Monday, August 25, 2014

Harvest Monday 25 August, 2014

I had to pick the rest of the peaches last Monday as they were starting to fall off the tree. This is half of them as the other half goes to the townhouse mates. I slowly worked my way through them eating and canning. I still have two left in my fridge that will get eaten up today. It has been a phenomenal peach season, with my one peach tree (the second one died after never giving us a single peach and was replaced this year) giving me a total of 51 pounds. The peaches weren't huge. I'd say it was about 130-140 peaches all told. Now if they would just ripen over many weeks instead of them doing it all at once it would be better. But I suppose this makes canning easier.

Have you ever looked at my sidebar tally? Well the fruit section (which means the landscaping fruits) was put in to see how long it would take to pay pack putting in a bunch of trees and bushes and such. I'm nowhere near paying it off. And I keep spending more money on it every year. But this year marks the first year where I had more in harvests than I paid out. So maybe it marks the start of my fruit finally paying for itself.

Like last week corn was a big producer this week too. Those photos are just the tip of the iceberg. My husband has been eating two to three ears a day. I can only handle one to two. I've been feeding the townhouse mates and today gave some to a neighbor (over the fence so it never got weighed - it happens). And I've been freezing. It has been a great corn season. Really great. I'm already 10 pounds over last year and I still have a lot more to pick. Though I do have 25% more space in corn but even taking that into account production has been good and the ears have been very very sweet, so true to the name - Honey Select. It also doesn't have that grassy flavor that I'm not all that fond of in corn.

I picked my first kohlrabi. And I've been picking cukes and beans as I have for the last month. The cukes are finally starting to slow down as wilt is taking over. But the beans have picked up since I got rid of the Kentucky Wonder. It is giving the Golden Gate a lot more sun. They have responded by putting out a new wave of blossoms and beans.

Whoohoo! Melon season! Yeah yeah, broccoli, zucchini, beets, and such. But the baskets are really about melons.

I picked two Halona melons. The first was over ripe as you can see, but still sweet as candy and worth eating. I kept watching it. I pick them when I can pull the stem off easily. Well this one never pulled off. I finally yanked it off and it took a bit of the melon with it. The second one slipped off like it is supposed to. I think the taste this year is the best ever. I will forever grow them in the circle garden as the surrounding bricks really keep the heat for them. I do alternate them with the sweet potatoes. One gets the east bed in this garden one year, one gets the west. The next year they switch, but this year the melons the best side. The east side is surrounded by brick path on three sides instead of just two. And oh it makes a difference for the flavor of the melons. Yum!

The other two melons are Sensation. I'm not sure how to describe them. Maybe a cross between a cantaloupe and a honeydew. But I don't like honeydews and I do like Sensation. It is a very sweet and mild melon. I ate this one for breakfast on Sunday. I ate the whole thing in one sitting.

I'm actually growing three varieties of melon. The last is Alvaro Charentais, but it is still green and shows no sign of ripening. Which is actually good as all my melons ripened at the same time last year. One that waits a couple of weeks is a good thing. I'll appreciate them more when I've finished with all these melons. Not that the melons in the baskets are the last of their kind on the vines. I've got a couple more of both that are ripening up. As long as we don't get any rain in the near future they will be just as wonderfully sweet as the ones I've already picked. I've already stopped watering the patch. It makes for much better melons that way. Though I'm contemplating watering the Alvaro as it hasn't started to ripen yet and might need the water if it takes a while.

  • Alliums: 2.05 lbs
  • Beans: 0.78 lbs
  • Broccoli: 1.11 lbs
  • Corn: 16.76 lbs
  • Cucumbers 5.66 lbs
  • Greens: 0.86 lbs
  • Herbs: 0.51 lbs
  • Melons: 16.01 lbs
  • Roots: 0.43 lbs
  • Squash, Summer: 1.19 lbs
  • Weekly Total: 45.35 lbs
  • Yearly Total: 383.33 lbs
  • Yearly Tally: $515.45

  • Fruit
  • Raspberries: 0.40 lbs
  • Peaches: 33.90 lbs
  • Weekly Total: 34.30 lbs, $106.34
  • Yearly total: 61.87 lbs, $208.46

Harvest Monday is a day to show off your harvests, how you are saving your harvest, or how you are using your harvest. If you have a harvest you want to show off, add your name and link to Mr Linky below.

31 comments:

  1. Oh wow! the fruit harvest far outshine the veg harvest this week. The melons look amazing!

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  2. I love peaches! But they are impossible to grow here without heavy spraying. Brown rot gets every one on our trees. Yours look so lovely. And I'm with you on the Sensation melon. I can't describe the taste, but I like it!

