Harvest Monday

tender young squash

Welcome to Harvest Monday! I look forward to this blog hop so much it actually makes Monday bearable! Sponsored by our lovely friend and master gardener, Daphne! Go take a look and join in the fun with gardeners from around the world!

This has been a good harvest week, although there weren't any eggplants and only a few of the larger tomatoes, of which I don't seem to have a picture.

There were some lovely young squash, a yellow zucchini, white patty pan and a baby tromboncino

Pencil Pod Yellow Wax beans

There were almost 3 pounds of yellow wax beans. I really only have a small area of these, maybe about 24-28 square feet and they have been very productive. I planted Black Valentine at the same time, in the same area and only one plant germinated. In fact I had significant germination issues with beans this year. Since I also lost a lot of tomato plants to what looks like fusarium wilt, I'm thinking that is also the problem with the beans. But the yellow wax have done wonderfully.

Kentucky Wonder pole beans

There were a few Kentucky Wonder pole beans. I only have one teepee of these, about a dozen plants. I will not do teepees again, unless I can put the over the path to walk under them; it's too hard to find the beans on the inside when I don't want to walk on the bed.

I also picked lots of small tomatoes and am watching the tromboncino squash grow at an amazing rate. I have no idea how much the large ones are going to weigh but I"m sure they will top 10 pounds each.

A few months ago I was gifted some apples going bad, so I made some apple cider vinegar. I strained it out and there was just a little over a gallon. I will leave it for 6 months or so to clear, then siphon it off into smaller jars. I wrote a little about how to make vinegar on another blog I write, Cottage Economy. Someday I'll get around to writing a better, more detailed version of the instructions.

Apple butter and apple sauce

I bought some cooking apples at our Farmer's Market Saturday. The folks didn't know the name of them, but they were lovely, sweet-tart, crisp and juicy. So Saturday evening I made a large pot of apple sauce and canned 8 pints, then cooked down what was left some more and make 9 half pints of apple butter.

Have any of you tried these squatty half pints from Ball? I'm not really thrilled with them because they do not stack well. The jar bottoms are bigger than the lids and when stacked they are not very stable, the slightest jostle and they are falling over. Besides they cost more than regular jelly jars. So I think I"m going to stick with the regular ones from now on.  Most of the apple butter will probably go in as Christmas gifts.