Gees...I don't think I've ever gone a week without posting something. It wasn't really planned. I guess subconsciously, I must have really needed the break. Hopefully you all haven't forgotten about me!
I know that the official end of summer isn't for another three weeks, but from the looks of this harvest, it might as well be now. The tomato glut of summer is officially over. Sure the cherry tomatoes are still producing respectfully, but the slicers on the other hand are taking a hiatus at the moment. I think we'll still get a couple each week, but nothing like we used to.
This may be the last pile of slicing tomatoes for the summer.
I used some of these cherry tomatoes and peppers to makes salsa. The white ones you see are called 'Dr. Carolyn.' I would describe their taste as being very mild and sweet.
Due to heavy rains that came early last week, I lost a lot of my cherry tomatoes to splitting. Still, we ended up with a considerable harvest.
I picked a couple of Rosa Bianca eggplants this week. The honey dew and Charantais melons in this picture are pretty sad. Cucumber beetles have been a real problem for me this year. Left unchecked, they've destroyed my melons and cukes prematurely. Next year will be a different story.
Finally - a sure sign that fall is fast upon us, I picked some lettuce today, which along with some Thai basil ended up in a salad. It's also a sign that the heavier veggies of summer will soon be replaced by the feather-weight greens of fall. I'm close to reaching my goal of producing 500 lbs of food for the year. Hopefully the weekly totals won't drop off too steeply!
This week's numbers:
Cukes (2) - 0.95 lb (The last of the summer.)
Eggplant - 1.50 lb
Melons - 4.06 lb
Tomatoes - 22.68 lb
Peppers - 0.89 lb
Tomatilloes - 2.02 lb
Lettuce - 0.22 lb
Total harvested this week - 32.32 lb
To see what others are harvesting or show off your own, visit Harvest Mondays at Daphne's Dandelions.
I love that you weigh your harvest and that your lettuce harvest is point 22 of a pound for this week))) It's a lightweight for sure...
ReplyDeleteTotal harvest almost five hundred pounds..remarkable...!!
Man...the cherry toms just keep on producing! I bet you've harvested 1,000 already...ha.
ReplyDeleteOf all the cherry tomatoes you grew this year - which was your favorite for overall taste, production, health/vigor of the plants? I have gotten out of the habit of growing cherry tomatoes, but I think I want to add one to the mix next year and since you grew several varieties I thought you might have some good input on varieties to contribute. Was Sungold one of the varieties you grew?
ReplyDeleteBeautiful harvests Thomas and glad you are back posting.
I love the last photo. The fresh greens framed by the colorful garden in the distance. So sweet!
ReplyDeleteCherry tomatoes make very good salads and salsas and keep producing until the temperatures are pretty cold, so it's great that yours are still going strong. You had an amazing tomato harvest this year, congratulations!
You will definitely reach the 500 lb goal. If you continue to weigh only tomatoes, you will reach it.
ReplyDeleteYou have a great timing for transition from summer to fall gardening. I think that I could have a period without any harvests, as I didn't start my fall and winter crops on time.
I am struck by how different the harvest times are in different areas. I'm in Denver, and just harvested the first tomatoes this week! I thought it was just that I planted a bit late, but my neighbors have all had the same experience this year.
ReplyDeleteIt's very odd... I'm guessing maybe it has to do with the extremely dry weather... barely a drop in my neighborhood for the past 6 weeks.
The peppers are just finally showing a few buds of fruit... I'm not sure there will be time to harvest them before we get the first freeze.
BUT... I'm up to my elbows in ripe pumpkins already... in August?!?!
A very strange year indeed...
Forget about you? I don't think so! I just assumed you had drowned in tomatoes, and from the looks of things you have! Cuke beetles here too, and squash bugs... some years are worse than others and I think this was a particularly bad one. Yay for seeing lettuce again, I hope to soon...
ReplyDeleteI love pictures of tomatoes, and you've got some nice ones today. A pretty darned respectable tomato haul this week, even if it is slowing down.
ReplyDeleteKitsapFG - Yes I grew sungold this year and it was by far the most productive of the cherries. Great disease resistance as well. Black cherry had wonderful deep flavor. And Isis candy was also productive and tasty. If I had to pick one to grow, the obvious choice would be sungold.
