Today's harvest

[larry_stewart]

My modest Harvest today

Tomatoes winding down, although some of the bigger varieties still have some on the vine to ripen.

Cukes all but done, did sneak in one more quart of pickles

2nd and 3rd planting of string beans kicking int, already got about 3 gallon sized bags blanched and frozen in the freezer.

Late variety potato plants still look good, so not ready for harvest yet , which is good cause haven't come close to eating the first harvest from the earlier varieties.

Butternut squash vine has a lot of smaller squash, hope there is enough time for them to ripen fully.

Peppers finally kicking in, along with the tomatillo's

Eggplants have 2 more on the plants but the plants don't look healthy so those are probably the last of the bunch

Okra did really well this year but the colder forecast upcoming, they'll probably stop producing

looking forward to harvesting sweet potatoes and peanuts next month.

 

[pepperhead212]

Nice bed! How tall are the sides? And what kind of wood are you using?

My beds are simple 4'x10' 2x8 pine. Yeah, they won't last as long as cedar but they're cheap.

I just got pine, too, since I didn't want pressure treated in the garden, and cedar and cypress are just way too expensive. The sides are two 2x8s side joined with 3/8x3" dowels, using gorilla glue. I put a coating of Titebond III, the waterproof one, diluted with water 4:1, to seal it up. Then I put 3 coats of the solid color Behr stain (and 6 coats on the ends, since I had to flip them after drying each side) , which is a lot more than I did to an old bed I made for my herb bed, which started rotting after 25 years. So I don't think that I will have to replace this!

 

[bbqcoder]

Then I put 3 coats of the solid color Behr stain (and 6 coats on the ends, since I had to flip them after drying each side) , which is a lot more than I did to an old bed I made for my herb bed, which started rotting after 25 years. So I don't think that I will have to replace this!

Smart idea! Didn't think of doing something like that. I guess when my beds start rotting, I might just put new boards to enclose the old rotting ones.

 

[pepperhead212]

Besides all the stuff I was doing with the raised bed (it's almost 3/4 full), I harvested a few tomatoes, eggplants, and some more of those long beans - those increase daily, and I got 20 of them today, which was just over 10 oz. However, I did not harvest a single pepper today! Not because they weren't there, but because I had nowhere to put them! lol Tomorrow, I'll harvest those, and there will be a lot. Here's what I got today:

A few larger tomatoes, and a single layer of sunsugars underneath. 9-10 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

2 qts of cherry tomatoes, 4 eggplants, and 20 Thai Long Red Beans. 9-10 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Almost all of my fall seedlings are germinated - only 2 types of chard, which are even slower than the other chard. All of the brassicas and lettuce already have one set of true leaves.

 

[bbqcoder]

Looks great, Dave!

I'm hoping tonight that I will pick more raspberries. Maybe I'll harvest another bed of potatoes. Unfortunately, I'm not going to be able to do much gardening the next two weeks since I'll be in Chicago and then Florida.

 

[pepperhead212]

Another large pepper picking! As I figured they would, the chocolate habaneros became the largest habanero producer, despite being the slowest to start. It is an indeterminate pepper, and it just keeps producing until frost, so there will be a bunch of green ones still there, like the tomatoes. Red savina is determinate, which is why it got that huge number of flowers again a couple of weeks ago, after producing more in the beginning.
The hot habaneros - Chocolate, Red Savina, and Gold Bullets 9-11 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Jyoti is another indeterminate; again, not as fast in the beginning, but now they keep getting more ripe ones every time, and there are peppers of all different sizes.
Jyoti 9-11 Not as many as other times, but still loaded with unripes. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Thai Vesuvius is a determinate pepper, getting a huge number of peppers at about the same time, ripening is over a short period, then they produce another flush of flowers. Now, I'm getting the second batch, which are just starting to ripen, but I pick the full sized green, and freeze them, for Indian, Thai, and other dishes calling for greens. And this is also when I freeze some red ones, for the SE Asian recipes calling for fresh ripe chiles. Drying the early crops and freezing the later crops has them frozen for less time.
Jalafuego, Hanoi Market, Green Thai, a few Red Thais, and Aji Dulce 9-11 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

The Mosquetero Ancho seems indeterminate, as well, and has a huge number of peppers of all sizes. They are sort of small, for poblanos, but they have much thicker flesh than others I've grown. I might try to grow them 3 weeks earlier next year, to get them started earlier.
Poblanos, Aleppos, and just a few Longhorns 9-11 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Going back out now to do some more!

