Saturday, October 31, 2009

2009 Harvest Total - Part 1

Over the next few days I will be putting up my harvest numbers and discussing various aspects of my harvest. First a couple of notes:

1) I did not get a scale until harvesting was under way, so some of the early harvests (radishes for example) simply weren't weighed and I have no way to really estimate the harvest. Some things (turnips for example) I have good numbers for the later harvest and none for the early.

2) Some things just never got weighed and never had a chance. My Tumbling Tom tomatoes and ground cherries would be good examples. I snacked on them while working in the garden/yard. I ate a LOT of them, but running in to weigh them would have reduced my enjoyment of them, so, oh well.

3) Some items, herbs primarily, I did not weight because I was usually in a hurry using them or I was drying them, should I use the dry or wet weight?

So, lets get to the big number first, with the understanding that this is actually not a complete number by any means, my spreadsheet says 356 lbs, 224 oz, which, oddly enough comes out to be

370 lbs

I have no idea how that measures up. I have no idea what the real number is, but this is what I have accurately recorded. It doesn't seem like a lot for some reason, but I know how much enjoyment it was, and how much work it was.


Sunday, October 18, 2009

Non-Explosive Cabbage and Bacon

Some of my cabbage survived the hydrostatic pressure and is quite tasty.

Had my Mom on my mind this morning so I made some fried bacon and cabbage.

Yummy!!!!

Friday, October 16, 2009

Some Seed Saving

Trying to work on some of the core gardenening skills and decided to save more seeds of my own this year. The seeds I saved from last year did pretty well. The watermelons in particular came out really tasty, although they were not very prolific. I am not sure that didn't have to do with weather, but.... .

Here we have three saved seeds. Those are Costoluto Genovese tomato seeds at the top, zinnia seeds on the lower left and Charantais melons on the lower right. We will have to wait to see, but I am tempted to drop some seeds in a pot to check viability.

Monday, October 12, 2009

Pumpkin Harvest

We officially harvested the pumpkins this weekend. We got 82 lbs 10 oz of pumpkins. Some of them are still shiny as moisture condensates on them because we just brought them in.

Trying to figure out which one to cut up and save for Thanksgiving.

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Along Came A Killer Frost

We had a hard frost this morning.

We had good notice so I spent a lot of time last night getting potted herbs in the garage and finishing harvesting a lot of the plants.

Got the Basil, Tarragon, Thyme, Oregano, and Rosemary inside.

Left in the garden? Sweet potatoes, ground cherries, pumpkins, watermelons, Charantais, zuchs, squash, and the pepper plants with a bunch of little peppers which I will probably never see.

Brought in the last of the tomatoes, picked every pepper worth picking (thinking hotsauce), cabbage, broccoli, chard, onions, shallots, cucumbers, etc.

Working on some totals for harvest this year so I can contribute over at Freedom Gardens.

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Charantais Melons Surprise Me



Here we have a few of my Charantais melons. I got the seed from seedsavers and they were great. High germination rate, and very successful. What is odd is that I got 18 melons. I still have about ten out there (will have to bring them all in soon) and all but one of them are within an ounce of one pound each. They are between baseball and softball sized. Except one that got to almost three pounds. I have no idea why this one melon got so much bigger while all the others, including ones on the same vine, stayed smaller.

I cannot tell you how amazing the aroma of these melons are. One day I walk into the garden and a strong, heavenly smell just coats the garden. Its the Charantais. The entire garden smells magnificent. When I cut into them, the aroma just floods the room. Amazing.

The taste is identical to a top notch cantaloupe, but that aroma puts them over the top.

Monday, October 5, 2009

When Cabbages Explode...

I have read that cabbages and other vegetables can actually explode if they get too much water all at once. I have seen tomatoes split, but I have never seen anything like this. the hydrostatic pressure must have been pretty intense to split that guy all way through! Try and take a nice fresh head of cabbage and tear it in half with your bare hands.

Sunday, October 4, 2009

Still Harvesting

Potatoes from a bucket on the deck. Onions that were still in the ground. Carrots from the garden. Some organic beef and celery. Stew. So yummy! So filling on an overcast, cool day.