Weekly Harvest Weigh In #7

Alright I know I'm busted.  I've been meaning to get off my arse and get this done but with the new job and keeping on top of the projects around here, its just fallen on the way side.

Heck the only thing I've done with the computer lately is walk past it.  I've been too tired to mess with the blog.  So please forgive me for slacking on this.

Its been a good season so far.  I've gotten more yellow squash and zucchini than I anticipated.  I definitely over planted on both of those.  I am harvesting at least 1 squash or zucchini every few days, if not both.  Its been unreal.  I just got a recipe for zucchini relish so I'll be making up some of that to help use up all the zucchini I've got going.  I'm also going to retry to make more zucchini fruit snacks.  I'm going to keep a closer eye on the dehydrator so hopefully I have fruit snacks instead of fruit flavored jerky zucchini.

I also will try using some of the yellow squash in place of zucchini with the relish recipe since I've got so many of those too.  I really did over plant those.

My tomatoes are doing good, I picked 1.5lbs of this last week.  We're eating them on sandwiches like they are going out of style.  My wife doesn't even bother with any bacon or lunch meat just tomato sandwiches she's that pleased with this years crop.  Its been a nice balance of Romas and Early Girls, but there are a BUNCH of Romas waiting to be color up.  They are taking their time but that's ok.  When they come in its going to be in a rush.  Then its salsa and soup time.

My cucumbers are doing great too.  LOTS of picking cucumbers.  We've made 6 quarts of dill spears already.  These next ones we'll turn into bread and butter pickles.  They've slowed down a bit but they still are doing good.  They are being overtaken by the pumpkins though so we'll see.

My watermelons are doing good too.  I've got a handful of them that are the size of cantaloupes but I'm not sure on picking them yet.  The curling tendrils are still green or I don't have any tendrils.  They have very dark  dull looking skin, no shine at all so I'll have to look for the yellow spot and the fingernail test.  I'm just afraid I'm going to pick them too early. 

My pole beans are doing good.  The plants themselves are going strong finally.  Got 2 beans off them.  Then the Japanese beetles moved in and now they are going gonzo on the leaves.  So all the blossoms are not able to develop since the plant is losing nutrients to the holes the beetles have put in the leaves.  I gotta get traps up.  Its really bad.

I've already picked a few sweet peppers and WOW they are good.  Big, sweet, nice full walled sweet peppers they are great.  I've also got over a half pound of jalapeno peppers too.  3 plants have given me that many.  So far so good!

I'll have to go back and get the numbers to give a current weight but all in all we're holding our own here.

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.

Weekly harvest weigh in #3

Well we're 

REALLY REALLY REALLY

close to having something to weigh in with this week.  Ah the joys of being a Zone 5 gardener.....

The list of just not quite there yet is growing.  I've got a handful of yellow crooked neck squash that need a few more days, same with my first crop of jalapenos.  I was told the smaller they are the hotter they are so I'm going to give them a few extra days.  We've had a few warm nights here too so I figure they might be pretty warm on the palate so I figure a few extra days won't hurt anything.

My cucumbers are blooming like nothing else.  TONS of small yellow flowers on my straight eights and my pickling cukes as they creep along the garden.  They look really good and Ill have a TON of cucumbers here soon.  My pickling ones were the first to bloom and they've already got little cukes developing.  I'm really excited about making pickles.  I love a good crisp kosher dill pickle so yes I'm very excited about the volume of pickles I've got coming in.

My watermelons are blooming and are very happy.  I planted Sugar Babies and for a while there I didn't think anything was really going to come of them.  Here in Michigan its always hit or miss on whether or not we get a  watermelon crop or not.  Well they sprang to life these last couple weeks and this week I've got blooms.  So hopefully we'll get a few watermelons.  Everything I've read about the Sugar Baby watermelons are very positive so I just hope they come through for me.  I knew planting them they might not develop but to me it was worth a try.  I have high hopes they'll come through but if not I won't be surprised.  

Now if only my cucumbers would talk to my pole beans.  Talk about disappointment.  I set up five teepees with Kentucky Pole Beans and figured Id have plenty of beans.  Well we all know what happens when we assume.....I've got a few that are climbing but nothing really to speak off and its frustrating.  The one thing I was really looking forward to was fresh green beans.  My wife and I both love them.  The best performing ones might be 3' off the ground.  And that one or two vines too.  Planted them a few days after Memorial Day weekend too.  I figured Id be already picking them.  Nope.  Right now I'm less than thrilled with them.  I planted them so Id actually get beans since the woodchucks tend to eat the blossoms off bush beans so they never produce beans, and I thought it would be nice to spread my crop out over the season and not just get a glut of beans and then be done.  Next year I'm going to do both types bush and pole to cover all my bases.

