Back from Baltimore

Finally made it home late tonight and only was able to pick few things in the garden until I couldn't really see anymore. My honey was diligently watering every day but forgot to pick as things ripened so alot of things were past their prime. Here is a preview of what the harvest was so far - I'm not quite done yet.

there has been alot of damage of both human and nature variety but I'll post about that later. Now I really need some rest so I can be somewhat useful tomorrow.

Squash and cucumbers

Previous post showed first half of the week harvest and today was second half - zucchini, squash, and alot of cucumbers.

Nearly 9 lbs o cucumbers  - 8 lbs 13.9 oz total; and 7 lbs and 9.9 oz of zucchini and squash combined. I let some of them get overgrown because these were destined to my group at KISS cat rescue and those ladies like to use zucchini for bread and stuffers. Cucumbers also went to the same group.

First eating tomato picked!

It's here! First non-sauce and not a cherry tomato has been picked - Black Prince. It's not big or very bright in color but it is fully ripe and tasty with smoky flavor that I love so much in dark varieties. It actually surprised me because it was hiding all the way on the bottom and I only spotted it when I pulled some weed from the back of the plant.

 As you can see it's only just 3.3 oz so not one of my giants. I really doubt that I will have any real "giants" this year but I'm happy with the size for first tomato.

Right behind this one will be Black Zebra and Black Brandywine - just starting to turn to color but not quite ready to be picked. It's very unfair of course because they'll be ready by Monday I won't be here to enjoy them :( My hubby will be picking everything this weekend and next week so no posts for a while.

More July harvests

I just love this time of the year. Harvest is daily and variety just keeps on coming. Here's few shots of the first part of the week starting with Monday night harvest first - beans, cucumbers, carrots, onions, basil, mint, swiss chard and kale, hot banana pepper and yellow squash. You can see numbers yourself if you click on each picture to make it larger :)

Then came Tuesday harvest and I digged out 3 bushes of white potatoes for mash so I can make pirogi for hubby for next week while I'm on the road. Also first yellow pear tomatoes were picked, one Roma and few beets and cucumbers. I added a picture of one potato on my hand just for kicks ;)

And lastly today's  harvest was more beans, over 1.5 lbs of peas, squash, zucchini, broccoli and more cucumbers.

Be careful of what you wish for you or you might run out of space in the fridge like me. I've been giving stuff away left and right, freezer also full so I think I'll start canning some of these goodies.

edit: some pictures were removed to have space for new.

Blossom End Rot

Well this was one way to start your week on a really bad note. How did I not notice this before is beyond me, considering that after I spotted first and looked closely I realized that most of my tomatoes had this disease.

At least the sauce-varieties like San Marzano and Super Italian Paste all have it. So now I'm not even sure if we'll have enough tomatoes for sauces :'(

Edit: I think I picked most of the infected tomatoes and it's not restricted to only sauce-varieties - several of the brandywines are also affected.

I added calcium and gave all tomatoes a good drink to make sure they don't dry up on me again. Thankfully this week is slightly cooler and only in high 80's. Unfortunately I have to leave for Baltimore Saturday for work, so no clue how my garden will do without constant supervision. And while my hubby will try to water he won't know what to watch for. Let's just hope that being away for 8 days won't do too much damage.

4th of July week Harvest

This part of the harvest was picked on Tuesday afternoon. Potatoes were a bit too much for scale to be weighted at once so had to divide them into two batches.

Potatoes - 6 lbs 2.7oz; carrots 11.9oz; cucumbers - 13.5oz; beans - 1lb 8.6oz

Then on 4th of July I had to clean out one of my old garden beds as I noticed that it's infested. I pulled purple potatoes and all carrots out of it which is in two different pictures. Aren't those purple potatoes pretty? They don't make good mash but they are definitely colorful on a plate.

In addition to the potatoes I picked a handful of onions, beets, last of the broccoli, few squashes, pepper, first Ichiban eggplant and one single Roma tomato.

Totals from this group were Potatoes - 3lbs 11.7 oz; squash 1lb .4oz, pepper 2.4oz; Eggplant - 3.2 oz - which category does this one fits in? Broccoli - 2.5oz; Carrots - 1lb 3.2oz; Onions - 1lb 3.8oz, beets - 7.8oz

And then on Friday I picked few more items - yellow squash and zucchini - 1lb 9.4 oz, cucumbers - 15.7 oz, yellow wax and green beans - 1lb 88oz, and few cherry tomatoes at 2.2oz.

Not recorded was a large shopping bag of cucumbers harvested from community garden and given to the food pantry. My guess it was close to 8 lbs of them. I might edit this post come Sunday as I'll have more to harvest before Monday general harvest post.

Edit: Saturday pickings from community garden - cucumbers and a zucchini.

 15.4oz zucchini and 2 lbs 8.7oz cucumbers

Sunday pickings from my garden - beans, zucchini and yellow squash, cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes and garlic.

 Squash and zucchini 2 lbs 11.2oz; tomatoes - 7.4oz; cucumbers 3 lbs 10.5 oz.

 Peppers at 2.8oz; beans at 1 lb 9.1oz; garlic at 8.3 oz.

 Thankfully beans are tapering off because I'm running out of space to place them. Zucchini and squash are easy - they are for giveaways. And looks like I'll have tons of pickles this summer (mental note don't plant as many cucumber plants).