Trouble Thursday - 9 August 2018

I've been thinking that I should keep my Harvest Monday posts limited to successes, or near-successes. But I think it's useful for us gardeners to share failures or near-failures too. So I will occasionally post articles like this. Might not always be Thursday (maybe "Woe Wednesday").

First up is my crop of Painted Mountain flour corn. I had such high hopes for this beautiful corn! And it grew so well. But the squirrels found it.

Once I figured it out, I've begun to reduce the squirrel population, but I can't do 24-hour vigilance. So more and more ears are disappearing. They also pull down the stalks in their efforts. The best I'll get is a salvage operation.

These were shucked, and are drying in the sunroom. Some were very immature.

Next up is a visit from the Squash Vine Borer. I went out one morning and found the Yellowfin zucchini had collapsed overnight. Here's the culprit.

Squash Vine Borer caterpillar

And here's the plant. It is trying to regrow after removing the parasites (there actually were two), but not successfully so far.

I pulled another one out of a pumpkin plant. Vining squashes have a better chance of recovery, since they root along the vine. We'll see.

Last, here's what greeted me when I went to look at a volunteer tomato plant that sprung up in the bean patch.

Tomato hornworm caterpillar

There actually were three of them.

They met their fate with a high-altitude brick.

I guess I shouldn't care, since it was only an unplanned volunteer. But I was looking forward to figuring out what kind of tomato it was. The big ugly buggers ate everything, even the fruit. I'm sure the plant won't recover from that.

Okay, that's the bulk of the woes for this week. Thanks for reading!

Harvest Monday - 6 August 2018

Hello again from Eight Gate Farm. We had a number of "first harvests" this week.

The first red slicing tomatoes.

Oregon Spring

I was curious about this variety, "Oregon Spring." It is an open-pollinated type, described by Fedco as a "hedge" tomato for cold summers when others have trouble ripening. It was said to not mind cold springs either, and could be set out extra-early, as long as it was protected from frost. So indeed, I planted them outdoors on May 14, ten days before the others. It grew well. It wasn't our first slicer to ripen, but still came in ahead of the rest. What I was not prepared for is the taste...it is outstanding! A nice mix of sweet and acid, very juicy, with no noticeable seeds. It actually is not supposed to do that well in hot and humid summers, as it develops blemishes. Well, since summer got going it has been just that, and yes, there are blemishes. The only thing I can criticize about it is the skins are somewhat tough, maybe due to the weather. I will grow this again for sure.

Then we got the first sauce tomatoes, "Amish Paste."

Amish Paste

While we are grateful, what do you do with just two sauce tomatoes?

Over in the green fruit division, we got our first "Diva" cucumbers, which are always such a treat.

Diva

And the first "Anaheim" peppers.

Anaheim

We love chiles rellenos. For years I've tried to grow the NuMex variety "Big Jim" for this purpose. I reached the conclusion that our climate does not support it. But trying Anaheim for the first time last year, we got tons of 7", mildly-spicy peppers that are perfect for rellenos.

Now a sampling of continuing harvests:

Yellowfin zucchini

Danvers Half-long

Various broccoli heads and side-shoots

Mixed medley of goodness

Same as above. Look! Another Amish Paste. Still enough though.

And from the community garden plot of The Kitchen Goddess and her mom:

The big tomatoes are Prudens Purple. We will be sampling one soon...high hopes!

On a sultry evening we were reminded of the Florida Keys, so TKG made Key West Conch Chowder! OK, with clams, not conch. Nearly everything else came from us, including the fish stock made from our big catch last month and frozen. To make it perfect, as we dined on the screened porch we were treated to a tropical downpour. Lovely!

Key West "Conch" Chowder with tomato/cucumber/fresh mozzarella salad

Thanks for reading! I'm looking forward to reading others' posts at Harvest Monday. Thanks to Dave for hosting it.

Harvest Monday - 30 July 2018

It's finally summer here...from a harvest perspective that is.

The first "Taxi" tomato - a non-acidic variety but very flavorable.

The first "Sugar Plum" grape tomatoes.

The first shishito peppers, always a cause for celebration here.

Mellow Star

The first cucumbers. I'm trialing a different one this year. It's called "Dar," which I bought at the Baker Creek store last fall. It's short-vined, and is described as a "new Polish variety." I was waiting for them to get longer, but they got fat instead. Maybe because they were picked too late, the skin was a little tough, but peeled and sliced, they have an unusual, savory flavor. We liked them a lot. Though they are said to be a pickler/slicer, I think they are too juicy for pickling.

Dar cucumber

The first yellow zucchini. I think its odd shape is due to not being fully pollinated.

Yellowfin zucchini

The first yellow wax beans.

