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Monday, August 3, 2015

Monday August 3

The best week yet.  That's not unusual of course, August typically produces the largest and most diverse yields.  While the pole beans have slowed down, and I'm hoping that they will get a 'second wind' and produce more, I'm getting more tomatoes, peppers, zucchini and okra. 

The week started off with, what else, more Calypso cucumbers and a Genovese summer squash.  Also some Jimmy Nardello sweet peppers.  I tried these peppers when I saw the seedlings at the local greenhouse, after seeing a number of other gardeners growing them.  I'm sold, they are sweet, tangy and just the right size for a stir fry.  They are so good that I often eat them like candy. 

A few days later, a mixture of beans.  The Fortex and Marengo Romano beans have really slowed down, as if all the cloudy weather has caught up with them, even though last week has been sunny.  A new row of Provider bush beans has picked up the slack, but it doesn't look like I will put as many beans in the freezer this year.  More Nardello sweet peppers, okra, a Diva slicing cucumber, a Big
Beef tomato on the left and a Grandma's Pick tomato on the right.  This is the first year I've grown Big Beef and it's quite good, very acidic.

More Calypso cucumbers, Silver Queen and Millionaire okra, a San Marzano sauce tomato, another summer squash and the last of the Red Tropea onions, which had been curing in the sun.  The okra are almost producing enough to make a quart of pickles.  I grew Millionaire okra two years ago in a SWC and the results were not so good.  In the beds they are living up to their potential.

Again, more Calypso cucumbers.  This morning seven pints were hot canned and two quarts of refrigerator pickles were prepared.

Sunday morning I picked more beans, Calypso cucumbers, and a new orange sweet pepper, Mama Mia Gallo.  Beautiful isn't it?  I hope it tastes as good as it looks.  There's also an Alma paprika and Nardello peppers, and another Big Beef tomato.  I'm hoping that the San Marzano tomatoes, Serrano peppers and more of the Gallo peppers ripen at the same time for a batch of salsa.  I like to grill the sweet peppers and blend them into the salsa.

The onions that were pulled up about a week ago have been curing in the sun, and it has been mostly sunny all last week.  Since the forecast called for storms this morning (didn't happen) I harvested them last night, just clipped off the tops and brushed off any lose skin.  These are Ruby Ring onions.  They keep well.

All in all a great week.  Twenty pounds of onions, twelve pounds of cucumbers, and two and a half pounds of beans.  Nearly 43 pounds of produce for the week and 142 pounds for the year.  To see what other people are growing, go to http://daphnesdandelions.blogspot.com/

7 comments:

Daphne Gould said...

Lovely harvests. And that is a nice stack of onions. It ought to keep you supplied for quite a while. And that orange pepper looks fabulous. I love veggies that are showy.

Mark Willis said...

The onions look particularly nice, but I'm not a fan of pickled cucumbers, so I would struggle to use as many as you produce. Give me tomatoes any day!

Eight Gate Farm NH said...

Wow, it was a great week! Yes, it's hard in the beginning of the season to get enough of all the ingredients for salsa at the same time. I've found determinate tomatoes help with that. I've never thought of grilling the peppers before adding to salsa--does it give the mix a smoky taste?

Margaret said...

Beautiful onions and that was indeed a stellar week for you at 43 lbs. And now you have me itching for my Jimmy Nardello peppers to start colouring up...they are supposed to be an earlier pepper, so I hope it's not too much longer.

Dave @ HappyAcres said...

Another Jimmy fan! They aren't the prettiest peppers, but they are early and tasty. Your grilled pepper in the salsa sounds good. I'll have to try it next time I make salsa.

David Velten said...

An amazing harvest, the garden at its peak. I'm really impressed with the Calypso cucumber, it is really producing for you. It's on my wish list for next year. Glad you like the JN pepper, it is great tasting, early and productive, and I find the shape interesting. A couple of those went into a stir fry last night.

Susie said...

What a terrific harvest! I'm growing nardello for the first time this year as well, but my first couple are coming out a bit funky (weird looking) but the rest seem like they'll be fine. Looking forward to tasting them. Amazing batch of onions! And, yes, that is an awful lot of cukes ... I grow them only every second year as the pickles will last that long.

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