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  3. Not only do you continue to tease with photos of delicious peaches but now melons are added to make me even more envious and our sweetcorn isn't ready yet either.

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  4. What a gorgeous harvest! That's both main meals with corn, beans, squash etc and desert with all those beautiful peaches and melons. Very yummy.

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  5. Corn and melon envy. Neither doing well for me. I don't know how you do it.

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  6. Sweet corn, made me smile that your husband has been eating 2 -3 ears a days, in the U.K we would call them cobs. If I called them 'ears' in public, people would look at me as if I was a cannibal. Just made me smile, these cultural differences. Admiring your harvest, and wow so many peaches.

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    1. A cob is an alternate way of saying it here, but you very rarely hear it.

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  7. That's the sort of harvest I like - something of everything! Those peaches look absolutely perfect. Did you just keep the best ones, or were they all that good? With all your problems about not being able to eat solanaceae etc, it's great to read you enthusing about melons instead, when everyone else is writing about tomatoes!

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    1. Those are all of them. There are flaw in some of them, maybe 10%. There is an insect that bores into it and renders a small part of the peach unusable. There is also some spot disease, but it is just on the peel. And I lost one to brown spot. Which is pretty good since last year I lost a third of the harvest to brown spot. It is so much better this year.

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  8. Amazing! Your skill, commitment and enjoyment are so evident in the fruits of your labor. Those peaches and melons!!!!!

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  9. Beautiful peach harvest and I am envious of those melons. I just don't have the space to grow them.

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  10. You had me at peaches and corn, LOL! What a nice haul. Great job, color me jealous, ha. Ours has fizzled because of the heat. I think I started too late this year, but hey, lesson learned. Going to try for a Fall garden since we barely have cold until December.

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  11. Great harvest!! We got some watermelons this week but we are patiently waiting for our cantaloupe to ripen!! We also had a big corn week like you. It's that time our year!!

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  12. Nice peaches! Great job on the corn. I have never tried growing corn. Maybe next year.

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  13. I'm so very jealous of year melons! It's been years since I've been able to grow a decent melon. This year was a disappointment as I didn't put too much effect into training or caring for the vines. Oh well. I'll have to try the varieties you're growing this year.
    Excellent looking peaches by the way! The color is phenomenal. We had a great peach season as well.

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  14. Look at those harvests! Over 78# of vegetables and fruits.

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  15. Nice melons! I've got a few melons on the vine and am not really sure when to know if they're ripe. And what an impressive harvest of peaches! I love peaches so much. I'd try to grow them, but I don't think they're very hardy in my area - pears and plums tend to do better here. Everything looks so yummy!

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  16. Your melons and peaches look absolutely wonderful! I'm absurdly jealous of them. I've only managed to pull 2 good loupes out of my garden in years now. Trying again for an autumn harvest. Fingers crossed!

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  17. Beautiful harvests. I grew melons last year, but since I'm the only melon eater in the house, I ended up freezing as much as I ate fresh. The melon smoothies were great though.

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  18. Big congrats on all of the peaches you have harvested - that is just amazing! And those melons look wonderfully sweet & juicy...yum!

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  19. Seventeen pounds of corn, that's incredible. Oh and then there's all those melons. And peaches too! What a fantastic week you had.

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  20. Those peaches are incredible ...not sure how you work out the $ value of them, but I would pay a lot for those! And the melons are wonderful ... very juicy!

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    1. I use prices from my farmers market as if I didn't grow them, that is where I'd buy them.

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  21. That corn looks so very good. I wonder I I should try some next year?

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  22. Great harvest! Love those peaches, hope my melons ripen soon.

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  23. Great summer harvest. I'd like to have a peach tree but would have to remove an ironwood tree to make room, something I can't do.

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  24. Wow, fantastic fruit again! A friend has grown a couple of melons in a greenhouse over here in Norwich, it has a very open aspect so gets a lot of sun. Not sure I'd have much luck but maybe I'll try one year :)

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  25. You are at peak Summer harvest - corn and melons! I am so glad you are having a great melon year. I t makes all of the heard work worthwhile. And those peaches are amazing. If you had two trees you would be buried alive!

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  26. Unrelated to this post but saw this & thought of you:
    http://www.hollandsgiants.com/squashVineBorerTraps.html
    maybe you can uncover your zucchini next year & have an overabundance? :)

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  27. Hi Daphne, I am envious of your peaches and corn! Glad your fruit trees are starting to pay off for you! That is great. Nancy

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  28. I too am envious of your tree ripened peaches. Great melons, I love them, but they do not love me. Can you believe I am allergic to cantaloupe and honeydew but luckily not watermelon.

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