ReplyDeleteRebecca - strange indeed! To be fair, I think this was an abnormally good year for tomatoes here in New England. We were off to an early start this Spring and it just has been consistently dry and warm here this summer...all definite pluses.
ReplyDeleteWow, lettuce already!
ReplyDeleteAbout the cucumber beetles...have you looked in to how to control them? We had a big problem with them this year as well (and stink bugs) but spraying with pyrethrin made the leaves of the cucs, squash, and melons unhappy as well (all are somewhat sensitive to spraying). I did quite a bit of hand squashing (especially of stink bugs since they're easier to catch) but cucumber beetles proved to be difficult.
foodgardenkitchen - I looked into pyrethrin too but don't know how I feel about it. Thanks for the heads up. I think I'm gonna try the yellow sticky traps next year and see if that helps.
ReplyDeleteI"ll be sorry to see your tomato harvests go, they have been a joy to see, especially since mine have been so small this year. I never knew that cucumber beetles could be so destructive, they are rarely such a big problem here.
ReplyDeleteHi Thomas - have you kept a garden diary to see how much time you've spent in the garden?
ReplyDeleteI also thought you'd been crushed by tomatoes :-)
The black cherries on my tiny roof farm have been my favourites, too...
AND I found 3 cucumber beetles!
Your blog continues to be a joy.
Don't feel bad about the blogging, it's hard for me to find time in summer too!
ReplyDeleteI'll bet that salsa was beautiful with that rainbow of cherry tomatoes.
Nice harvest! The tomatoes are beautiful!
ReplyDeleteWow! You are so lucky to have such a great tomato harvest this year. Laura (KitsapFG) and I have been really struggling here in the Pacific Northwest.
ReplyDeleteI also give the Sungolds two thumbs up for the cherry tomato category.
Hey Marie, no I haven't been keeping a gardening journal to account for time in the garden. I'm afraid it might be used against me one day by my spouse. Apparently, gardening time counts as "personal" time when you have a 3 year old.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful harvest as usual. I find that just when I have a lot to blog about, I'm too busy to actually blog. We'll still be here regardless.
ReplyDeleteThat is alot of cherry tomatoes still. The salsa sounds like a really good use for them.
ReplyDeleteI love seeing all those mix color tomatoes in baskets, they are so pretty.
ReplyDeleteI have my share of cucumber beetles this year, they not only attach the melons, they attack the beans also which they did not do in previous years.
Your cherry tomatoes are gorgeous! What a nice harvest!
ReplyDeleteI've always had a cucumber beetle or two in the garden, but I've never had anything die because of them. I do try to catch them early in the season though they are hard to catch.
ReplyDeleteYou have some beautiful photographs of your harvest. They're making me hungry. :)
ReplyDeleteI've had a problem with cucumber beetles on my sunflowers and green beans. I have seen a few on my watermelon plants, but they don't do anything to them as far as I can tell. My watermelons are probably the healthiest looking plants in my garden, but every time I go out there, there are 10 or more cucumber beetles hanging out on the leaves waiting to be squished. It confuses me to no end, but I don't mind too much.
beautiful harvest! Our tomatoes are slowing down a bit too, but peppers are picking up and making up for it. I'm still totally overwhelmed.
ReplyDeleteForget you, with all your stunning pictures of your impressive vegetables? Not a chance! I show your harvest photos to Keith every week to inspire him so that he will think that all our first year effort in the garden will eventually (hopefully) end up in beautiful garden harvests like yours. It's even more impressive that you do all this with a three-year old in the house! Does he like tomatoes? :-)
ReplyDeleteHi! I am loving all of these tomato photos...so gorgeous! And definitely an inspiration to grow more colorful tomatoes next year. My cucumbers and squash are getting that powdery mildew stuff on the leaves...one of the plants has died from it. And honestly...it was not a good year for that family this year, anyway. Not sure why? My tomatoes did well. And the peppers did OK. But all in all...not a great year for my garden. Weird weather was a part of it...and maybe too much shade from our gargantuan pecan tree that is on my nerves...let's hope for better in 2011! (Did I just say 2011?)
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