Sunday, November 15, 2009

This Week's Harvest

meyer lemon harvest 2
YES! I bit the bullet this weekend and harvested 3 of my Meyer lemons. These are destined to become marmalade (which I will get into in another post). I am very pleased with how my little tree has performed thus far. I now have about a dozen tiny new lemons from flowers that bloomed a couple of weeks ago. Though I'm expecting at least half of them to fall off the tree in the coming weeks, I'm hoping that some will make it through the winter and continue to grow.

meyer lemon
Just to give you a sense of how big these lemons are, this particular lemon was 4 inches tall. Collectively, these 3 lemons weighed 1.7 pounds. That's quite a feat for a small tree to accomplish. The remaining 6 lemons that I'm expecting to harvest this year are slightly smaller than these 3. I think they will be ready in a couple of weeks.

tatsoi, lettuce, pea pods
On the veggie front, I harvested all of my tatsoi, some young pea pods, and more lettuce mix.

tatsoi
I'm beginning to realize that in order for me to have a successful garden this time of year, I have to have a strategy in place to deal with slugs, which seem to be the only major pest in the garden right now. It's amazing how they can seem like a minor annoyance one day and then become a major problem a week later. I must have lost about 40 percent of my tatsoi harvest to these buggers. They are doing a number on my Red Russian kale and spinach as well. They don't seem to be bothering the lettuce. I will have to make a trip to the garden center to pick up some Sluggo.

I played it safe and harvested all of my crop of tatsoi. While cleaning them in my kitchen sink, I found 6 or so slugs clinging to the leaves as I was cleaning them in my kitchen sink. I will admit it was gratifying to run them through my garbage disposal. :)

fall carrot
Finally, my fall carrots (Nantes) are finally starting to fatten up. I'm guessing that they will ready to harvest in a week or two. I had sown these carrots in early August. It has taken much longer than I had expected for them to reach this size. However, I am very pleased that they have made it to this point, are showing no signs of pest damage and are tasting pretty good. Hopefully, they will really sweeten up as they mature and we get a few more frosts.

If you'd like to see what others are harvesting or would like to join in on the fun, visit Harvest Mondays at Daphne's Dandelions.

12 comments:

  1. Oh, Thomas..the lemons are beautiful! I can't believe how big they are! Can you tell I have lemon envy?

    Good luck eradicating the slugs. I find a morbid joy in putting them down the disposal, too.

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  2. Wow, those lemons are just gorgeous !
    It is amazing how fast slugs go to work on a crop, but can you blame them ? just look at those greens... Yum ! That carrot doesn't look too shabby either. Your Fall garden is really doing wonderful, Thomas. Well done !

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  3. Gran - I also enjoyed cutting a couple of them in half with my kitchen shears...I'm going to hell!

    Miss M - Thanks! I'm been really neglecting the garden lately though. Sometimes I look at it and think, there's still so much left to do before next year. I have to remind myself that garden is as much about the process as it is about the end result.

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  4. The lemons are picture perfect. I want some lemonade now!

    Everything looks great! Good luck with the snails. They are little buggers.

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  5. Slugs are always an issue in my garden. They just love it there. I ought to try sluggo too. Iron phosphate is a pretty good directed slug poison. I keep telling myself I'll try it but never do. Maybe next year I'll try that and bran and see which works better for me.

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  6. hi Thomas, my family has always hunted so yes, I have dressed a deer and have seen it done many times. Venison is delicious and good for ya but it is a bit strange tasting. Not for everyone.

    Thanks for visiting my blog. Love your blog. It's wonderful.

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  7. Your lemons rival any Meyer grown here in sunny CA! I just read your earlier post about growing them indoors - I'm amazed. And your greens are equally beautiful. I have more problems with snails than slugs and sluggo is very effective at reducing their numbers. The other alternative is to toss the snails out on the pavement to smash them, it makes a gruesomely satisfying sound.

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  8. That is one productive lemon tree you have. I have grown a pink lemon in a pot for a few years, it has only ever produced one fruit.

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  9. Those lemons are gorgeous, too pretty to eat!

    Ewe, slugs in the disposal - GROSS! I have not checked my carrots in a while, now you have me curious, everything looks great! What an experienced 'new' gardener you are Thomas, I can only imagine what you will have growing in a couple of years!

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  10. Thomas...what breathtaking photographs...just beautiful..and I love that you are going to make marmalade...keep me posted on that..

    and YES ! I am so happy to hear that you will be cooking for the leftovers.....perfect!

    more later,
    Kary

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  11. ROTFL! You ran the slugs through the garbage disposal??? Oh, that's funny. Wheeze, gasp. Thank you.

    I can practically smell your lemons,and have actually been thinking about your marmalade (is that normal?)...

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  12. Beautiful Lemons and Tatsoi!

    I'm fighting the slugs right now in my cold frame. Or I should be fighting them but there just isn't enough daylight to get out and do much about it.

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