Things are winding down in the garden. I have only a few tomatoes still on the vines. Still growing are winter squash, chard, kale, and leeks. On the right side of the plot I have my recently sown radishes, fall greens, beets and carrots. Plus flowers everywhere.
Today, I harvested a ton of tomatoes. Sadly, many of them had split because of the recent heavy rains. I also started my fall sowing: one row of Golden beets, one row of Chioggia beets and one row of Scarlet Nantes carrots. Towards the end of the month, I will start fall greens.
Nice big harvest today. I keep forgetting to take pictures. I harvested a ton of Italian basil and made basil pesto (really just basil, olive oil and salt; no garlic, cheese or nuts), which I froze in ice cube trays. I like to leave out the garlic, cheese and the nuts to keep it more versatile, as I also use it on fish or roasted vegetables, where I might not always want cheese.
I harvested my first tomatoes! Stupice, a small-fruited tasty early Czech variety. As in previous years, I staggered my tomatoes and planted early, mid-season and late tomatoes, hoping to ensure a steady tomato harvest from July through November. This year, I planted 8 varieties (11 plants total). Early varieties: Stupice, Ailsa Craig (2 plants) ; Mid-season varieties: Brimmer, Striped German (2), Black Prince; Late varieties: Green Zebra, De Wiese Streaked (a shipping mistake, I had ordered Dr. Wyche’s Yellow, one of my favorite tomatoes), Ananas Noire (2). The tomato seeds were from Sand Hill Preservation Center (Stupice, Ailsa Craig, Brimmer, Black Prince, De Wiese Streaked), Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds (Green Zebra, Ananas Noire) and Johnnys (Striped German).
Over the past couple of weeks, I have been harvesting a lot of zucchini, kale, herbs and flowers. I even donated two zucchini to our new donation basket, which we attached outside the garden gate. Today, I harvested the first two cucumbers, which I intend to pickle. My tomatoes are all still green, and sadly, the bunnies keep eating the baby winter squash :(. The basil is thriving, I might make the first batches of pesto very soon. Everything is doing well, we have had a long heat wave and a few crazy thunderstorms, so the gardens are lush.
