Harvest Monday 11/7/16

Our frost free days are numbered here.  The forecast shows below freezing temperatures for this coming weekend.  That means I'm going to be busy this week!

The summer veggies may be making their last appearance.  I harvested some of the remaining green beans.  I've had a good green bean year and have plenty in the freezer.

Blue Coco and Garden of Eden Beans

My giant okra plant that flopped over still produces.  I find it much easier to harvest when it is sideways, especially when I'm only five feet tall!  

Basket of okra from my sideways plant

The tomatoes slowly ripen although many of them have been damaged by an assortment of insects.  I've been harvesting them as soon as they are the tiniest bit red to get to them before the bugs do.  There's still quite a few green tomatoes out there. 

A mix of paste tomatoes

The summer veggie I always miss the most are sweet bell peppers.  I can't complain because this year has been a record pepper year for me, but I will still miss them.

How many peppers can I pile in a pail?

I'm also harvesting eggplants and more Seminole pumpkins.  I have quite a pumpkin pile growing on my kitchen counter.  This winter I will need to explore some new pumpkin recipes.

Seminole Pumpkins and Eggplants

I've also been working on shelling dried beans.  I've yet to weigh them, but the black beans have been the most productive.  I've also got pinto and kidney beans in there along with a few soybeans, which I'll be saving to replant next spring.  

A bowl of dried beans

On Sunday, two friends texted and asked what we were doing and I replied, digging up sweet potatoes.  Well, they showed up with a shovel and with four people it only took about 30 minutes to dig up all the sweet potatoes!  I've yet to weigh them, but there were some good sized potatoes.  There's definitely less than last year, but I did plant less because last year was 175 lbs and that was just ridiculous.  They need to cure for about two weeks at a warm temperature and high humidity. To attempt to get those conditions I put them on a heat mat and place a container of water inside while leaving the lid ajar. 

Sweet Potato Bounty

My harvested peanuts from last week should be dry by now.  I'm sure the squirrels ate some, but there seems to be plenty left.  I also had a suspiciously turned over wheelbarrow next to the fence where the peanuts were drying with some peanut shells scattered about.

Weekly Harvests (lbs):

Chard  0.81
Peppers  4.62
Okra   1.04
Green beans  0.88
Tomatoes   5.99
Eggplant 1.83
Winter squash 5.28
Sweet potato greens  0.42

Yearly Harvests: 954.6 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.

Harvest Monday 10/31/16

Last weekend we camped in the mountains of North Carolina and explored the Blue Ridge Parkway to view autumn leaves.  I missed harvest Monday last week because of our trip, so today's report is a two week harvest.  I love autumn with all the beautiful leaves, blue skies, cool weather and garden harvests, especially pumpkins!

Autumn along the Blue Ridge Parkway

In honor of Halloween, I'm updating the status of my big pumpkin that fell off the vine before it ripened.  I'm happy to say it is much, much more orange than before, but it does have a soft spot on one side.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that my big pumpkin continues to ripen and not rot.

My slowly ripening Dickinson Pumpkin

On the topic of pumpkins, I harvested another almost 2 lb Seminole pumpkin.

Seminole Pumpkin

I have gotten creative with cooking pumpkin.  My latest concoction is pumpkin pizza.  Instead of tomato sauce I used pumpkin puree with onions, garlic and fresh thyme.  I topped it with sauteed sweet potato greens, onions, mozzarella and parmesan.  I thought it was delicious!  J refused to try it, so I don't have a second opinion to report.

Pumpkin, sweet potato leaves and onion pizza

The biggest harvest over the past two weeks are peppers at 7.4 lbs.  I chopped and froze a bunch of them.  The rest have been roasted or sauteed with eggs for breakfast.  Peppers broke my harvest record this year at 77 lbs while last year I had 68 lbs.

Peppers and more peppers

I finally picked a descent amount of tomatoes this week.  I haven't harvested many tomatoes since August.  It looks like we don't have a first frost in the ten day forecast, so maybe I'll get even more tomatoes.  Our average first frost date is usually the end of October, but this year it looks like we should make it to at least the middle of November.

Paste Tomatoes

Green beans and okra continue to produce a bit each week.  Roasting is still my preferred cooking method for okra.  On our camping trip we cooked green beans and potatoes over the fire one night and bell peppers and onions another night.  We also had pumpkin muffins along with the greens and cheese hand pies I had made previously and froze.  It's fun to take the garden harvests along on a camping trip!

Green beans and okra

The first of the fall peas ripened in the garden.  Germination was not very successful, so I doubt there will be very many peas this fall.  We devoured these as soon as I took the photo!

