Today is a double report. I missed last Monday because the semester started and I went back to work. Transitioning from the lazy days of summer to the hectic days of the fall semester is jarring. Add to that fall seeds that needed planting and veggies that needed harvesting and cooking. Needless to say I've been busy, so you will have to use your imagination this week as I didn't take very many pictures!
The big harvest that I'm excited to share is the biggest pumpkin I've ever grown. If you live in the land of vine borers, then you will understand my enthusiasm for successfully growing a large pumpkin.
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| My 20.8 lb Dickinson pumpkin and Domino making sure he still gets all the attention! |
This is my first year growing Dickinson pumpkin and I've been very pleased. From one vine I've gotten two 7 lb pumpkins and now this 20 pounder, plus there's another smaller one on the vine. This pumpkin vine hasn't been phased by vine borers or squash bugs or the heat and humidity. I have searched the internet and have assembled 40 different pumpkin recipes to try!
On the topic of winter squash, I also harvested several butternuts. I think I am going to have plenty of winter squash to make it through the winter this year!
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| Waltham Butternut |
I've also grown to like the edible gourd more than I first reported. Peeling the skin makes all the difference. I've been roasting them with other veggies and they are quiet tasty, plus they can come in fun spiral shapes. They also seem to be picking up production as the last of my summer squash have given up the will to live.
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| Serpente di Sicilia Edible Gourd |
My second round of corn did not fair so well. The ears and even the stalks didn't get very big and they got devoured by corn earworms. This year was definitely not the year for corn. I did manage to salvage some ears for a few dinners.
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| Honey Select Corn |
This is a basket of some of the other regular harvests (tomatoes, cucumbers, a few red noodle beans, eggplant, peppers, yellow squash) along with a couple of unwelcome visitors.
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| Basket of summer vegetables along with two tomato hormworns! |
It's a good thing I got an abundance of tomatoes a few weeks ago, because now the tomato plants are looking very sad and producing very little. They have the combination of late blight, hornworms and those annoying tomato sucking bugs. I've found six hornworms so far. It's amazing how hard it is to find them on the plants. I hosed the tomato plants down with neem oil and Bt to help with the bugs, but there's not much that can be done about late blight. I try to pick varieties that are supposedly resistant to late blight, but that seems to not apply here! Although some are definitely hit harder than others. The Sungold, Plum Regal and Mr. Stripey seem to have the least blight damage. Cherokee Purple, San Marzano and Amish Paste are hit the worst. I love the taste of Cherokee Purples, but I may have to stop growing them. I never get very many due to cracking, blight and an assortment of bugs.
Weekly Harvests for Two Weeks (lbs):
Summer squash 3.0
Peppers 4.7
Okra
1.5
Cucumber 8.2
Green beans 3.2
Tomatoes
15.0
Eggplant 2.2
Melon 7.3
Winter squash 31.6
Gourd 0.5
Corn 1.7
Yearly Total: 719.2 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.
