Cherry tomatoes were not on the list this year to plant. Yes, they are good, but I did not want to plant them. Well, they planted themselves. Several volunteers came up, so it was decided to keep the best ones. Every day or so yields another few handfuls. Eaten raw, on salads, or in several cooked dishes (such as penne pasta with cherry tomatoes) they will disappear fast.
Doug
13 Aug 2008: The first zucchini was harvested yesterday. Here we go. Zucchini are big producers and I expect to have a plethora of them in a week or so.
The green beans harvested were enough to make a small potful but bugs are getting to the leaves so I don’t expect to get much more (though there are a lot of flowers on the bean plants).
I harvested a bucketful of Yukon Gold potatoes mixed with a few Red Pontiacs. Naturally, I made a batch of herb-roasted potatoes to compliment kick-butt pork chops.
Green peppers are starting to come in. I’m going to let a few hang until they turn orange or red as they are sweeter and tastier. The jalapenos are looking good and I’ll try one in a few days.
The first Roma tomato was used on dougthecook pizza last night. Also picked a few Big Boy tomatoes.
Doug
July 14, 2008 - I picked two big potfuls of green beans. We boiled up a bunch and they were delicious! There were plenty of small beans in progress and flowers signifying new ones. Bugs have eaten holes in many of the leaves. I may put sevin dust on them but prefer not to. Last year we had four pickings of beans, each one generating less.
Our variation on the classic green bean casserole is the next recipe for beans.
Doug
Whoa. The strawberry plants are overflowing! We picked a bushel of strawberries last night - then stuffed ourselves with strawberry shortcake. Fresh strawberries are softer and tastier than store-bought. In a few days there will be a *lot* more. I hope the sweet corn crop is this good.
Doug
My wife has been waiting forever for cherry tomatoes. Finally harvest time is here. I have been out several times to the single plant we have and brought back several dozen cherry tomatoes each trip.
The cherry tomato plant has branched out and is about 6 feet across - at least that was today. It has been fertilized with 12-12-12 when the fruit began to appear. We have had several rains of around an inch so the plant has got deep root watering.
I had to hand water it a few times earlier. Before watering, I break up the soil crust with a hoe, watching that I do not go too deep. The idea is to get the soil loose enough so the water soaks in rather than runs off. It is a good idea to break the soil crust every few days just in case it rains but also important is to let air in.
DtG Doug the Gardener
Just a quick note that we have our first batch of corn a few days ago. Though the corn stalks were shorter than usual and in varying heights the corn tasted pretty good. A downpour of 3 1/2 inches of rain, most in a 2 hour span, bent many of the corn stalks. Since corn has a shallow root system this did not surprise me.
BTW, I cooked it the old fashioned way: by boiling. Get the water to a rapid boil, toss the cleaned corn into the water, when it starts boiling again it will be done in 4 1/2 minutes.
Doug
Watch out neighbors - my zucchini plants are producing.
This year, 2007, I planted two zucchini plants from seed. Wow. They are huge and have a lot of blooms on them. Other farmers in the area proclaim their zucchini is prodigious in production. Dona had one on her salad last night and said the taste was phenomenal…for zucchini.
One of my favorite recipes using zucchini is minestrone soup. I make this every year when the zucchini comes in from the garden.
Another favorite is zucchini bread. This one always goes over great. You can make it with frozen zucchini without sacrificing much taste.
doug
Yesterday the spinach planted on April 6 was ready to eat! The spinach is Baby’s Leaf Hybrid which, according to Dona, is delicious. Much better than store-bought…and no pesticides or other chemicals. Since spinach thrives in cool weather I will plant another batch in late summer and hope a freeze does not occur in the next 30 days (the planting-to-eating time lapse). So the package was right - 34 days in this case.
To harvest we nipped the leaf by hand near the base of the plant. Do not pull or else you may end up with the entire plant! Fortunately all the leaves are various sizes so spinach will be on the table for the next few weeks. It has been dry so the spinach gets watered every few days.
I hand-picked the weeds near the spinach and used a small rototiller in between rows. Pea vines are the most notorious weeds this time of year.
Doug
Onions did very well this year (2006). White and Red (actually they are purple) onions were the only ones I planted. After the garden was harvested and mowed, I noticed several onions were missed. Not to squander an opportunity, I dug several of them up and put them in our basement to dry (we have a dehumidifier). After a few weeks I grabbed one and it was mushy. The problem was I did not trim the green growth off them and they were growing again since we had an Indian summer. Oh well, I have about 100 more that are ready to cook.
DtG
Only tomatoes and green peppers left in the garden. I managed to find several red onions now that the weeds are chopped down to a few inches. Nearly all the tomatoes are green and the few red ones that remain are rotten. The peppers show several flowers and have a few tiny peppers growing but now it is the race to the freeze. Temperatures are getting to the low 40s at night.
Our neighbor had a good pepper year; we did not.
The popcorn harvest was a dud. Most of the ears did not fill out and the ones that did had small kernels.
Like the Cubs fans always say: wait until next year!
Doug