The first of the fall peas

I finally shelled the dried cowpeas that have been sitting in the garage for at least a month.  This year was a very good year for cowpeas.  These jars hold 8 cups and there's still some cowpeas in the garden.

Dried Cowpeas

This is the season of digging in the garden for me.  The peanut leaves began to yellow, which meant it was time to harvest.  I dug up the peanuts and now they are drying on the fence.  I'm hoping the squirrels don't steal them all!  They need to dry for at least a week.  For once I am happy to see no rain in the weekly forecast so that my peanuts can dry.

Peanuts drying on the fence

Peanuts hang all around the garden.  The peanut harvest appears to be abundant this year.  We will see how many I end up with after the drying period.

Peanut harvesting and drying

Two Week Harvests (lbs):
Peas 0.14
Peppers 7.40
Okra   1.36
Green beans  2.39
Tomatoes   4.14
Eggplant 6.38
Melon  3.93
Winter squash 1.94

Yearly Harvests: 933.8 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.

Harvest Monday 10/17/16

We had perfect fall weather this past week and I spent some time cleaning up the garden.  What I really need to do is start digging up all the sweet potatoes.  The coming week is predicted to be warmer and the first frost is nowhere is sight for the next ten days, which means I will procrastinate digging up sweet potatoes!

Late fall garden with abundant sweet potato vines

With such nice weather, I spent time just being in the garden while procrastinating hard work like digging up sweet potatoes!  It won't be long until all the green will be gone, so it is time to savory the garden and all the critters that enjoy it as much as I do.

A bee enjoying marigolds

Some critters that enjoy my garden are not on the guest list, including this giant grasshopper.  I'm suspecting that he may be responsible for my disappearing fall seedlings!

Giant grasshopper on chard

As for harvests, the eggplants continue to produce well.  The plants have bent over with the weight of fruits.  I'm getting tired of eating eggplants, so these were passed on to a coworker.

Florida Market Eggplants

I spotted another giant grasshopper in the green beans.  Luckily the beans continue to provide harvests even though the leaves are looking munched and sad.  This week I roasted green beans with potatoes with a creamy tarragon dressing.  Delicious!  I have tarragon growing in the herb bed, but it is something I don't use often.  This dressing recipe may change that.

Garden of Eden and Blue Coco Beans

I harvested another little Seminole pumpkin at about 2 1/2 pounds.  I counted at least a dozen more little pumpkins growing on the same vine.  They may not all ripen before our first frost, but it has definitely been my best pumpkin year ever.

Seminole Pumpkin

The okra plant that toppled over from all the rain ended up toppling over in the opposite direction.  I attempted to right it again and broke a major part of the stem.  I decided to just leave it toppled over.  Despite all its troubles, I did harvest a bit of okra this week.  The tomatoes are slowly trying to make a comeback.  I will take all I can get!

A few tomatoes and okra

Peppers were the most abundant harvest this week at 3.9 lbs.  I have now harvested more peppers this year than last year.  I've been roasting and eating them with plans of freezing the extra.  However, for some reason I never seem to have extras.

Basket full of Peppers

Last week I harvested sweet potato leaves and this week I cooked them into these greens and cheese hand pies.  I really like these although I did change the recipe a bit to use whole wheat flour and coconut oil.  I froze a bunch of them before baking.  I hope they taste good after being frozen.  If so, I may be using a lot of sweet potato leaves to make hand pies to keep in the freezer.

Sweet Potato Greens and Cheese Hand Pies

Weekly Harvests (lbs):
Peppers 3.9
Okra 0.3
Green beans 1.6
Tomatoes 0.3
Eggplant 2.4
Winter squash 2.6

Yearly Harvests: 906.1 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.

Harvest Monday 10/10/16

This week we finally met autumn.  The temperatures are cooler and the skies are bluer.  Well, except for a few days of rain from hurricane Matthew.  We're far enough inland to miss the major path of the storm, but we did end up with about three inches of rain.  It thoroughly soaked the garden to the point of the massive okra plant toppling over.  I feel as though my okra plant is not of normal size.  Most of the ones I see in other gardens are tall, but have one or two main stems.

The giant okra plant toppled over from the rain.

The good thing is that picking okra is much easier now!  I did attempt to right the plant and propped it up with bricks and stakes.  The trunk didn't break, so it may survive.  If not, I've had plenty of okra from this one plant, 12 lbs to be exact.

