Friday, July 22, 2011

Weekly harvest weigh in #5



Sorry I missed everybody last week.  We went camping for 6 days and it was a MUCH needed vacation.

Anyway...here we go 

Well I finally have a harvest to speak of.  Well sort of.

3 Jalapenoes, 2 yellow squash, 3 baseball bat sized zucchini and a lone cherry tomato.  Nothing super crazy but we're coming along here.  I deliberately let the zucchini get big.  Why?  So I can make zucchini snacks!  I got a dehydrator off Craigslist for 10 bucks.  Its never been used. The woman I bought it from said her boyfriend bought it, they split up and he left it there.  She was cleaning up and wanted it out since she said she'd never use it.  So I got a TOTALLY great deal.  I'm pretty pumped as the reviews the recipe got were great so I'm excited to give it a go.  


My first 2 Early Girl tomatoes.

I've got a bunch of pickling cucumbers ready to go any day now I just need to get the supplies to make pickles.  They are going bonkers out there.



And I've got watermelons!!!  I didn't think I was going to get any but I've easily got over a dozen in various sizes.  The biggest ones I have are the size of a softball.  I'm so pumped!  I didn't think I was going to get any watermelons this year, but with the heat that we've been under, the watermelons are happy as anything out there.






I've also got one pumpkin the size of a football!  Its big, dark green and growing good.  Its close to the plant as it didn't vine out much but that's ok.  The funny part is not only is it NOT a giant pumpkin its also in the northern most part of the pumpkin row!  I can't figure it out.  It must have been pollinated early and its just quietly doing its thing.



My big pumpkin has got vines all over the place and lots of blossoms.  The biggest pumpkin its got is the size of a baseball.  Time will tell if they really develop into anything special.  I've been watching them; noting how fast they grow.  So far so good.  I've already removed 1 of the would be giants because it would have grown right into some peppers and end up crushing them.  Of course it was growing quickly but I didn't want to sacrifice the peppers for the big pumpkin.

With the big pumpkin experiment, I don't know if there will be a 2012 giant pumpkin in my patch or not.  Its quite invasive like I'd expect a pumpkin to be and the leaves are absolutely huge Id expected too.  The problem is, it sucks up water like its going out of style.  Its unreal!!!  I give it 4-6 gallons a day from the watering can depending on how hot the day is.  If I don't water it, the leaves all get droopy and it looks like its pouting.  Talk about high maintenance and honestly its not something else I need to deal with.  At first it was fun, but its becoming a daily chore, and something I'm not sure I want to keep doing.  Maybe the pay out will be worth it, but right now I'm not 100% sold on doing this again next year.  Maybe Ill just focus on growing more carving type pumpkins for the kids.  I don't know the jury is still out.

I've got a bunch of Roma tomatoes that I'm waiting to turn.  I'm going to have a number of jars of sauce.

My Green Zebras are doing well and getting bigger.  I love the pattern on them they really look wild.  I hope the flavor is as good as they appear.  They say they have a "zippy flavor" so we'll see what that means.  My Lemon boys are coming along well too.



And on another happy note my pole beans are blooming.  A few of them have reached up to the top and are trying to find new places to intertwine themselves.  I was antsy about them with this being the first year I've had them, but I think I might keep them around for next year.  I'll definitively start them a few weeks earlier and inoculate them with nitrifying bacteria to help give the plants everything they need.  I might, and I say might do some bush beans too.  Everybody I know has had issue with woodchucks, and other assorted critters eating the blossoms off, so you never get a crop so we'll see.  Im not one for canned beans.  Id rather have fresh stuff that was imported to this area than anything out of a can.  Well....maybe if I did it.



I'm off to make zucchini candy and Ill be sure to post my results.

1 comment:

  1. Looks like you've had a good week in the garden. Things are starting to take off in mine too. Pretty soon it's going to take real effort to get everything weighed!

    Thanks for participating in my weigh-in. You've been the only regular! I think I am going to quit coding in the linky tool thing because it takes some time to set up. If you want you can still leave a link for your weigh-in post in the comment section. I always like to come check out everybody's progress. Sorry I did not get one up this Monday. I've been pretty sick lately. I'll try to get it done today. Take care! :)

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