On a better note I do have a bunch of tomatoes developing.  I found one growing on my Lemon boys, and a found one so far on my Green Zebra and more on my Early Girls, and Better Boys.  The Romas are doing well also.  I haven't looked that hard either on my non-traditional tomatoes but both are blooming well and should produce.

My cherry tomato that's up by the house in a pot is just going bonkers.  Its loaded in blossoms and when they all set fruit we're going to have A LOT of cherry tomatoes.  If the Lemon Boy experiment goes well I'll plant a yellow cherry variety up here along with the Super sweet 100 that I've already got going to give us a little variety.

So other than my pole beans everything looks really good.  The pole beans are the most insulting too because the teepees are just bare rods and you can't hep but realize something should be growing there.

I don't know if I'll make the next weigh in or not, we're going camping next week so I might miss a week.  If that's the case I'll post it just might not be linked.

Weekly harvest weigh in #2



Well here is, and I can't believe a weeks passed already.  Things here are looking good.  My father-in-law who's wisdom in the garden I trust completely was kind enough to loan me his rototiller to help keep my garden in check.  He's an old country boy who grew up on a farm.  He's kept a garden longer than anybody I know personally and he's quite successful because he's got a wealth of knowledge to pull from.  He moved his garden to a different location and kept it smaller this year so he said its easier for him to use a garden hoe to keep weeds in check then muscle the rototiller through it.

Well I've got the opposite problem.  Trying to hoe by hand a 2,000 sq ft garden is no joke.  I was doing ok, but it could be a lot better.  So I still do some weeding and hoeing by hand, but I fired up that Brigs and Stratton tiller and got to down to business.  And I'm VERY grateful for that rototiller.  Yes it bucks like a bronco at the rodeo, but that's a trade I'll make considering I just don't have the time to keep things in check otherwise with all the rain we've gotten.

So as far as the updates go things are doing really good.

Holy Moses!  What is that?!

My jalapenos are doing great.  I've got probably a half dozen peppers on the best producing one in various sizes.  I did discover something pretty wild when I found a purple pepper growing on one of jalapeno plants!!  Surprise!!!  That threw me at first and after asking about it on TEG  That plant is slower to produce but the purple pepper is just wild.  I thought I was just getting a jalapeno plant not purple ones.  I'm curious to see how the flavor compares to the green ones and to see how the rest of the peppers from that plant develop.  

I've got a handful of Early Girl tomatoes that are coming in, and even more Romas.  The plants have even more blossoms that have yet to set fruit, so I'm hoping those will get pollinated and develop too.  My Big Boys are doing very well, the consistently look the best from plant to plant with lots of blossoms, with my Romas with some of them looking not looking so hot, to some that look great, and the Early Girls fall in between those 2.

My Green Zebras look alright.  They don't look bad, but they are not as robust as Id like either.  They are blooming but its tough when I compare their growth to the other maters in the garden they look ok.  My Lemon Boys though, holy Moses!!!  They are thick, and look fantastic!!!  Good number of blossoms but the plants themselves look like if they were not caged they'd take over the garden!  I have high hopes for them considering their growth.  I've never eaten a yellow tomato, but if their flavor is anything like how they grow, they will become a staple in my garden.

Got my first blossom on my Jack-O-Lantern pumpkins, and my giant pumpkin is already producing vines and its got a bunch of buds almost ready to open.  I'm really psyched about trying to grow a BIG pumpkin.  If I can get one over 200lbs I'll be thrilled.  I can't even imagine if I grew a REALLY big one.  I just want a pumpkin that I have to carve with a chainsaw and its big enough for my 3 y.o. daughter to climb into and put the lid on.

I also saw a great recipe on making zucchini candy that I'm going to try this year.  From all the reviews I've heard about it, why not?  They are already blooming and getting ready to start producing.  I think its going to shape up to be a very tasty year.

Harvest Garden Weigh Along

And here we go!

Being a member of the gardening communty called "The Easy Garden" and having planted such a large garden I decided I had to get in on in on this.  I had planned on keeping tabs on how the garden was doing and how much I harvested but to be able to be apart of something more? 

Ill have to get an official count on my plant totals to help see how my production goes.