Today's harvest

[larry_stewart]

First substantial tomato harvest ( hopefully the first of many). We did a tomato last test. Of the bite sized tomatoes, Sun-Sugar was our #1, of the larger tomatoes Beefsteak Sandwich Hybrid.

Dinner - Tomato - Basil - Garlic - Oil - Linguini

 

[dragnlaw]

LOL... Larry! how come your cukes are so FAT. Did you see my skinny ones? \

too funny! I feel someone may drag me up on charges for starving my vegies!

 

[larry_stewart]

This was the last harvest of my first planting of cukes. Average year at best, but these last ones were all the misfits ( which explains why they are chubby If my second and third plantings do well, it could turn my average year into above average. Usually cukes are one of my most predictable slam-dunk crops. I battled this year with some kind of bacterial wilt, so vines were dying off about 2 weeks earlier than usual. I bought a wilt resistant variety and they're going in soon. More of a test to see if they are really resistant, than anything else. If I get cukes this year great, if not, as long as I can see that thee vines can withstand what the first crop went through. This year ive been very aggressive with succession planting, with 2 and sometimes even 3 plantings. The one good thing about the pandemic, is ive had more time to stay on top of things, and my wife has been my apprentice weeder. The successive heat waves aren't helping much, but cant conrol Mother Nature.

 

[PrincessFiona60]

A few weeks ago, my parents Gooseberry bushes were 4-5 feet tall. They are now less than 2 feet tall because of the heavy berry load. Makes picking them easy and I just might get tired of Gooseberries.

 

[larry_stewart]

A few weeks ago, my parents Gooseberry bushes were 4-5 feet tall. They are now less than 2 feet tall because of the heavy berry load. Makes picking them easy and I just might get tired of Gooseberries.

Glad you posted this. I planted gooseberries last year. This year they are starting to produce ( a few dozen berries). Ive never really had them before so im not exactly sure when to pick them, how tart or sweet they should be or even how soft or firm.

They were green and now like a brownish / purple color. They have snap to them but seem kinda tart. I dont mind them, but my wife grimaces when she bites into one. Will they ever fully ripen/ sweeten? or is this how they are when they are ripe?

 

[dragnlaw]

Larry - Gooseberries aren't exactly the sweetest berry around!



But good jams and sauces.

 

[taxlady]

A few weeks ago, my parents Gooseberry bushes were 4-5 feet tall. They are now less than 2 feet tall because of the heavy berry load. Makes picking them easy and I just might get tired of Gooseberries.

That's what freezers are for.

 

[PrincessFiona60]

Glad you posted this. I planted gooseberries last year. This year they are starting to produce ( a few dozen berries). Ive never really had them before so im not exactly sure when to pick them, how tart or sweet they should be or even how soft or firm.

They were green and now like a brownish / purple color. They have snap to them but seem kinda tart. I dont mind them, but my wife grimaces when she bites into one. Will they ever fully ripen/ sweeten? or is this how they are when they are ripe?

They are ripe when brownish/purple. Being keto, they taste wonderfully sweet to me, so do lemons (on a side note).

The elderberries are soon up and so are the black raspberries. Have to remind Dad not to take a shot at whoever is rattling in the bushes.

 

[PrincessFiona60]

That's what freezers are for.

I only have the freezer in the top of the fridge now. The ancient one I had gave up the ghost last winter. Not cooking enough these days to warrant another purchase.

 

[Kathleen]

My harvest is slowly getting there. I had fried okra again tonight, so the okra is doing okay. Received a few green beans, a large jalapeno, and a sadly deformed cucumber that smells great! Cherry tomatoes are on the vine but seem to have zero interest in turning red. A couple of celebrity tomatoes have formed, but are still small, and the brandywine just soaks up sunshine without indication of giving me tomatoes - green or otherwise.

 

[Lisa B]

My harvest is slowly getting there. I had fried okra again tonight, so the okra is doing okay. Received a few green beans, a large jalapeno, and a sadly deformed cucumber that smells great! Cherry tomatoes are on the vine but seem to have zero interest in turning red. A couple of celebrity tomatoes have formed, but are still small, and the brandywine just soaks up sunshine without indication of giving me tomatoes - green or otherwise.

My grape tomatoes this year sat full size for weeks before I got a single red one. Now I'm still only getting 1-3 a day, but I figure the plant has a few hundred tomatoes on it, they have to turn some time! Unless this septoria spot takes the plant out before the chlorophyl starts to break down. [emoji22] Then I'll have to learn to make green tomato pickles, I guess.

My other tomato plants are taking their dear sweet time. I feel your pain.

 

[Kathleen]

My grape tomatoes this year sat full size for weeks before I got a single red one. Now I'm still only getting 1-3 a day, but I figure the plant has a few hundred tomatoes on it, they have to turn some time! Unless this septoria spot takes the plant out before the chlorophyl starts to break down. [emoji22] Then I'll have to learn to make green tomato pickles, I guess.

My other tomato plants are taking their dear sweet time. I feel your pain.

