Monday, September 5, 2011

Labor Day Harvest

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It's only fitting that I should celebrate this Labor day weekend by doing absolutely no gardening work. It 's not by choice of course. The mosquitoes are merciless right now, attacking in threes and fours and even during the mid-day hours. I'm already looking forward to the second fall frost (which takes care of the mosquitoes that aren't killed by the first fall frost).

I don't know what I'm gonna do with all of this opo. There are about a foot long and weigh around three pounds each. If I had Asian neighbors, I'd gladly share as opo does not have a very long shelf life.

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The slicing tomatoes have slowed down but the paste tomatoes are still going strong. We've met our tomato needs for the year so I'll have to find a home for these.

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I picked the last two acorn squash and two more watermelons this week.

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The Yellow Sunshine watermelon was picked about a week too early. I have one left in the garden. Hopefully I can get it perfect with the last one.

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The last Blacktail Mountain watermelon was the best. If I had waited any longer, it would been overripe.

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Our small patch of fall raspberries are producing well in the second year despite the fact that half of the canes had succumb to the raspberry cane borer. We are getting a little bowl full each day.

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Finally, we also harvested a few fun things this week including some sunflower seeds...

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...and some decorative Indian corn. I wonder if they can pop them.

17 comments:

  1. I knew that you would have enough tomatoes for the year with the amount of plants you put in...and you were worried!

    I don't know anything about opo. But, maybe you can find a recipe that you can make up and freeze for later.

    I don't know if you can pop decorative indian corn. I guess it wouldn't hurt to try.

    Have a relaxing Labor Day!

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  2. I only know how to cook opo in soups and stir-fry. Your watermelon look very juicy and sweet. Beautiful harvest.

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  3. Your harvests are always so attractive. I'll bet you could pop the corn.

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  4. Great harvest!!! So colorful! I really need some more color in the garden! Oh well...there's always next year ;-) What do you do with your sunflower seeds? Do you roast them?

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  5. Your post is a classic picture of the late summer garden transitioning into the beautiful fall harvests. That colorful corn is eye candy - so pretty. Wish you lived closer as I would be thrilled to get some tomatoes to add to my harvests so I could have enough to do something with them canning wise. (sigh)

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  6. Ditto on the Opo, I only have recipes that use it in soups and stir-fries. How do you use your Opo? Great harvest!

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  7. Beautiful harvest, particularly the tomatoes and melons. As far as opo, we have 3 Chinese gardeners in our community garden who grow all sorts of weird stuff, but never opo. Apparently you treat it like zucchini an long as you pick it young.

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  8. Those melons turned out great this year!

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  9. What a beautiful harvest! If the opo doesn't freeze or can well, perhaps you can check to see if there's a food bank in a more heavily Asian part of town and donate them.
    Just a thought...

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  10. I've never heard of opo, but it looks great. Surely there's a way to keep it. I wish we had our tomato quota for the year. You're welcome to share your left overs with us. We picked one of our watermelons to soon last week. I should have known it was to young. We planted the plant later than the rest. Well at least you were able to enjoy it and you still have a couple left in the garden. It sounds like they were a big success.

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  11. I'm not sure if they accept fresh food, but you could consider Cor Unum, a food charity kitchen in South Lawrence (by St. Pat's). Worth a call to see.

    http://www.corunummealcenter.org/index.html

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  12. Very nice and varied harvest, can't help you with opo, I do soups and stir fry.
    Those Indian corn are beautiful, love the colors.

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  13. Nice harvest! Where do you get opo seeds? I'd love to grow them next year!

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  14. Pretty harvest. The opo look great. Does it freeze? Can you use it in things like zucchini bread?

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  15. Hi Thomas, what variety of fall bearing raspberries do you have?
    I have Caroline and Autumn Bitten, and so far so good.

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  16. what a juicy fruits!!! just look at this melon or corn - it's absolutely incredible!!

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