 

[bbqcoder]

Here is a picture of the raspberries and strawberries that I harvested. My favorite is the golden raspberries,, very sweet. The only issue is that there are lots of yellow jackets flying around them.



Here is a shot of the watermelon patch. If you look closely, you can see a large striped one in the slightly lower left corner. There is a solid green one in the upper right corner. I harvested a striped one last weekend that came out good.



Here is a picture of my cauliflowers surrounded by the watermelon vines

 

[bbqcoder]

Here is a picture of a flock of turkeys among the garden beds in my front yard.




These are Chinese garlic chives. I like them because they produce all season and then flower at the end. The honeybees love these flowers. I don’t see them on the raspberries but I do see lots of bumble bees there.

 

[GreenEnvy22]

Made 15 jars of smokey peach hot sauce, and 10 jars of sweet peach. Much of the garden didn't produce as well this year, but hot peppers keep pumping out at a good clip. I've dehydrated a bunch and made several hot sauce batches.

 

[pepperhead212]

I saw all of those chocolate habaneros ripening out there, having just picked all those two days ago that I didn't even need(!), and I decided to take them up to the Mexican Grocer/Restaurant in town, and give them to the owner. I picked another 20 or so, and put them in a bag with the 40+ from two days ago, along with 9 or 10 red savinas, and took them up there. The owner knew that I had something for him, and his eyes lit up. I asked him if he likes habaneros, and he got a funny look on his face, and started chuckling, as if to say "You have to ask?" And looked in the bag, and couldn't believe all those peppers! I told him about the varieties, and the heat in them, and he said that he'd try them later, after they close, and "treat the guys in the kitchen", which he said with sort of a devilish grin on his face.

Before I could ask, he told me that the tomatillo plants I gave him did great - I grew a six pack of plants from seed, but only needed two, so he got two green and two purples. He lives upstairs of the place, and has a small garden out on the roof - like Bayless, though nowhere near the size.

I got my usual things - some corn tortillas, some Mexican cheese, and some canned chipotles. He gives me the "employees price" when he rings it up. Same thing I do with the curry leaves at the Indian grocer. Too bad there isn't a place like this I could take all those kaffir lime leaves to, when I trim those, before bringing them in.

 

[pepperhead212]

I harvested some more beans, okra, a few eggplants, and a bunch of peppers, as usual!
I took some more peppers to the Mexican grocery today, this time the peppers without much heat: aji dulce. (Again, I had far more of them, dried and frozen, than I needed, from just one plant!). The boss wasn't in the office, so I went back to the desk in the restaurant section, and asked if he was in the kitchen, and they said he had stepped out, and asked if they could help. I told him that I had moe chiles to give him, and his eyes lit up, and he said "Ooooooohhh, you're that guy that grows these things!" He said that he had some samples of the things I had brought, and he hadn't had any chiles or epazote like that since back in Mexico. I told him that this time I brought some habaneros with an incredible habanero flavor, but almost no heat! He looked in the bag, and pulled out a small one, and popped it! He said "am I going to be sorry I did that?" And he kept chewing, and said that he couldn't believe that it had such an intense habanero flavor, but almost no heat, like I told him. He said that he hadn't even had a chile like that in Mexico! He called one of the cooks up from the kitchen to try it, and I think he thought he was getting played, and took a very small bite, at first, waiting to be killed I think! But he couldn't believe it, either. I told them that I use them for people that can't take the heat, but I want them to experience that flavor of habaneros.


I finished the raised bed today, getting the last soil mix into it, and the drip tape laid into it. Also, I got the pvc holders for those hoops pounded in - one of the hoops is installed, just to check, but I won't put the rest in until I'm ready to cover.
Finished filling the bed! by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Drip tape installed. Ready to go for planting! by pepperhead212, on Flickr

 

[bbqcoder]

That new raised bed looks great! What are you using for the hoops?

