Today's harvest

[dragnlaw]

July 26 and today. Hard to spot, there are more but barely an inch long yet. Have no idea how many I'll get from my only vine.

 

[bethzaring]

Didn't think to take a photo until it all was cut up for lunch stir fry...green chiles, broccoli, snap peas, onion, garlic, carrots, and my first handful of green beans.

 

[pepperhead212]

I picked many of my small tomatoes, after picking the larger ones yesterday - the Cherry Bombs, grape tomatoes, and tigers. I left the sunsugars for tomorrow.
About 3 quarts of Sprite tomatoes. 8-2 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

About 2 quarts of Cherry Bomb tomatoes. 8-2 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Green and Lucky Tigers, 8-2 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

And a few eggplants, as usual.
Eggplants, 8-2 harvest. That whitish one is a neon I missed for a few days! by pepperhead212, on Flickr

I also pulled those 4 Red Bor kale plants, that were still out there growing, without bolting. I trimmed the leaves off all of the stems, and had about 3 full 12 qt bowls of it, before washing and cutting! But it steamed down to about 9 qts.
The 4 Red Bor kale plants, finally pulled up, 8-12 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

The kale, after being cleaned, cut, and steamed, in a 12 qt bowl, ready to freeze. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Kale, Foodsavered and ready to freeze. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

 

[bbqcoder]

Nice photos everyone. I especially like the variety of pepperhead's tomatoes. Wow, what a variety.

Not one single shallot even grew a poke above ground.View attachment 42191

What are the varieties that you're trying to grow? French gray? Red? Yellow?
I heard that the yellow shallots are the same as potato onions.

I grew some reds, French gray, and potato onions. All did fine. The French gray need to be planted in the fall like garlic. The others are planted in the spring.

Where did you get your shallots?

 

[dragnlaw]

What are the varieties that you're trying to grow? French gray? Red? Yellow?
I heard that the yellow shallots are the same as potato onions.

Where did you get your shallots?

Red shallots
LOL - Grocers! I've always had success with them. Year before last had a bumper crop with them. Didn't do any last year and this year I changed location of planting - that could be it but I doubt it.

 

[bbqcoder]

Red shallots
LOL - Grocers! I've always had success with them. Year before last had a bumper crop with them. Didn't do any last year and this year I changed location of planting - that could be it but I doubt it.

When did you plant them? In the fall or the spring? I've had some cases where it fails to come up after the winter. I would suggest that you save some of your shallots for re-planting instead of buying from the store. They'll be better acclimated to your area.

 

[larry_stewart]

Surprisingly, my shallots did well this year. Not by professional standards, but compared to my years past, I was pleasantly surprised

One of the bigger disappointments this year for me is my parsley. Ive bought cells, established plants and even seeded, and Nothing is thriving at all. Almost every year, I have multiple parsley plants that look like bushes, and are harvested during the winter by digging the leaves out from under the snow. Maybe its the extreme heat ( which doesn't explain why they didnt do well in the spring, but whatever.

 

[pepperhead212]

I had the same results with my parsley this season, Larry. I even tried planting both of my hydroponics plants from the fall, in the soil! This has actually worked very well a couple of times, but not this time. I have some of two types of seeds out there now, but they are really behind.

I did little out there today, besides getting ready for the storm coming. I picked 4 more cukes, and they are in brine right now, getting ready to pickle them tomorrow. One more bitter melon, with a bunch more coming. I have to find some recipes for pickling those for storage - all I find recipes for are refrigerator pickles.
Latest bitter melon harvested - 8-3 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

 

[larry_stewart]

I had the same results with my parsley this season, Larry. I even tried planting both of my hydroponics plants from the fall, in the soil! This has actually worked very well a couple of times, but not this time. I have some of two types of seeds out there now, but they are really behind.

Whats interesting is each week there is a gardening column in our newspaper which covers various topics , answers write in questions and gives a monthly calendar and what to do and when in the garden. This week she added a special column saying that so many people have written in that they are having issues with parsley this year that she needed to address it. Not that Im glad its happening to everyone, but at least I know Im not the only one. Parsley is usually a slam dunk crop.

