The tomatoes are winding down, sadly. Still tons of chard, green beans, cauliflower, a couple of cucumbers, leeks, onions and a whole squash patch. And the fall greens are coming up. The carrots not so much.
Early September
Category: Harvest
Late August
This morning, I spent an hour in the garden weeding and harvesting. My plan was to harvest the potatoes but alas, I got only a handful of small fingerlings. Most of the potatoes I had planted never became a plant and I suspect those pill bugs that are so abundant in my soil are responsible :(. This is the second year of no potatoes and I think I will not plant any next year. Very sad as I was looking forward to some roasted fingerlings.
I did however harvest some huge cucumbers, a bunch of tomatoes and my golden beets.
Some things to look forward to:
Garlic 2019
Today, I cleaned my cured garlic and braided some of the softnecks into a garlic braid. A few softneck heads were kind of softish and had brown areas and the cloves had separated. Those were not braided and I plan to use them up first (I have been using them since the harvest a few weeks ago).
Overall I harvested 16 heads of hardneck garlic and 18 heads of softnecks. Not bad but I was hoping for a few more. The braid now hangs in my pantry.
Bountiful August
This is what I came home to after ten days vacation (my community garden neighbors watered the plot and harvested some of the veggies). Slicing cucumbers, pickling cucumbers, tomatoes, chard, eggplant, jalapenos. The bouquet is dahlia, asparagus, lemon balm, mint. It smells divine. I also picked some parsley for the eggplant dish I have planned for tonight.
Garden Dinner
Forgot to post a quick weeknight dinner I made a few days ago. Pasta with roasted tomatoes, kale, chard and sausage. All veggies (tomatoes, garlic, kale, chard) are from the garden plot, the rosemary comes from my back porch.
Garlic Harvest
I harvested my garlic last night. I got a good amount of both softnecks (on the left) and hardnecks (on the right), about 40 heads total, I think. They are a good size, too.
I bundled them up and hung them to cure in our back hallway. I will gently shake the dirt off in a couple of days and cure them for longer, a total of about three weeks. I then will clean the remaining dirt off and store the hardnecks in the pantry and braid the softnecks. The softnecks keep longer, so those will be the last ones to be used.
Garlic Scape Pesto
A few days ago, I finally got around to make garlic scape pesto with my harvested scapes. As usual, I froze it in ice cube trays and then transferred the pesto cubes to freezer bags for later use. Yum!
Firsts and Lasts
Today’s harvest: first pickling cucumbers (they are big!), last peas, and Swiss chard. Also, the first real red currant harvest. I had planted a bush in our backyard in the fall two years ago. Last summer, the plant was tiny and we got only a handful of currants. This year, I harvested a good amount. Pictured are about two thirds, maybe.
Today’s Harvest
The peas are winding down, most of the stalks and leaves are yellowing now. I will pull them up in the next few days and plant pole beans in their space. I also harvested two garlic scapes I had forgotten earlier and some chard.