Harvest Monday - 19 August 2019

Hello again from Eight Gate Farm. This week I spent an unpleasant hour in the hot sun, on my hands and knees, picking the lower pods from our pinto bean plants. Being mostly dry, they completed the drying process indoors in a few days, yielding this:

Pinto beans

The remaining pods should be a pleasure to pick, as I'll pull up the plants and strip them, from a nice comfortable standing position!

We harvested all the Kennebec potatoes, weighing in at about 28 pounds. This was fun!

Kennebec potatoes

And the first of the Stuttgarter onions. Also fun! These were grown from sets; the ones I started from seed are not ready yet.

Stuttgarter onions

Both potatoes and onions are now drying on screens in the garage.

We had first pickings of several tomatoes. This is Pink Brandywine, to many people the gold standard of heirloom tomatoes. We agree.

Pink Brandywine

This is Celebrity, an AAS Winner in years past. I picked up the plant on an impulse at a big box store. I had the space for it, and figured for a buck-fifty I couldn't go wrong. It is very tasty, on the sweet side. If the plant is productive and hardy it might earn a spot next year.

Celebrity

Two more first pickings, Rutgers and Stellar. I've been growing them here for several years. They are both determinates, as is Celebrity above.

Stellar

Rutgers

You've probably noticed that many of our tomatoes have blemishes. This is supposed to be due to inconsistent watering, but they are on timed drip irrigation, so I think the general weather is responsible.

Here's a sampling of our continuing harvests.

From top: Green Globe artichoke, Cocozelle di Napoli zucchini, Yaya carrots, Diva cucumber, Dar cucumber.

Top: Anaheim peppers. Middle: Mitoyo eggplant (1), Midnight Queen (2), Nadia (2). Bottom: Ping Tung

Top: Calima filet beans, blueberries. Middle: Juliet tomatoes, Yellowfin zucchini, Diva and Dar cucumbers. Bottom: Early Jalapenos.

We've let a dozen or so turnips get big. Here is The Kitchen Goddess holding one. At this stage, they won't by any means be good for salads, but will do nicely for boiling and mashing.

White Egg turnip

And our weekly ration of Shishito peppers.

From her community garden plot, TKG brought home this:

I still think the tiny Cucamelons (at the top) are funny. But they do taste good. I think this is the same thing as Mouse Melons or Mexican Sour Gherkins.

I close with a picture of a row of Sun Spot Dwarf Cola sunflowers, which came into bloom this week. They are supposed to be only 2 - 3 feet tall, but mine are more like 3 - 4 feet. The foliage forms a nice skirt. We'd like to plant a hedge of them next year somewhere.

Thank you very much for reading. Please make sure to check out all the posts on Harvest Monday, hosted by Dave at HappyAcres.blog.