Last year, I had so many little green tomatoes and knew they would not turn red before frost. I found a recipe for Tomolives, which are pickled little green tomatoes. They were delicious and were also a hit with friends. There are so many recipes out there for them with a fast google search. "Tomolives recipe" in the search. Easy and fun to make. Delicious and friends enjoyed them. Win-win. I based my recipe on this one: https://www.cathybarrow.com/2010/08/tomolives-pickling-green-tomatoes/

 

[Lisa B]

Small harvest today, but I had 2 little girls picking with me yesterday so they picked a few grape tomatoes that should have been ready today. My beans seem between harvests. Both my poles and bushes put out a bunch, then stopped flowering for a bit even with frequent picking. Now they're full of flowers and tiny beans, so I should have a good crop going next week again.

My first zucchini plant is weird this year. No fungus, no quash borers, plenty of sun and enough water, but really under-producing. Female flowers are forming, then shriveling and dying. It's in a new plot I dug this year and I didn't do much to the soil, just a little store-bought compost and a little fertilizer, but I never do with zucchini. It's kind of my junk crop. Throw it in, wrap for borers and spray for fungus every couple weeks and reap, reap reap. Maybe my neglect is catching up with me. But I've had years of powdery mildew and zquash borers tjat produced better. I have a second that went in 2 weeks ago in another, better-tended part of the garden and I'm hoping it will do better.

 

[Lisa B]

Last year, I had so many little green tomatoes and knew they would not turn red before frost. I found a recipe for Tomolives, which are pickled little green tomatoes. They were delicious and were also a hit with friends. There are so many recipes out there for them with a fast google search. "Tomolives recipe" in the search. Easy and fun to make. Delicious and friends enjoyed them. Win-win. I based my recipe on this one: https://www.cathybarrow.com/2010/08/tomolives-pickling-green-tomatoes/

Oooooh! Thank you!

 

[pepperhead212]

Those look delicious, Kathleen - thanks! I've been looking for a good green tomato pickle recipe, as I always have an excess of them.

 

[pepperhead212]

I have a bunch of those determinate types starting to ripen, so I am going to have a lot of tomatoes soon! Actually, I have a lot now.
Here is what I got from two varieties today:
Over 3 quarts of Sprite tomatoes, one day harvest 7-27 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

The Peachy Keen is one of the determinates that doesn't have a second crop, as all of the branches are turning brown after the tomatoes ripen, and there isn't another flower on the plant. So I pulled every tomato off the plant, and pulled the plant - not sure what I'll plant there. All of these will go in the dehydrator, as the flavor was good then - sort of like sunsugar dried.
All of the tomatoes from one Peachy Keen plant, 7-27 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

I also cut some squash blossoms from all those winter squash:
Squash blossoms, from 7 plants - 7-27 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

And I cut the largest bottle gourd, so far:
Large round bottle gourd - 7-27 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

I cut up all those eggplants (except 4 that I gave away), and put them in the dehydrator - 4 racks packed, along with another packed rack of tomatoes. Here are the packed racks of eggplants and tomatoes from before, showing how much those things shrink!
Dried eggplant and tomatoes. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

 

[taxlady]

Pepperhead, please tell me about dehydrating tomatoes. How thick do you cut the slices? How dry do let the tomatoes get? I tried dehydrating tomatoes once and got tomato chips.

 

[pepperhead212]

taxlady, Almost all of them I dry are smaller ones - I put those Marion tomatoes in this time. When they are about 1¼-1½", I'd cut them in half, but a little bit larger, I'd cut about a third off, then the other part in half. Sometimes I cut tigers in half. I dry them at low temps for longer - 110-115° for at least 2 days, when they get sort of like leather. You can bend them, but not easily. Tomatoes that I have weighed before and after go from 16 to 1 ounce. Some people that have dried tomatoes, that didn't dry them enough, ended up with mold on them eventually.

 

[taxlady]

taxlady, Almost all of them I dry are smaller ones - I put those Marion tomatoes in this time. When they are about 1¼-1½", I'd cut them in half, but a little bit larger, I'd cut about a third off, then the other part in half. Sometimes I cut tigers in half. I dry them at low temps for longer - 110-115° for at least 2 days, when they get sort of like leather. You can bend them, but not easily. Tomatoes that I have weighed before and after go from 16 to 1 ounce. Some people that have dried tomatoes, that didn't dry them enough, ended up with mold on them eventually.

Thank you. So, leathery is the texture I'm aiming for, I guess. I have some ~2" diameter tomatoes that I need to do something with, because we aren't eating tomato at the moment. Do you think that 1/2" to 3/4" slices would work? I do have a dehydrator.

 

[GotGarlic]

Thank you. So, leathery is the texture I'm aiming for, I guess. I have some ~2" diameter tomatoes that I need to do something with, because we aren't eating tomato at the moment. Do you think that 1/2" to 3/4" slices would work? I do have a dehydrator.

I'd look it up in the manual. My mom gave me her dehydrator without the manual but I found it on the manufacturer's website.