Here's another Harvest Monday update from Eight Gate Farm. We are still in a drought, which means the chore of watering has gotten burdensome. I never set up the automatic drip irrigation system this year, which I'm regretting now.
We had a number of first harvests this week. We harvested the entire crop of Red Norland potatoes. It was disappointing, about a third of what we got last year. The plants started out strong, but weakened as we got into summer. Weak plants equals small harvests. At the same time we picked the first Fortex pole beans, which I planted adjacent to the potato rows. These also were a disappointment; this time because rabbits ate the plants, and they are only starting to recover.
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| Red Norland potatoes and Fortex beans |
We also picked the first cauliflower. This is Flame Star F1, that does not need to be blanched.
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| Flame Star cauliflower |
We got the first "saladette" tomatoes, i.e. bigger than cherry, but not as big as slicers. Here is Juliet. While I'm not entirely impressed with the flavor, its productivity and disease resistance keeps me growing it.
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| Juliet |
Also the first Early Treat tomatoes.
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| Early Treat |
And also the first Gardener's Delight tomatoes.
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| Gardener's Delight |
We also picked the first wax beans. Here is "Carson" on the left, with more pickings of Calima filet beans.
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| Left: Carson, right: Calima |
But the best was the first harvest of sweet corn. This is Illusion, a white-kernel synergistic hybrid. The flavor is outstanding! The local farm stand is now selling its sweet corn for
$1.25 per ear. I can remember paying $2 per dozen, but that was a long time ago!
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| Illusion |
For a sampling of continuing harvests, here's the last of the Imperial broccoli heads, shown with another Flame Star cauliflower.
More shishito peppers:
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| Mellow Star |
More "Yaya" carrots:
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| Yaya |
More artichokes, 10 or so this week. These were the nicest looking.
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| Tavor artichokes |
A few weeks ago we pulled all the garlic. They are now cleaned up and put into storage. From left, there is Katterman, Persian Star, German White, and Vietnamese Red. None are very large, but we should have enough to carry us through until next year's harvest.
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| Garlic ready for storage |
Lastly, I've been regrowing the same turmeric plant for several years. In the fall I dump out the pot it's in, take the roots I want, and leave a few root pieces to regrow. This week I was surprised to see it gave us a gift, something that had never happened before.
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| Turmeric flower |
That's it for this week. Thanks for reading, and thanks as always to Dave at
HappyAcres.blog for hosting Harvest Monday.
I agree with you on the Juliet flavor. I tend to use fresh for things like salsa where other ingredients bump up the taste. I've never seen turmeric bloom! I have some planted in the ground, I guess I need to try one in a pot too. Too bad about the drought, maybe the TS Isaiah will give you some rain. We've had over 5 inches the last week, I would gladly send some of that your way!
ReplyDeleteYes, the storm is headed our way. As of right now, we don't know if it will be rain, wind, or a combination of both. Or maybe nothing at all.
DeleteWow - that is awesome about the turmeric! I have to add that to my list. It has been a very dry, hot summer here too - drip irrigation was definitely worth the effort to hook up this year.
ReplyDeleteYou know it is summer when you harvest the corn. Yours looks wonderful. I should try tumeric in a container.
ReplyDeleteYou're getting such an amazing array of food from your garden. I grew Gardener's Delight for the first time this year, but found it oddly tart. What did you think of it?
ReplyDeleteThat’s a wild price for corn! Here (in rural Wisconsin) a local farm just posted their sweet corn is ready at the farm stand for $4 a dozen.
ReplyDelete