where gardeners worldwide show their harvests and harvest processing for the week. Thanks, Dave!

We cut the parsley in the Kitchen Herb Garden down to the ground, and here it is about to be dehydrated. We use a lot of parsley.

Next up is our Brussels sprouts. We started 12 plants; 11 made it to maturity. Having been through at least 3 frosts, we judged it was time.

The largest stalk was 30 inches. Setting aside four stalks to give away, The Kitchen Goddess cut off and froze 30 cups of sprouts.

Next, we took all six kale plants. They, too, profit from frosts, but really no need to wait.

TKG stemmed, chopped, blanched, and froze 28 cups from that.

Next, all the remaining leeks were pulled.

None are huge like you might see in a farmer's market, but they have a lot of nice white showing.

Brussels sprouts and leeks are the kind of crops that you plant in spring and just wait, with very little tending needed. Well, we do fuss over the sprouts a little bit. We snap off the lower leaves as the stalks grow, and in early September cut off the growing tips so the plant puts energy into sizing up the buds. It seems to work.

We also took the last of the chard. It yielded a couple of packages of chopped leaves.

We got invited to a BYOB Halloween bonfire. In our case, that means Bring Your Own Brussels sprouts. Here was our hostess gift. Gardeners are weird.

On Sunday we pressed some of the apples I showed you last week. Here's a little of the process in case you were wondering.

First you have to cut the apples (into eighths works best) and run them through the grinder.

Apple gook, pre-pressing.

Then you dump into the press and crank away.

Lovely luscious liquid.

Of course, it requires multiple trips to the compost pile.

Apple gook, post-pressing.

We processed four bushels, and got six and a half gallons of cider [right about now is where metric folks scratch their heads]. It's hard work, so we rested between each bushel. All told, it took about 4 and a half hours. Five gallons are getting fermented, and the rest we'll enjoy fresh. I'm not sure what we are going to do with the other four bushels of apples. I'm pretty sure they'll keep in the cool barn for awhile, so some will get used.

And now here's a parting shot of the fenced garden, with all beds sporting a blanket of chopped leaves, ready to be tilled in.

All harvests are now in, so there won't be much to show you in the coming months. It's been a great season. Thanks for reading, and I look forward to everyone's posts.