DEAR READERS: Many of you have emailed and reached out to me on Facebook and Instagram with concerns about stunted parsley plants. My parsley, too, is struggling to thrive this year. I reached out to Meg McGrath, a Cornell University plant pathologist based in Riverhead who doesn’t believe there’s a disease afoot.

“The few common diseases of parsley (Septoria leaf spot and bacterial leaf spot) are not caused by pathogens that can move in air currents,” she said, adding that these diseases are caused by seed-borne pathogens. “So the only way [gardeners all over Long Island] would have the same disease is if they were gardening together or all got their plants from the same source."

McGrath says her parsley has been yellowing, as well, and she has attributed that to a reaction to the heat. She surmises others could be experiencing the same response.

Jessica Damiano, Newsday columnist
By Jessica Damiano
@jessicadamiano
Jessica Damiano is a master gardener, gardening coach, author and lecturer who pens Newsday’s weekly Garden Detective column. She spends her free time weeding and struggling to save her lawn from her two dogs.

 

[pepperhead212]

Here's the parsley I started about a month ago.
The basil, behind them, was started about 3 weeks ago, from a clone:
3 parleys, started from seed, in early July. 8-4 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

I harvested a couple more cukes today, plus some Thai and Hanoi Market peppers:
First harvest of Thai peppers, and a few Hanoi Markets. 4-4 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Fortunately, I didn't have too much damage from Isaias, when it barreled through this morning. Two of my pepper plants had a section snapped - the Thai vesuvius entirely, and the Aji Dulce had only a small section keeping them together. So I tried holding them together, with graft tape - it's worked on tomatoes before! I'll see if this works.
Aji dulce, snapped off about 2/3 of the way by wind, held back together by grafting tape. 8-4 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Thai vesuvius, totally snapped off by wind, and put back together with grafting tape. 8-4 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

I hope everyone else fared well in this storm, gardens and otherwise!

 

[larry_stewart]

A lot of leaves , and small branches to clean out from the garden.
One melon got detached from its vine due to the rough wind, It was too unripe to salvage. probably had a few weeks to go before ripening.
A large amount of kiwis got blown off the vines. They are usually out of reach anyway. In general, everything else survived.

Lost power for a day. of course, the day that I had just peeled, deseeded and build down 9 quarts of tomatoes to freeze. Wasn't sure how long the black out would last, so I ran out and got a lot of ice, cleared out the produce drawers in both fridges and loaded them up with ice, basically Turing my fridge into an ice box. It seemed to have done the trick. Fridge stayed cold and nothing spoiled. Once the freezers get up ( or down) to temp, ill make room and get. them in. My next issue is how much in the stuff in the freezer thawed before refreezing and what condition they'll be in when its time to use. Guess Ill find out.

 

[dragnlaw]

***
Lost power for a day. of course, the day that I had just peeled, deseeded and build down 9 quarts of tomatoes to freeze. Wasn't sure how long the black out would last, so I ran out and got a lot of ice, cleared out the produce drawers in both fridges and loaded them up with ice, basically Turing my fridge into an ice box. It seemed to have done the trick. Fridge stayed cold and nothing spoiled. Once the freezers get up ( or down) to temp, ill make room and get. them in. My next issue is how much in the stuff in the freezer thawed before refreezing and what condition they'll be in when its time to use. Guess Ill find out.

I live in an area that has a lot of power failures. I have two freezers, am on a well (animals need water- I could survive, but they have priority), need my sump pump to work or basement floods,

LOVE my Generac propane run generator - automatic on/off/test - whether I'm here or not. Worth every penny! Of course, I'm 75 and have a bad shoulder so a regular gas run generator is not going to work for me. But you have a lot to lose in your freezers? just think about it.

If your freezers were full - I doubt much got soft. They could probably stay good for 3 days as long as you didn't open them. Have you thought about a generator, gas or otherwise?