Carson wax beans

The Kitchen Goddess could not be restrained from poking around in the potato bed, so these got dug up. "Kennebec" is the only variety I've grown, and we think it has superior flavor, but maybe we're only comparing it to store-bought.

new Kennebec potatoes; one with googly-eyes

This is the entire harvest of Red Tropea onions. I had to do it because voles once again raided this bed, destroying all but this. Grrr!

Rossa Lunga di Tropea, except one's not rossa! Bet it tastes the same though.

The first Arcadia broccoli.

For a sampling of continuing harvests, here's a picking of filet beans. I got one more harvest like this, then pulled the plants. Instead of waiting for their second flush, which is usually disappointing, I'm replanting instead. But I'm not sure there will be enough time in the season. We'll see!

Calima filet beans

Raspberries and blueberries are giving us small pickings at a time, but it's amazing how it adds up.

And another pair of lovely artichokes.

Imperial Star

Here's last week's garlic harvest, all cleaned up. On the left is "Italian Purple Striped." It was very disappointing, as only 3 of the 6 came up, and those are ugly. It will not make the cut this fall. Too many others to choose from! Then it's Turkish Red, Katterman, Music, and the softneck Marengo.

Lastly, some stuff from the community garden plot shared by TKG and her mom. Cucumbers, purple potatoes, carrots, fennel, kale, a leek, beets, and celery.

And three more "Fourth of July" tomatoes that I still have not tried!!

Thanks for wading through this! I hope your summer's going well, and giving you lots of nice harvests. I look forward to reading about them, courtesy of Our Happy Acres and Harvest Monday.

Harvest Monday - 23 July 2018

Hello again from Eight Gate Farm. Once again foregoing the weather summary, I'll get right to the harvests, starting with the "first harvests of the season."

The big fun was pulling all the hardneck garlic.

Once these are fully dried and cleaned up, I'll post the varieties and how they did. But it looks like Katterman won again in the size department.

Katterman hardneck garliic

We got the first, beautifully ripe raspberries.

And the first bush beans.

Calima beans

These are a filet variety called Calima that I've been growing for several years. I'm really sold on the taste and productivity. We got a second, even larger harvest later in the week.

And the first beets. This example is probably one of the largest I've grown.

Boltardy beet

First harvests also came from the community garden plot. Here we have red and golden beets, a cucumber, fennel bulbs, and a couple of new purple potatoes. Not shown are three "Fourth of July" ripe tomatoes. Maybe one day I'll get a chance to taste them. If they are good, their earliness may give them a place in the home garden.

For continuing harvests, we got carrots.

Turnips.

Purple Top White Globe and White Egg turnips

And a picking of true lettuce from the mixes I planted in spring. This looks to be some sort of green looseleaf, and red romaine. At this stage of the year, all lettuce gets taste-tested for bitterness. These of course passed, but some was rejected (blech!).

The Kitchen Goddess whipped up a homemade Caesar dressing (sans anchovies, which is fine with me), and even did homemade croutons. The whole thing was delicious.

That's all for this week. Thanks for reading! And thanks once again to Dave at Our Happy Acres for hosting Harvest Monday.

Harvest Monday - 16 July 2018

Greetings from Eight Gate Farm! For once I'll get right to some of the harvests of this week.

First up is a time we celebrate here, the first artichokes!

Imperial Star artichokes

I grew softneck garlic for the first time this year. I'd say that nearly everyone in the Northeast grows hardnecks exclusively, so I broke with convention a little bit. The result looks satisfactory.

Marengo softneck garlic

Hardnecks are preferred because they are more cold-hardy, spicier, and produce useful scapes. Softnecks' attraction is they keep longer and can be braided. Well, we've never had a problem keeping harnecks for many months, right into the next year's harvest. So once the above has cured, I'll taste-test them and see if it's worth planting again this fall. By the way, what are those weird ovary things above the bulbs?

Another first harvest was a head of Fiesta broccoli.

Fiesta

For continuing harvests, a sample is the last of the soup peas.

Alaska and Blue Podded peas for drying

And the last of the snow and snap peas.

L: Super Sugar Snap, R: Blizzard and Mammoth Melting Sugar

Some carrots as needed:

Scarlet Nantes carrots

Blueberries:

And more bolting onions for fresh use.

Lastly, I can't resist showing off a bit with a "harvest" from the sea. We took a day off from gardening on Sunday and went striped bass fishing off the coast of Newburyport, Massachusetts (just 45 minutes from here). It was a great day! "Stripers" are an amazing fish to catch, and eat! To be legally harvested they have to be 28" in length, and these range from that to over 30".

Striped bass

Shared with our son (who caught the most!), we have lots of filets, and The Kitchen Goddess even made a soup base with the "frames" (head and backbones). Nothing goes to waste!

That's all for this week. Thanks for reading, and thanks as always to Dave at Our Happy Acres for hosting Harvest Monday.