I picked kale, raspberries, strawberries, peppers, eggplants, acorn squash and tomatoes today. My fall crop of pole beans are looking good. I think some will be ready to be picked in 3-4 days. The best thing is no bean beatles! Last year, they decimated my bean plants.

 

[pepperhead212]

bbq - Those hoops are 1/2" metal conduit, bent to a 4' radius. I just happened to do this, years ago, for a hoop house, for protecting peppers from pepper maggot flies, and they fit this perfectly!

Getting down to 52° tonight, but back up to 90° Sunday! Still, this cool weather is slowing the okra drastically, though peppers are still producing, I think mainly peppers already formed. Soon, the greens go in the raised bed.

 

[GreenEnvy22]

Picked my muscat grapes today, got 350 lbs.
It's all crushed and pressed now, got 90 liters.

Have 200 lbs or so of dornfelder coming tomorrow too. I need to quickly bottle some wine from last year or I won't have enough carboys.

 

[pepperhead212]

I got more than this of the red cherries and grapes yesterday, but that was from 8 plants, while this is just from two Sunsugars! And I got about 1 ½ c of them last night, but it got dark, and I had to stop.
Sunsugar 9-20 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

I got a few more beans and okra, but I didn't fool with the peppers.

 

[Cheryl J]

Wow....beautiful bounty, all.

 

[bbqcoder]

Wow, impressive grapes and cherry tomatoes!

I’m out of town but my daughter picked some raspberries and dahlias from the garden. Dahlias look really nice.

 

[pepperhead212]

I didn't harvest much today, just more peppers (as usual!), but I trimmed a number of herbs, to get cuttings to put in my cloner (much faster than seed starting, when possible), to get ready for the indoor hydroponics, soon to be set up. I still had a basil in the cloner (I put a cutting in there, just in case the outdoor ones didn't have useable stems, w/o blossoms), along with a Syrian oregano, both of which formed considerable plants in just 5 weeks! I planted two more of the Syrian oregano plants outside, and both took off, but this one is even larger. Yet, the nutrients in that cloner aren't really for growing, and I never added more.
A Syrian Oregano and Serrata Basil, both small cuttings after 5 weeks in cloner. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

And here are all of the cuttings in the cleaned out cloner - Oaxacan epazote, 3 kinds of basil, and silver thyme:
Cloner re-stocked with cuttings 9-22, getting ready for the hydroponics. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

 

[GreenEnvy22]

My wife went a bit nuts on the weekend, she harvested a bunch of stuff from our and a relatives garden. Made Salsa, tomato jam, pickles, pickled cauliflower, apple pie filling, and muscat jelly from my leftover juice.
I also ended up getting over 300lbs of Dornfelder, not 200, so I'm now very short on space for both primary and secondary fermentation. I've got a couple weeks until the Riesling is ready to harvest though, so hopefully can get everything cycled through.

 

[larry_stewart]

I didn't harvest much today, just more peppers (as usual!), but I trimmed a number of herbs, to get cuttings to put in my cloner (much faster than seed starting, when possible), to get ready for the indoor hydroponics, soon to be set up. I still had a basil in the cloner (I put a cutting in there, just in case the outdoor ones didn't have useable stems, w/o blossoms), along with a Syrian oregano, both of which formed considerable plants in just 5 weeks! I planted two more of the Syrian oregano plants outside, and both took off, but this one is even larger. Yet, the nutrients in that cloner aren't really for growing, and I never added more.

Is the cloner store bought or something home made ?

I should have clones some of my herbs but didn't think about it until after the fact.

I did start parsley , dill and basil , by seed, in the aquaponics system a few weeks back. Now about 2 inches high and perfect timing, as they should be harvestable in few weeks as the outside stuff starts to die off due to the cold weather ( assuming the cold ever comes, since its been summer like last week and projected for the upcoming week).

I do place sage and rosemary cuttings in the system later on, and have had success.