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, July 3, 2017

Harvest Monday

Cherry tomato mix
Linking up with Harvest Monday, a great blog hop with gardeners around the world showing off their harvests. Lots of fun!

This week I finally had enough cherry tomatoes for both my Superior customers and our Globe-Miami Farmers Market.  I picked almost 10 pounds. I think next week will be even better. Next year I don't think I'm going to plant to tiny currant tomatoes. They just take way too long to pick. I am liking the Italian grape tomato call Pandorino. They are a nice size, good flavor and heavy producers, 8-10 fruit in a cluster. On the other hand I am not liking the Blue Cream from Baker's Creek. They are really splitting badly and don't want to come off the stem. I will not plant them next year. Besides I wasn't impressed with the flavor. I much prefer my old Snow White.

yellow scallop squash
This weeks squash harvest was only a little over 20 pounds.  I had a day when the plants wilted badly which reduced yields. But next week should be better as I've been trying to keep them more evenly watered. 

Black Tail Mountain Watermelons
Amazingly I have watermelons. So far nothing is bothering them so next summer I'm going to plant a lot more. I still have Hopi Yellow melons but they were planted later. They are new to me. I am thinking about covering my hoop houses in hardware cloth so I can plant cantaloupes in them next summer and actually get some!

Just hatched butterfly
Sunday morning I saw a just hatched butterfly.  I think it's a double swallowtail, our Arizona State butterfly

before

after

Also on Sunday I spent a little while cleaning a weedy corner.  There is still more to do but it was getting too hot. The little bit of green left on that bed is actually carrots.

dried basil

I also spent some time stripping leaves from dried herbs and putting them in bulk bags until I have time to put them in smaller ones and label them for sale. 

I picked some green and yellow snap beans but forgot to take a picture.  
Albino & Golden beets, small onions

I pulled some Albino and Golden beets. They grow a little slower than red ones so I try to plant them in their own beds. 
I also had a few very small onions. One of my lists said plant in January. I didn't think that was right but tried a few. Very tiny bulbs. So will stick with Sept/Oct plantings.

I picked flowers too, sunflower, yarrow, zinnia, marigold. I don't think I got a picture of them tho.

This weeks harvests:
6-28
Cherry tomatoes 1# 4oz
Beans.                  1# 14 oz
Scarlet Kale.         1# 0 oz
Squash.                 3# 8 oz
6-29
Scarlet kale.         1 # 4 oz
Lancinata kale      2# 7 oz
Belinda potatoes.  30 # 0 oz
6-30
Cherry tomatoes.   8 # 4 oz
Sage.                            2oz
Italian basil.                10 oz
Thai basil.                    10 oz
Flat parsley.                 10 oz 
Curly parsley.                8 oz
Lovage.                         4 oz
Squash.                   20# 8 oz 
Black Tail Mt. Watermelon 29# 0 oz
Carrots.                     1# 0 oz
Beets w/greens.        2# 0 oz
Small onions.            2# 0 oz
5 bunches flowers

Harvest Totals Week June 26-July 2
cherry tomatoes       9# 8 oz
beans                        1# 14 oz
Kale                          4# 7 oz
potatoes                   30# 0 oz
herbs                        2# 8 oz
watermelon             29# 0 oz
carrots                      1# 0 oz
beets                        2# 0 oz
onions                     2# 0 oz
TOTAL                82# 3 oz
Harvest totals do not include all the things I ate while I was working!

7 comments:

  1. Hey, you can guess at what you ate! We do the same with strawberries. What a great harvest.

    ReplyDelete
  2. That is a lot of cherry tomatoes for sure! I'm with you on the currant tomatoes. I don't mind picking a few but some varieties are so small it takes forever. I am trying Snow White this year for the first time after tasting those a friend grew. I'll have to try the Pandorino next year. They sound like a real producer, and I believe they would be great for drying and roasting too.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Nice harvests. I've never been a fan of the small tomatoes but this year I'm growing Mountain Magic because it's blight resistant. The most vigorous tomato I'm growing is Black Plum,which looks to be a little smaller than a sauce tomato. The double swallowtail must be closely related to the tiger swallowtail we have around here (Indiana).

    ReplyDelete
  4. That's fantastic, your watermelons are doing really well and you're getting a lot of variety from your garden. I found a couple Tuscan melons that have set, but all the melon beds are way too shaded by the tomato plants.

    ReplyDelete
  5. We haven't any tomatoes yet not even green ones. I have never grown currant tomatoes but I can see how tedious they must be to pick.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Great harvest and varieties, I too am impressed with your watermelon.

    ReplyDelete
  7. What amazing watermelons! We have a heatwave here right now and it makes me think we could grow them maybe... but then "average" weather kicks in quickly and they don't like that. Lots of variety in your harvests, which are beautiful

    ReplyDelete