Small Harvest Aug 7

A little bit of harvesting today after work hours - swiss chard, peppers, leaks, beans, cucumbers and kale.

And then of course more tomatoes... this is kitchen in the guesthouse aka 'addition'. there's stove somewhere under all that mess.

And some more in the main kitchen on the stove - because there's no space currently on other counters and table.

I'd better get cooking that sauce.

August 5 double harvest

Another busy harvest time at the main garden.These were picked this weekend and will need couple of days to finish ripening on some. Looks like tomatoes are just about peaking on the quantity and will probably slow down in a week or so.

I sorted some in groups - bi-color, black/purple made two piles, sauce and smaller type like Black Prince.

Then there was second harvest from the Community Garden - these I weighted since I did grow them, but they will be given away on Tuesday as they're closed on the weekend. I will have to substitute some that are cracked and probably won't keep long (ignore the mess around as it's on my porch).

Then I picked few herbs for cooking sauces and braided onions for storage.

First week of August harvest

Another day another picked harvest. Here are some white onions, carrots, pepper, acorn and spaghetti squash, zucchini and beans.

Here you can see those tomatoes that were picked earlier all turned color and have been sorted into groups - purple/black on top left, pink top right, sauce bottom left and multicolor on bottom right.

I also picked additional cherry tomatoes so they also been weighted in. Next to it is a slice of a Ananas Noire variety - now I like regular Pineapple but hope that Black Pineapple would add that hint of smokiness that dark variety have. Instead it's neither smoky or sweet and definitely not acidic. Again not impressed.

Marinara and Wednesday pickings

First batch of marina made, used and even some was canned for winter!  I have to admit that San Marzano's make it very "tomato" taste like and I need to find a good balance with heirlooms.  So far we've been gorging on the black and purple varieties and giving them to others to try but now that everyone had at least some taste I'm keeping them for sauces.

 In the meanwhile, picking continues and does not wait for Mondays so here is Wednesday harvest.

These two are separate on purpose - one i forgot to pick and it's now good seed cucumber. The other is a first good size bi-color tomato!

And of course I picked more tomatoes but they haven't been weighted in yet - only cherries were recorded so far. I've been picking them "at first blush" because of the squirrels and voles as they seem to prefer just perfectly ripe ones.  

 So who will take a stab at what varieties are in here??

Hornworms - HATE THEM!

Do you ever feel like you're trying to climb the steep mountain only to keep falling down each time you're so close to the top? That's how I sometimes feel whenever there's yet another failure in the garden. In this case my tomatoes. They've been decimated by hornworms in less than 2 days that I wasn't actively looking for problems.  Can you spot the culprit in this shot?

 Here's up close and personal with the same one.

 not much is left behind after they mowed the plant down - this was san marzano plant.

 Sadly this group all came from the same plant. And what's even worse all plants have been attacked.

sometimes I wish I wasn't doing everything organic because it would have been so much easier to pick up a spray bottle and get rid of all slugs, rollypollies, cabbage and hornworms that keep attacking my garden this year. Alas, healthwise I need organic food. And there goes my entire evening - picking one worm at the time and hope I didn't miss too many.