Monday, August 15, 2016

Harvest Monday 8/15/16

I spent most of this past week visiting family in Tennessee.  This is what it looks like when I pack for a drive in the summer:

Domino and garden veggies are ready for the road.
Luckily Domino did not decide to have a snack while going for a car ride!

The big harvest this week was watermelon.  It was a good thing that I was visiting family because there is no way the two of us could have eaten the watermelon harvests alone with week.

The monster watermelon was a 29.7 lb Moon and Stars:

Me with my 29.7 lb Moon and Stars watermelon
My niece prying open the giant watermelon.
I'm always uncertain about when to pick watermelons, but luckily this monstrocity was ripe and sweet and juicy.  We had plenty to eat and then sent everyone home with chunks of watermelon.

The second watermelon this week was a 13.1 lb Charleston Grey.

Charleston Grey watermelon
It was also good and ripe.  This variety is crispy and sweet and made a good addition to a summer picnic.

The melons definitely got the spotlight this week and the other harvests got neglected and did not get their photos taken.  J got to do the harvesting while I was gone and did a good job.  There were some squash and zucchini, peppers, okra, cucumbers, green beans and eggplant,  I came home to a big pile of tomatoes (38.7 lbs), which I need to work on cooking today.  He wasn't too fond of picking green beans or okra, so I need to get out there and do some more harvesting.  I froze some more soybeans before I left.  I have learned that it is much, much easier to blanch and then shell the soybeans instead of shelling first.

Besides dealing with all the harvests, it is time to get fall seeds planted.  I need to plant onion, pea, radish, lettuce and chard seeds this week, which means I have to make room in the garden for them!  It is going to be a busy and hot week for me!

Weekly Harvests (lbs):

Summer squash  1.3
Peppers  3.7
Okra   0.3
Cucumber  8.9
Green beans  0.75
Tomatoes  38.7
Eggplant 0.3
Melon  42.8
Soybeans 1.86
Gourd  0.35

Yearly Total: 605 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.

7 comments:

  1. The watermelons are impressive. If I could grow melons like those I would be very popular in this house.

    ReplyDelete
  2. That is one giant watermelon you got, as heavy as two bowling balls! And coming back to all those tomatoes, sounds like you will be busy saucing, juicing or cooking down into something. I made paste yesterday, and I have more tomatoes to deal with today, so I can identify. They will good to have come winter time though!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Domino looks so cute sitting in the car. What a bountiful harvest to be taking along to your family. No doubt they enjoyed all that delicious looking food.

    ReplyDelete
  4. That is certainly a huge, watermelon..

    ReplyDelete
  5. Moon and star watermelon is one of my favorite, that sure was a HUGE one. You sure are in for a busy week.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Oh I am LOVING that back seat photo! And OMG to that watermelon - well done! I've not tried growing watermelon yet, but it is on the "to try" list. Maybe next year now that I've more or less got the hang of growing in the bales. Great tip about the soybeans - I'll have to remember that once I eventually fit them into the garden too.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I can never seem to get fully mature watermelon, thinking my season is not quite long enough. Congrats on your harvests ... 600 pounds this year already!

    ReplyDelete