These are Sungold tomatoes, which are deliciously sweet cherry tomatoes. For me this is the true indication that summer has arrived.
However, I have a sad tomato story. On Saturday I was weeding around the tomatoes and there were five ripe Sungolds. My basket was on the other side of the garden, so I picked the little tomatoes and put them in the path so that I would see them. I continued on with my gardening and when I came back to collect my little tomatoes, they were gone! Instead of tomatoes, there was a guilty looking Domino!
Good thing he has those sad eyes and the pathetic, "are you mad at me?" look that makes it hard for me to stay angry.
There was an abundance of other veggies this week. I harvested most of the broccoli heads, which amounted to a little over 6 lbs.
We had steamed broccoli for several meals, but with the abundance of broccoli I froze the rest. This was one of my gardening goals for this year: grow enough broccoli to freeze.
My banana peppers are doing very well and I harvested over 2 lbs, which I used to can some pepper rings that I will post about later this week.
I've switched to one of my summer greens, amaranth. The aphid explosion I had earlier this year seems to have gotten better. These get cooked with eggs for breakfast along with any other random veggies I have on hand.
I'm still harvesting the New Mama Super Sweet corn. I am obsessed with grilling corn although the last time I meant to set a timer and got distracted online and almost burnt it!
Some of the ears are only partially filled, which may be due to poor pollination or insects (Japanese beetles or earwigs) eating the silks. I've also run into some ears with corn earworms. I usually just take out the worm, cut out the bad spots and continue with my corn eating. Organic gardening and eating isn't for those that are squimish about bugs!
Other harvests this week include cucumbers, summer squash, green beans, okra and bell peppers.
I have been making and eating cucumber salads this week. I will need to start pickling soon.
I also discovered I way to cook okra that isn't slimy and disgusting! You can read about it here. J got to eat his first ever okra and said it is was fine, luckily he wasn't witness to the slimy blob of okra I had prior to cooking!
Weekly harvests:
Broccoli 6.3 lbs
Onion 1.5 lbs
Amaranth 4.6 oz
Summer squash 2.4 lbs
Peppers 2.3 lbs
Okra 5.7 oz
Corn 5.4 lbs
Cucumber 7.9 lbs
Green beans 15.1 oz
Tomatoes 2 oz
Yearly harvests: 185 lbs
That's all the harvests coming from my garden this week. To see what others are harvesting, check out Harvest Monday on Our Happy Acres.
It's sad but funny about your four-legged thief. What a nice abundance of banana peppers! Corn is nowhere near ready here now, but we always have problems with damaged silks. And yes, it is earwigs that are the culprit. It's maddening. I absolutely agree that you cut out worm-damaged portions and enjoy the rest, though a non-gardener would disgustedly throw the whole thing out.
ReplyDeleteI will add earwigs to my evil bug list. It seems the list is getting longer and longer!
DeleteSounds like Domino has good taste eating those Sungolds! I've never tried roasting okra though. I just learned to embrace the slime. And I agree with you about dealing with the occasional bug on my food. I'd rather deal with that than wonder whats been sprayed on non-organic food. Even when I wasn't growing all organic it was still tough to keep worms off the corn. Your cucumber salad sure looks cool and refreshing!
ReplyDeleteI'm impressed that you are able to embrace the slime. I can embrace bugs on my food much better than slime!
DeleteGreat summer time vegetables. I'm still a bit away from cukes and tomatoes. My wife grew up in the South and absolutely detests okra, I couldn't get her to eat it no matter what the recipe. Can't blame Domino for eating the Sun Golds. You didn't expect him to eat broccoli did you?
ReplyDeleteOddly enough Domino also loves broccoli. At least he won't eat off the plants, but if I'm cutting some broccoli he will gladly take any extra pieces. When I pull up broccoli plants he will run off to chow down as though I just gave him a delicious bone! I always call myself a bad Southern because I don't like grits, collard greens or okra!
DeleteSungold is a popular variety of tomato here too we are growing it again this year but so far it only has one or two flowers and no fruits. At least Domino left the broccoli for you. One of our plot neighbours wondered where his broccoli was going until we spotted his dog snapping the heads off the plants and eating them.
ReplyDeleteHe does like broccoli, peas, beans, strawberries and of course tomatoes. I even caught him eating a bolted radish once!
DeleteWonderful, varied harvests and hurray for the first tomatoes...always such an anticipated milestone in the summer garden! Great broccoli haul & that's wonderful that you were able to meet your goal. I froze a lot of broccoli last year and boy, was it ever welcome come winter. I don't think I've actually purchased broccoli since then!
ReplyDeleteAnd your comment about organic gardening & bugs made me laugh...so very true! Just like you kept your husband in the dark about the slimy okra, I keep the kids and my husband in the dark about the critters that I find in the greens before I give them their rinse :)
What they don't know won't gross them out! ;)
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