Basket of eggplant, okra, edible gourd, Seminole pumpkin and a few tomatoes and cucumbers

Besides okra this week, I harvested another Seminole pumpkin that was almost 3 lbs along with a rather large edible gourd.  The remaining cucumber plants are putting out a few fruits.  The tomatoes appear to have lots of green tomatoes on them now, with a few making it into my basket.  I hope they have time to ripen.  So far the ten day forecast does not show any lows anywhere near freezing.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we'll have a late frost like last year.

Peppers were plentiful this week at 4.5 lbs.  The ones I don't eat this week will get frozen.

Basket of Sweet Peppers

Green beans are in the running for most resilient crop this year.  They have steadily produced since early summer.  This week I harvest 2.3 lbs of green beans.  I roasted a pile of them and then blanched and froze the rest.

Garden of Eden and Blue Coco Beans

I picked another cantaloupe at almost three pounds.  Several of the remaining melons cracked from all the rain and were swarmed by ants.  A couple of melons remain, so I may have a few more before the season ends.  I'm still not tired of eating melons.

Hale's Best Melon

In a few weeks I will need to start digging up the sweet potatoes.  The vines are growing rampantly.  I trimmed several of the vines to prevent them from taking over the young carrots, so now I have a pile of sweet potato greens to cook.  I wonder if they can be frozen like other greens?  When I harvest the sweet potatoes, I'm going to have a ton of leaves.  In the past they have gone to the compost, but this year I may experiment with freezing them and see how they do.

Sweet Potato Greens

Saturday it rained and rained and rained some more.  I decided to bake and puree one of my medium sized Dickinson pumpkins.  From a 7 lb pumpkin I got about 10 cups of pureed pumpkin.  From that I made pumpkin soup, a triple batch of pumpkin muffins and some treats for Domino's 7th birthday.

Pumpkin soup with grilled cheese and homemade pickles

Pumpkin Muffins

Pumpkin and Peanut Butter Treats for Domino's 7th Birthday

If you recall from last week, I had the tragedy of a giant pumpkin falling off the vine.  It seems to slowly be turning a bit more orange.  I'm still keeping my fingers crossed that it'll ripen.  Domino is also keeping his paws crossed because he's imaging all the treats that I can make from a pumpkin that big!

Weekly Harvest (lbs):
Peppers  4.5
Okra  0.95
Cucumber  1.45
Green beans  2.33
Tomatoes   0.24
Eggplant 1.74
Melon  2.73
Winter squash 2.86
Sweet potato greens  0.71
Gourd  1.31

Yearly Harvests: 895 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.

Harvest Monday 10/3/16

A tragedy occurred in the garden this week.  I had a giant Dickinson pumpkin growing along in the last row of my garden that is referred to as the squash jungle.  Any pumpkin that is 20 or more pounds is considered a giant in my garden.  Yesterday I discovered that he had broken from the vine!  I'm hoping it'll still ripen if I leave it in the sun.  We will see.

Not Quite Ripe Dickinson Pumpkin

In better news, my eggplants produced well this week at 5.3 lbs.  I roasted many of them and then made a double batch of Szechauan eggplant with some green beans and tofu.  My Serpente di Sicilia Edible Gourd vine also seems to be perking up and producing again.  We finally got some rain and cooler weather.

Eggplant and Serpente di Sicilia Edible Gourd

The Serpente di Sicilia Edible Gourd vine continues to grow.  I don't understand how the vine is still alive.  The base of the vine looks completely dead with wilted and brown leaves, but yet the vine continues to grow along the fence.  The amazing thing is that this is one plant.  It has produced 10.5 lbs of gourds so far this season, which sounds productive for one plant, but not so great when you see the size of the vine.

Serpente di Sicilia Edible Gourd vine taking over the fence

The peppers continue to plod along.  I've been roasting some of them, sauteing others and freezing the spares.

Antohi Romanian and Marconi Red Peppers

I also harvested an Armenian Cucumber, which hasn't happened in a month or two.  Surprisingly, this cucumber managed to dodge the pickle worms that have been infecting the other cucumbers.  I also continue to pick cantaloupes.  They appear to be getting smaller and smaller as the season goes on.

Armenian Cucumber and Cantaloupes 

Green beans and okra continue to do well.  Steamed green beans are a staple around here, making an appearance for dinner multiple times a week.  I really should freeze some more green beans.  I've also been roasting okra and mixing it with other vegetables.  My one okra plant has produced over 11 lbs this year.

It seems the tomatoes may be making a comeback.  There are several green tomatoes, so hopefully they'll have time to ripen before our first frost, which is typically around the end of October.  It also depends on those leaf-footed bugs that have been sucking the life out of my tomatoes.  I haven't seen as many in the garden lately, but perhaps that's because there aren't many tomatoes.

