Catching Up

While the storm could have done more damage, I think I am at the end of the season of taking care of the garden. Most all the tomato plants are down from the wind. The pole beans are totally toppled over. I might still get some eggplant. The squash has produced it's last healthy squash. I need to spend time drying out the basement  and I go back to teaching this friday.

I have been canning when I can (no pun intended) but have a long way to go before I get to the perfection of some of my fellow bloggers. Just made a nice batch of green tomatillo salsa.

I've added to more butternuts to my harvest total making 8.

Got to Love the Variety

Another wonderful week of harvest. Still getting swiss chard which is pretty good given the warm temperatures. My first two butternut squashes weighing in at 3.5 lbs each. WOO-HOO

The Tomates in this batch can be seen in detail here.

The two first Brandywines

Carrots, cucs and basil .

 An heirloom, seeds compliment of Ana Vitlarica. 

She has not posted in a while and I miss those posts. 

This tomato is 5" in diameter and weighs about 20 oz.

Two more butternuts, zucchini squash 

and a few more tomatoes to add to the mix.

 The summer tomato salad. Everyone should have one.

See some other harvest at Daphne's for Harvest Monday.

Another Week

You can check out a few more harvests at Daphne's and Harvest Monday.

A Continuous Harvest Week

 

There was a lot of to harvest this week but the squash surly overwhelmed me. If you count, there are a total of 22 for this week alone. I did a lot of cooking with squash this week but enjoyed all of the produce. Peas are done and pulled.

  

My first carrot was pulled. It is a little ahead of the rest of them but a good 5" long. Juliet tomatoes are coming in and cucumbers. It is nice to still be getting greens. I have them planted in a more shady spot in the garden. Click on the smaller pictures to see them bigger. Check Daphne's for more Harvest

Squashed Out Already

These are the squash from today's harvest. Thank goodness for my neighbor who is happy to unload some from my hands.

Harvest Monday

The harvest has been slow but steady for the last two weeks, The order of everything seems a little backwards has I have been picking squash for three weeks and just started picking my peas 4 days ago.

Many things don't get photographed because I am a constant harvester. Every walk through the garden yields something in my hand.
Among the harvest: greens, basil, squash, cucumber, peas, turnips, beans, tomatoes and onions and an eggplant :).

 

Small Plant and Fritters

I have already harvested about 12 squash from the garden. The mix of Patty pan and striped zucchini have kept my kitchen busy with a variety of recipes. In this house, we do potato pancakes twice a year. The frying just gets to me and I am not fond of the lingering oil smell. But, I needed a savory dish that was a little different then the ones I was making and so Zucchini fritters it was. Not sure how many went into the dish but I used a combination of the two squash and had a nice meal with a garden salad on the side. No pictures of the plate. I never get to the camera in time. Wendy has some other recipes on the GTTC every Saturday.

On another squash front - I planted two butternut squash. These are really my favorite squash. Last year I only managed to get four squash from the two plants. I was hoping for more this year, especially after seeing Granny's post last year on how many she got. The plant was growing nicely and one day I noticed about 8 female squash flowers with 1" squash attached. No male flowers were going to open for at least a week and I had to try to pollinate with the pattypan and stripped zucchini. My efforts failed as you can see below. At this point I have 4 that are pollinated and four that have died. I see a few more on the plant that may develop so i am keeping my fingers crossed.

Lastly, I have a Tumbling Tom tomato that looks like a picture from one of those magazines that promises high yield. I bought this plant from the Master Gardeners and thought it would make a nice addition to the patio. This plant is only 12" tall and will not get bigger. Already producing ripened fruit while some of the other tomatoes barely have fruit set on them. We picked one today and split it 3 ways. Not a lot of taste to judge by. I am sure they will get sweeter as the summer goes on.

Harvest and GTTC

Not a lot to harvest this week.
Waiting on the peas. I pulled some turnips and greens. They were not doing so well and I could tell they were not going to get much bigger. The squash continue to come in. Check Daphne's Dandelions for more harvests.

I made an excellent dish of caramelized onions (not from the garden) radishes and patty pan squash sauteed in balsamic vinegar that were great as a warm dish. The next day, I used it as a topping on a green salad. My first Garden to Table Challenge hosted by Greenish Thumb. Take a look at some other great garden dishes. YUM.

The Squash have It.

While I have harvested a little here and there from the garden in the last few weeks, this is my first Harvest Monday post compliments of Daphne. Check some others out. I finally got an overhead shot of the garden.

I never seem to photograph my lettuce and that is probably because I cut and eat it. It is supposed to be better if it stays in the refrigerator over night so I am going to have to cut a day in advance. I have never tried head lettuce and might do that for the fall since my daughter likes it so much better than the mesclun mix. I pulled all the radishes. Half last week and the rest this morning. I realized that they were not getting bigger and the timing was not right for them this year - only dime size. So much smaller than last year when I got quarter size radishes.

This week, I also pulled a bunch of garlic. The stems fell over and they never gave me garlic scapes. I was so looking forward to getting some this year to make the pesto from Happy Acres. I still might get some scapes from the garlic I planted on the other side of the garden.

I guess the squash are the winners for the week. I was not sure when to pick the pattypan squash but it looked about the right time. I know it is hard to tell size but it was about 4" in diameter. Nicely followed by striped zucchini squash, compliments of Robin. I will try to pick these small. I think it is better for the plant and they taste better also. These three are about 8" long.