 

[bethzaring]

I live in an area that has a lot of power failures. I have two freezers, am on a well (animals need water- I could survive, but they have priority), need my sump pump to work or basement floods,

LOVE my Generac propane run generator - automatic on/off/test - whether I'm here or not. Worth every penny! Of course, I'm 75 and have a bad shoulder so a regular gas run generator is not going to work for me. But you have a lot to lose in your freezers? just think about it.

If your freezers were full - I doubt much got soft. They could probably stay good for 3 days as long as you didn't open them. Have you thought about a generator, gas or otherwise?

2 days for sure, if you don't open them. Three days if the freezer is in a cool spot.

 

[dragnlaw]

2 days for sure, if you don't open them. Three days if the freezer is in a cool spot.

yup.... very true

 

[bethzaring]

yup.... very true

If the freezer is not in a cool spot, as soon as the power goes out, wrap the entire freezer in heavy blankets and hope the power comes back on after three days!

 

[dragnlaw]

Absolutely a great tip~ bethzaring! I've never thought of that and will certainly keep it in mind. But actually not for me but others. My generator is hooked up directly into my fuse box and the freezers/well/sump pump are all on that grid.

often when we lose power it is not just a day but several. City's and town centres are earmarked for first restoration rather than rural - but that's OK, I can live with that.... me an' my Generac! LOL.

 

[larry_stewart]

I made a point not to open the freezers. I figured there was enough Solid frozen stuff in theree ( Soups , sauces ...) to act as ' ice packs', and would assume the freezer is relatively well insulated to keep the cold in. The fridge, not being as cold, and having more perishables ( cheese, dairy) and especially since we had just went shopping the night before, I figured it was worth opening to toss in a bunch if ice. We rarely lose power , and when we do, we rarely lose it for more than a few hours. A full day is rare. Last time we lost power like this was when the whole North East went out like 10 - 15 years ago. We have considered a generator, and were just talking about it today. Anyway, all seems to be good. The fridge stuff is perfect. Haven't checked the freezers yet, but Im letting them get back too temp before I open them. I dont think anything spoiled, I just hope stuff didnt defrost, stick together than freeze again ( like dumplings and things like that). Whatever it is , it is. But to bring this back to the thread topic Todays Harvest, my biggest fear was that the stuff I worked so hard to grown and store was going to be for nothing. Luckily, my 9 quarts of tomatoes are fine ( literally just made them yesterday morning , and were cooling on the counter before placing them in the freezer. Unfortunately, lost power before doing that, but actually, probably for the better, cause putting them in likely would have raised the temp for al the other stuff in the freezer and there would have been more defrosting. I also have Frozen tomatillos in there from last year, okra, a batch of frozen French fries we just put in yesterday too. The store bought stuff is annoying if I lost, but the home grown stuff is like a punch in the gut. You spend all winter planning and tweaking, then all spring doing back breaking work, Have a generally good year all to be compromised in a 24 hour period. Luckily, wasn't too bad.

 

[dragnlaw]

Well done Larry. I truly don't think you will lose much if anything at all. Most stuff can survive a 24 hour period.

Now along with all the yearly planning is going to be a contingency plan for when storms are lurking off the coast. You generally get a two day warning, maybe not knowing just how hard it will hit but an inkling, to be able to plan accordingly.

Plus a harvesting plan - storm comings and gardens - hmmm

 

[taxlady]

Well done Larry. I truly don't think you will lose much if anything at all. Most stuff can survive a 24 hour period.

Now along with all the yearly planning is going to be a contingency plan for when storms are lurking off the coast. You generally get a two day warning, maybe not knowing just how hard it will hit but an inkling, to be able to plan accordingly.

Plus a harvesting plan - storm comings and gardens - hmmm

This is becoming more relevant. Scientists say that we can expect more and stronger storms with global climate heating.

 

[dragnlaw]

This is becoming more relevant. Scientists say that we can expect more and stronger storms with global climate heating.

Now taxy... all you have to do is explain that to the plants . On which days they are allowed to ripen and when they must wait.