Leaf-footed Bug aka Destroyer of Tomatoes

Weekly Harvests (lbs):

Peppers 3.8
Okra   1.0
Cucumber  1.4
Green beans  3.0
Tomatoes  0.2
Eggplant 5.3
Melon  7.4
Gourd  2.2

Yearly Harvests: 876.2 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.

Harvest Monday 9/26/16

This week is scarce on photos, but not on harvests.  I had to breakout the wheelbarrow to haul everything from the garden.

Early Autumn Bounty

Winter squash made up the bulk of this week's harvests at 24 lbs.  I picked several butternuts and Seminole pumpkins along with one spaghetti squash and a Dickinson pumpkin.  I've now harvested 12 small pumpkins off one Seminole vine and there are still plenty more.  I'm glad that winter squash stores well because I doubt I could keep up with cooking these as I harvest them.

Eggplants were also abundant this week at 7.2 lbs.  I roasted some of them with peppers, a gourd and green beans to eat during the week.  I also cooked a green bean and eggplant stir fry, but forgot to take a picture.  The rest of the eggplants were roasted and frozen.

The big yellow melon in the wheelbarrow is an odd Moon and Stars watermelon.  Sadly it was not ripe.  The vine had died and it sounded hollow, so I was hoping for a delicious melon.  Luckily I had some cantaloupes instead.

First bite 

My peppers and okra are plodding along in the continued heat.  I've also been harvesting a good amount of green beans (3.8 lbs). The cherry tomatoes, cucumbers and edible gourds have made a small comeback.  Hopefully this past weekend will be our last 90 degree day for 2016.  I planted my remaining fall seedlings with hopes that some of them will survive.  The forecast predicts clouds and rain for the next two days, so I hope that'll give them time to get settled.  Now if only the seedling eating enemies will leave some for me! 

Weekly Harvests (lbs):

Peppers 1.9
Okra 1.1
Cucumber 0.9
Green beans 3.8
Tomatoes  0.6
Eggplant 7.2
Melon 6.6
Winter squash 24.3
Gourd 0.4

Yearly Harvests: 851.9 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.

Harvest Monday 9/19/16

The weather forecast for it to get cooler did not happen.  We had two days in the mid-80's and the rest went over 90, again.  Did I mention I'm tired of the heat?  We also have not seen any rain in weeks.  Perhaps the bugs are sucking the life out of my veggies because there's no water.

Despite the weather and the bugs, I still have some harvests to report.  I'm getting a good amount of melons.  They tend to be smaller and not as juicy, but they are still tasty.  I've had mostly cantaloupes, but did pick a small watermelon.  I haven't cut into the watermelon yet, so I'm hoping it's a good one despite its small size.

A bowlful of cantaloupe cubes

I also picked several more Seminole pumpkins.  Even though they are individually small, the vine is producing quite a few.  I've harvested seven so far and there's plenty more ripening.

Seminole Pumpkins

The peppers continue to produce.  They seem smaller than earlier in the season and tend to have some sun scalding and bug damage, but they are still delicious.  Peppers are one of my favorite vegetables and I've been freezing some for the winter.  They are also colorful and very photogenic!

Sweet Bell Peppers

My sad cucumber vines managed to produce a few little cucumbers.  I've only tasted the lemon ones so far and I'm happy to report that they are not bitter, which is impressive given the oppressive heat.  I would be bitter if I had to sit out in that heat and humidity all day!!

The green bean supply continues.  I harvested 3.3 lbs this week.  About 2 lbs went into the freezer and the rest were steamed for eating.

An assortment of beans to be frozen

The eggplants yielded some small fruits this week.  There are plenty more small eggplants growing.  I haven't seen as many leaf footed bugs this week.  Maybe they have moved on and the eggplants can thrive for the next month until that first frost comes.

Black Beauty, Long Purple and Florida Market Eggplants

I was searching for recipes to cook with an odd variety of pumpkin, eggplant and peppers and stumbled upon a curry that used all three.  It called for spinach, but I used my sweet potato greens instead.  The curry had a great flavor, although it took longer than thirty minutes for my pumpkin to get tender.

One Pot Eggplant, Pumpkin and Chickpea Curry

I still had pumpkin leftover to use, so I made some pumpkin, oat and chocolate chips cookies.. yum!

Pumpkin-Oat Chocolate Chip Cookies

Weekly Harvest (lbs):

Peppers 1.7
Okra   0.96
Cucumber 1.1
Green beans  3.3
Tomatoes  0.36
Eggplant 2.7
Melon 10.4
Winter squash 6.0
Sweet potato greens 0.22

Yearly harvests: 805.2 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.