Harvest Monday

Eggplant, yellow zucchini and a lone tomato

Welcome to Harvest Monday, a lovely blog hop hosted by Dave over at Happy Acres Thanks Dave! This week's harvest is mighty thin in most areas.

Loads of Cucuzzi

There were some eggplants, a yellow zucchini and a lone tomato.The bulk of this weeks vegetables were the cucuzzi gourds. This is an edible gourd from Italy that I'm growing for the first time. So far I find it tastier than zucchini.

Esmarelda's milk production has exploded

I am not totally sure why Esmarelda's milk production has increased, perhaps slightly cooler weather combined with her kids being 5 months old and not nursing as much. 

Monday she was just half a pint short of a gallon

Tuesday night a gallon plus just over a pint

So I made the decision to start milking twice a day, to help keep her more comfortable and ward off possibilities of mastitis. She leaks slightly if she's too full and that increases the risk of mastitis.

fresh eggs

Egg production is still down, mostly the newest layers are giving me 5 a day. However I'm wondering if finding a diamondback in the big hen house has anything to do with no eggs from those girls for a couple weeks now.

 Nida's Peach

The peaches I harvested last week were getting soft ripe and delicious. Some of the bird pecked ones were beginning to rot so they went to the chickens. Most of the remainder went to my farmers market customers.

This weeks' totals (not including rots and gardener snacks)

Eggplant 1# 3 oz

Zucchini 1#

Cucuzzi 12# 4 oz

Peaches 5# 10 oz

Eggs 49

Milk

Bambi 42.5 pints or 5.75 gallons

Esmarelda 49 pints or 6 gallons + 1 pint

Farmer Friday

baby cucuzzi, an edible gourd from Italy

The Cucuzzi is running rampant and putting out gourds like crazy. I've been taking them to the farmers market and have had a few adventerous folks buy. Some have come back for more. Too bad the goats didn't care for them!

Maximillian Sunflower

I don't have nearly the flowers this year that I've had in the past but there are a few. The Maximillian is a periennial sunflower.

egg production is still low

Still not a lot of eggs. I have one pen laying thin shells despite using all the usual remedies. I also suspect an egg eater in that pen.

Pinto Bean doesn't feel good!

Miss Pinto Bean was showing signs of summer or silent pneumonia so I have been having to give her antibiotic shots. I caught it pretty early so hopefully she will kick it quickly.

Esmarelda

Esmarelda's milk production has jumped off the charts. Usually she gives me 2-4 pints milking just in the evening with her triplets with her 24/7. On Monday night she was huge and milked half a pint short of a gallon. On Tuesday night she at just over 9 pints. So I made the decision to start milking twice a day to keep her more comfortable and to help prevent any issues like blown teats or mastitis.

Prickly Pear Icecream

In my ice cream recipe I replaced the 1 1/2 cups of milk with prickly pear juice. It is not as creamy smooth as my regular vanilla but still was very yummy. This video below includes the recipe in the description,  you may have to watch it in YouTube.

A tiny baby lizard

faucets need new washers

Both my kitchen faucets have been dripping but the hot water had begun leaking so bad I couldn't even tighten it up enough to get it down to a slow drip. So I had to take them apart and replace the washers. Not hard, really but I did have other things to do.

trial batch of goat milk shampoo bars

early morning visitor

Friday harvest

Most of this weeks harvest was cucuzzi gourds and Japanese eggplant. And a lone yellow zucchini

Nida's peach

The peaches I picked a bit early to save from the squirrel and birds have been sitting in a flat in the living room where they would be cooler than the kitchen. Some of the bird pecked ones started rotting so I rinsed off all the good ones with a little vinegar water and put them in the fridge. They were getting soft ripe.

Never ending dishes when you do your own dairy

Thanks for stopping by. Hope you have a wonderful week. Don't forget to stop by next week for Harvest Monday, where I total up all the things I harvested during the week.

Harvest Monday

Prickly Pear

Welcome to Harvest Monday! This is a blog hop that I used to participate in regularly and I'm trying to get back in the swing of things here. You can see more participating blogs here; Harvest Monday

This past week I harvested about 24 pounds of prickly pear cactus fruit.

Cucuzzi gourd

Thanks to the Hollar Homestead over on YouTube for showing this new vegetable. So I knew what it was when I saw the seeds. It does however look like it might take over the world!

Eggs and bird pecked peaches

I don't think I counted the peaches, just tasted the better parts of them. They are firm ripe but not yet super sweet and juicy. However I am battling the squirrels and birds for them! The peaches are from a seedling tree I call Nida's Peach after the lady I bought it from. See more of that tree here.

Not sure what the round egg plant is, the others are Japanese in different colors

Ready to go to the Farmers Market

Not a huge haul this week, the tomatoes are petering out because it was so hot in June and July they couldn't set fruit. There are some more cherry tomatoes out there because they always come through.

So this weeks totals are;

Prickly Pear 22 pounds

Eggplant 2 pounds 8.5 ounces

Tomatoes 2 pounds 8 ounces

Zucchini 3 pounds

Cucuzzi 8 ounces

Eggs 51

Milk almost 9.5 gallons

Hopefully I'll manage to keep up this week. Enjoy the blog hop and I'll see you next time.

Harvest Monday

Tokyo Long White onions

Welcome to Harvest Monday, a blog hop brought to you by Daphne's Dandelions. Hop on over and visit with other gardeners from around the world.

This was a great week in the garden. Besides loads of greens, which I didn't photograph, since you've all seen them before, there were these nice green onions.

