My Edible Garden

I've been gardening for most of my life and have been a devoted fan of organic gardening the whole time. It just makes so much more sense to work in harmony with Mother Nature than to fight her. Besides which it is better for the planet and better for our bodies. Here you can see what I'm planting and harvesting, with gardening hints and resources thrown in for good measure.

Monday, October 1, 2012

Harvest Monday

Northern New Mexico Melon
Welcome to Harvest Monday, a great blog hop sponsored by Daphne! Go on over and visit with other gardeners and see what is being harvested around the world from back yard gardens, balconies, and window boxes!

It seems I was terrible about taking pictures last week. I was working a huge number of hours and actually didn't harvest a lot, even tho there were things to be eaten.

I did have to climb up on the roof of the house. There are a lot of squash up there, but most are not ready to pick. But a couple of things were stuck in the rain gutter and actually spreading the metal apart as they grew. Got them out and found this Norther New Mexico Melon while I was up there. From the shape I'd say pollination was incomplete and watering a bit irregular, also something was eating on one end. It only weighted about 5 pounds, but it was as sweet and delicious as the 11 pound monster I picked before.

Sadly I don't seem to have any pictures, but I did pick more yellow wax beans, a few Italian Heirloom tomatoes, lots of small salad tomatoes, some more Burgess Buttercup squash. Hopefully my work will slow down a bit this week and I'll have time to take more pictures.

I did snap a few out in the chicken pen.
Harley

My young Welsh Harlequin drake gets prettier by the day. He got his curly drake feather on his tail, the other 3 ducks don't have one (yet, they are a bit younger) so they may all be ducks. Harley is getting the rich green feathers on his head now.






Welsummer X Americauna cross


I'm trying to decide sex on my young poults. They are Welsummer x Americauna, so they could lay olive eggs. They will be 6 months old in Dec, though I don't expect them to start laying until the days get longer in spring. Two look to have a single type comb like this one.








Welsummer X Americauna cross
Two of them have this funny sort of double comb. (I'm not really up on all the comb types and names. Didn't even realize there were different ones until just a few years ago.)

At first I thought these doubled combs would be roosters, but then realized that the Americauna have this sort of comb, while Welsummers have normal single combs. So still, anyone's guess at this point!

My apologies for not getting around to read and comment on everyone's posts last week. I tried, but I worked over 50 hours and just couldn't do it. Hoping this week is a bit easier!

13 comments:

  1. I love your poultry shots. I'm looking at your melon jealously wondering if its worth trying to grow them again this summer...so many crops...so little space...

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  2. Harley looks like he is going to be handsome fellow when he is all grown up. I love visiting my hens - they are so much fun to look at and watch as they do their chicken things that they do. ;)

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  3. Looks like you're having a good harvest week, and your birds are doing well.

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  4. Squash and melons on the roof? Now I've heard it all as to growing places. Hope your time is more your own this week.

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  5. Love Your melon, even if it´s a bit funny in shape! What a fantastic sight it must be to have squashes and melons up on Your roof! That´s a new one for me! :) Love Your Ducks and Pultry as well! Have a nice week! :) Mia

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  6. Love your duck. Very unusual comb that double one. Never knew there was such a thing.

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  7. What a nice find... up on the roof. Whatever made you look up there?

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  8. Ugly but good. Isn't it funny how we will tolerate that when it's coming out of our own garden but we are reluctant to accept that when we are paying for it? I'm guilty of that for sure. Your birds are so happy and healthy looking. One of my girls has a rose comb, it's sort of flattened and bumpy, very different from the typical upright single comb.

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  9. Beautiful shots of the ducks and chickens. How high is your roof? I would be afraid to climb onto a roof.

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  10. Be careful climbing on the roof. Glad the melon was good even if it wasn't pretty! Sounds like you had a good harvest even without pictures! Hope your not so busy next week. Nancy

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  11. You must really look forward to getting out into your garden(or roof)after all those hours at work.....
    Just love that photo of your pullet, she seems to be saying "who me".

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  12. Hope your upcoming week is more relaxed. Please be careful on the roof. Love all of your photos; your hens & ducks look beautiful. Olive eggs sound amazing; looking forward to seeing pics of them. Best wishes. :)

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