Get Ready for Market

Rainbow Chard

Friday was harvest and get ready for farmer's market day. I picked a couple of bunches of swiss chard and harvested some buggy and wilty leaves for the chickens.

Benning's Green Tint pattypan

Some nice patty pan squash, both green and yellow.

Gold Rush Zucchini

Some Gold Rush yellow Zucchini along with some green ones.

trapped by the zucchini plants!

Rainbow Carrots

Rainbow Beets

I pulled some rainbow carrots and beets. They are as much fun to look at as they are to eat.

when you can't find the muffin tin

Last week was National Farmer's Market week and our market always chooses that Saturday as Customer Appreciation Day. We have a free cupcake bar where you can frost and decorate your own cupcake. So I made a batch to take. A friend told me next time to put the papers inside a canning jar ring.

mixed tomatoes

I had ladies lined up waiting to snag the nicest tomatoes in the box as soon as the bell rang!  (at our market we are only allowed to sell during the set hours, marked off by the vigorous ringing of a cowbell by the market manager)

eggs from the Compost Chickens!

The Compost Chickens outdid themselves this week with 13 eggs!

HARVESTING

Swill Chard

Fridays during the summer are my big harvest days, getting ready for our Saturday Globe-Miami Farmer's Market.

This bed of Swiss Chard was looking a bit ratty so I harvested some for market. I cut back the rest and gave it some fresh compost. It should perk up in a week or so. The rest of the leaves will go to the chickens.

after cutting and top dressing

Rainbow Carrots

The carrots have not fared so well this year. The soil is just not in the best shape yet. Also I don't think they got enough water when it was really hot.

Rainbow Beets

The beets on the other hand have done very well! The big yellow ones weigh just over 2 pounds each!

Gold Rush Zucchin

The Gold Rush Zucchini, on the other hand are doing very well this week. The rain we had really perked them up. However, they are sprawling in the walk way and it's hard to get through the hoop house!

Large Red Cherry tomatoes

I picked almost 10 pounds of cherry tomatoes and about 20 pounds of large tomatoes. Oops. I forgot to take a picture of all the big tomatoes!

Harvest Monday

Zucchini, Rond di Nice

 Thanks to Daphne's Dandelions for hooking up gardeners all over the world for Harvest Monday!

Another first this week, the Italian zucchini Rond di Nice (round from Nice). This one weighed in at 1 lb, 2 oz, the next one was 2 lbs, 6 oz. I ate the first as a salad, chopped with salt and pepper and a sprinkle of balsam vinegar. The second I sold at the farmer's market.

Red Pontiac and Mountain Rose

I dug all the Red Pontiac potatoes left and grubbed gently around some of the other varieties. The others aren't really ready yet but I found a few Mt. Rose. They are the bright red ones. I don't know if they will hold onto that bright color as they get more mature but if they do then I will probably switch to them for a large planting next year. They will probably sell better at the market than the lighter colored Pontiacs.

Princepe Borhgese & Snow White tomatoes

I picked over 4 lbs of small tomatoes, mostly the Princepe Borghese, with a few Snow White and Red Currants. I sold most of them at the farmers market; no one else has any tomatoes yet. But people are looking for slicers so next year I will try and get my big tomatoes planted much earlier and try and have tomatoes in early June.

I forgot again to take my camera to the market so no pic of my table. I didn't sell any chard or greens this week but two other venders also had greens. I did sell a couple of herb plants and will try and get some more cuttings taken and potted up, especially of my different mints.

The broken branch from the peach tree that I put in a jug of water in the kitchen softened up all it's peaches, there were 28 altogether.

strawberries and plum

A few strawberries trickled in and a few plums with bird pecks were blown off the tree in the wind.

Rainbow carrots

A few small rainbow carrots. These are Lunar White, Amarillo Yellow and Purple Dragon. I love the look of the Dragon's when you slice them, bright orange insides with red/purple outsides.







And YAY! we finally got some rain. Our last rain was March 18. Sat. afternoon a huge storm rolled in and we got .2". This morning the air smells so good and fresh. I love it when it rains. That storm was a total surprise tho, it wasn't on our forecast! and totally unexpected. I'm hoping for more very soon, that would be a big boon to the garden and really help with the water bill!