Rainbow Carrots

More Rainbow Carrots

First Eggplant

The first eggplant, small but yummy in a stir fry with the onions and carrots.

salad tomatoes

Over four pounds of tomatoes, most of which I sold Sat. morning at the farmer's market. In the very center you can see a few Red Currant, the yellow/cream ones are Snow White and the red ones are Princepe Borghese.

new potatoes

These yellow potatoes are probably Yukon Gold, but I'm not sure. They were sprouting in the kitchen and I planted them in 2 gallon pots. This batch weighed a half a pound.

peaches with squirrel marks and complete with ants

I opened the door Sun. afternoon to catch a squirrel in the act of running off with one of my peaches, that one in the lower left. I thought the tree looked a bit funny this morning. So I picked these that were left on it. Some had ant damage but not much needed to be cut out. I peeled and cut them up for my yogurt, some went in the freezer and some in the fridge.

Plums

After the squirrel thing I went and shook down the plum tree, some bird pecks and some wrinkles, but no ants. I might make some plum butter and then again I might just eat them all up.

More Rainbow Carrots

 On Sunday evening I went ahead and cleared up the rest of the Rainbow Carrots and the potatoes from a bed out front. I have about 6 artichoke plants that will go in that bed now, with perhaps some bush beans between them since they are small.

Russet potatoes

 These potatoes were from some grocery store spuds that sprouted in the kitchen.


 You can check out yesterdays post for a garden tour and preview of  some up coming harvests.

Around the Garden

first eggplant

While we still haven't had any rain (since March 18!) the garden is growing well. The first eggplant of the season is a pretty bright purple.

hollyhock

This hollyhock is actually more purplish than the pink in the picture.

Back garden looking SW

The back garden really is becoming a jungle. The corn is tasseling and I've spotted the beginnings of some ears. Hollyhocks are blooming, the carrots and parsnips are still blooming and setting seed, in the lower left you can see the red burgundy amaranth.

Amish Paste Tomatoes

The Amish Paste tomatoes are filling in their cages and beginning to set some fruit. I need to check up on the flower clusters and make sure they are all setting in this heat. If not I'll try and find something to shade them a bit in the heat of the afternoon.

plums

The plums are almost ready; a few had bird pecks and fell off already, can't wait for the rest to ripen!

summer apples

The summer apples are coming along really well. Best crop this tree has ever had!

Baby Blue Hubbard

The Baby Blue Hubbard squash on the compost pile are growing well (along with the cantaloupes planted with them) but it looks like they need a shot of iron supplement.

my cheap gazing ball

Under the peach tree is my cheap gazing ball; an old light globe sitting on a copper carafe stand.

waterlily

The waterlily is blooming some more.

peaches

The peaches on the tree are still quite firm, but really getting some color to them.

broken branch of peaches

The broken branch which I saved by sticking it in a jug of water in the kitchen is doing pretty well. These peaches are getting soft and sweet and falling off one or two a day. While not the best peaches I ever ate they aren't the worst either. At least they are soft and sweet, unlike the green balls at the grocery store.

I counted and there were actually 28 peaches on this branch. I definitely need to do a better job of thinning!

Harvest Monday

Purple Dragon Carrot blossom-white

Boy what a week, so glad that's over! In addition to working my 40 hours I promised a friend to help with their vacation bible school because they were doing a weaving and dyeing unit and I know how to do those things. So all my evenings were taken up with that; I had to get up at 4am to water things.

So I didn't really get any pictures of my harvests this week, although I did harvest tomatoes, chard, amaranth, sorrel, some herbs and more of the Red Pontiac potatoes. Love this Harvest Monday blog hop sponsored by Daphne's Dandelions!

pink carrot blossom

The Purple Dragon carrots and really blooming up a storm. And I spotted an unusual blossom; this one is pink instead of white. I'll tag the stem and save those seeds separately just to see if it's passed on to the offspring.

corn

The Golden Bantam corn seems to have taken off overnight. It is now taller than the blooming carrots (on the left of the bed) and showing signs of tasseling, although I don't see any ears or silks yet.

Hale's Best

The Hale's Best Jumbo melon that I planted in the cold frame has a good sized fruit. Something is digging under the plants tho, either a rat or a ground squirrel and I have a rabbit nibbling on the outer edges of the vine. The digging killed some of the vines and a couple of the bean plants. But I don't see any hole in the ground around the frame where I could easily set a trap.

Bonanza Dwarf Peach tree

I came home on Friday to find a large branch had broken off my little peach tree (seen here under some nylon net to foil the birds). The leaves weren't very wilted so I took it in the kitchen and stuck it in a jug of water. The leaves revived and I'm hoping that at least the peaches will soften up enough to eat. It's my own fault; I didn't thin it nearly enough, there are probably 30 peaches on that branch!

Italian Heirloom Tomato

The Italian Heirloom Tomatoes out front are setting fruit.

Tomato Alley

The tomatoes on the patio are going like gangbusters, especially the Princepe Borghese. You can also see that the Tromboncinno squash have grown past the roof line and been guided sideways.

plum tree with bird netting

I put bird netting over the plum tree. Maybe I will actually get a few really ripe plums for me this year!

Eggplants in pots

The eggplants are doing well and beginning to bloom

pepper plants

I did manage to amend the bed where the peas had been and planted out the peppers that were in 1 gallon pots. Some of them are beginning to bloom.


I didn't get any pictures but I did take some chard, mixed greens, tomatoes and potatoes and sold most of it at the farmer's market on Sat. The tomatoes were snatched up quick. In fact most vendors were out of produce in about 45 minutes! Hopefully this week will be a little less crazy and I'll get a chance to take more pictures this week.