This has been cantaloupe week here in South Carolina. None have been overly large, but there have been several. Eating a juicy cantaloupe while sitting on the back porch swing is a quintessential summer activity. As much as I'm ready for autumn and some cooler weather, cantaloupe brings nostalgia for long summer days.
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| Eating cantaloupe on the porch |
Perhaps I'm just nostalgic for summer vacation. I've only been back to work for two weeks, but I'm really happy to have Labor Day off. It has given me time to catch up on fall planting in the garden and getting veggies cooked and preserved. One thing I did was to chop up a pile of peppers. Some will be frozen and the rest will be sauteed and eaten with fajitas tomorrow.
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| Lots of lovely sweet bell peppers |
We finally got a good three inches of rain from hurricane Hermine last week, so I'm hoping it will give new life to some of the summer veggies that have been looking a bit pathetic. I've been getting a few eggplants this week. I know I haven't had too many yet because I'm not tired of them. Eggplant is one of those veggies that I like, but not in large quantities. I roasted the eggplant along with some okra. Then I threw the veggies with some quinoa and feta for a quick and simple meal to eat during the week.
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| A little basket of Long Purple and Black Beauty Eggplant |
This was the year that I experimented with growing some different varieties of pumpkin. I struggle with pumpkins due to vine borers, squash bugs, wilts and powdery mildew. The goal was to find some varieties that can survive all these problems. If you check out last week's harvest report you will see that the Dickinson Pumpkins have been a large success and will become a regular in my garden. This week I harvested the first of my other experimental pumpkin variety, Seminole Pumpkins. These are much smaller than the Dickinson Pumpkins. Mine are a little over 2 lbs each, but one vine has grown well and has probably 15 pumpkins on it. It has definitely thrived despite the all the potential problems. From what I've read it is very good at storing. The one downfall I've read about so far is that it may take an ax to open them! I haven't tried yet, but I will report back about opening and cooking one of these little Seminole Pumpkins soon.
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| Seminole pumpkins |
I also harvested and froze some soybeans...
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| Blanched soybeans ready for the freezer |
along with some green beans. I make and freeze my lunches well in advanced. One of my favorite lunches is lentil loaves with green beans. I now have enough lentil loaves and green beans to make it through the entire academic year.
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| Green beans |
Weekly Harvests (lbs):
Summer squash
0.16
Peppers
3.98
Okra
0.66
Cucumber
0.81
Green beans
0.96
Tomatoes
2.26
Eggplant
0.61
Melon
16.01
Winter squash
5.36
Soybeans
0.84
Gourd
1.47
Yearly Total: 752.3 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.
The Seminole pumpkins look great. They did quite well for me last year, so I'm not surprised they like your climate. I was able to cut mine open with a good sharp chef's knife, and thankfully no axe was needed! And I find that skin gets pretty soft after cooking. Not edible, but flexible like a butternut. Those cantaloupe look yummy too!
ReplyDeleteWell, I'm envious of both the pumpkin and the green beans. It was a bad fresh bean year (again!) so I only have one bag of Romanos in the freezer and NO snap beans. Next year will be better!
ReplyDeleteAnd lucky you harvesting all those Seminole pumpkins - I would have been happy with one! My plants had a bad start to the season so, even though they are huge, it looks like I won't be harvesting any this year. I'll try again next year and in the meantime, I'm eager to hear your report once you crack one open.