Loads of Tomatoes

Our harvest the day after we returned from vacation. Tomatoes, corn, cucumbers, green beans, and blueberries.

Ava helped shuck the corn.

Coring the tomatoes and slicing the opposite end. This helps the skin peel away after blanching.

When we came back from vacation, we had 22 lbs of ripe tomatoes waiting for us to pick. (Even with my youngest brother picking 10 lbs of tomatoes for his family while we were away). Since then, I have picked another 27 lbs. And they aren't done yet!!

With the first 22 lbs, I made marinara sauce. The 27 lbs. I cored, blanched, and skinned; tossing them in the freezer until I am ready to make my next batch of sauce.

Also waiting when we came back were 15 lbs of corn and a little over a pound of blueberries. We have picked over 7 lbs of blueberries over the past month. Some I have made into jam, others I have frozen. Most of them were eaten fresh.

Get your harvest on!

Ava with some blueberries we picked.

Yay! I am having so much fun this spring. I have harvested something from my garden every single day since May 6. For the month of May, so far, I have harvested over 33 lbs of fruits and veggies!!! This total includes blueberries, strawberries, baby corn, cucumbers, squash, green beans, and onions. You could probably throw in an extra couple of pounds for all the stuff I've eaten before weighing during my garden walks. The lack of rain has been both a curse and a blessing. While disease among my plants has been reduced, I have had to water. I usually water everything really deep on Sat/Sun and sometimes again on Wed/Thurs.

My onion crop: from start to finish.







19 lbs of onions!

TOMATOES AND SQUASH

This year, I have focused on trying to grow as many food quality tomatoes as possible. In past years I have had fun experimenting with many different heirloom breeds. However, they tend to not be as hardy and reliable as the hybrids. Many purists will argue differently, blah, blah, blah. Every year I have grown tomatoes, the hybrids have outperformed the heirlooms by leaps and bounds. I went with mostly determinate varieties. These set the tomatoes all at once which is more convenient for canning and drying.

I planted a few varieties of summer squash this year. It was basically a hodgepodge of squash seeds I had left over from several seed packets. In this photo, my squash have just began forming flower buds. Most of the buds right are male flowers. The female flowers really start coming up a week or so after the male flowers have made their first appearance. After that each plant will have a healthy ratio of female to male flowers. Even an untrained eye can easily discern male from female flowers. Female flowers will have a little immature squash fruit at the base, where as males will not. Then there's the morphological difference between the stigma and the stamen which is slightly less obvious.

Strawberries, Arugula, Hatching Eggs

Bowl of strawberries from my garden

One of my 50 strawberry plants

In the past week I have harvested 2 lbs. of strawberries. We pretty much eat them immediately. It takes all of my will power to weigh them first for record keeping purposes. Weighing the produce that comes out of my garden may seem extremely dorky, but it's the only way to know if my methods are effective. Also, I can tell if my costs are offset by the harvest, which is very important to me.

Flowering Arugula

Arugula is really delicious and super easy to grow. I harvested greens from this patch when they were small and tender. As the plants mature, they are tougher and less flavorful. That is when I let them grow out and go to seed. This patch will make more than enough seed to last me for the next several years. The last time I saved seed from arugula was two years ago, and it was only from 3 plants.

Eggs in an incubator with egg turner.

I found this incubator on craigslist last year for half of the original purchase price. If I have a good hatch, I may sell some. I also plan to start two more consecutive batches that I will sell this spring.

Berries a Bloomin'

A bumble bee pollinating some blooms on one of my blueberry bushes.

Ahh.....spring. Everything is in bloom! Well, not everything......but a lot of stuff for sure! While my nose and sinuses are enduring the torture, my eyes delight to see all of the blooms everywhere. Usually I pull up any blooming weeds immediately before they can set seed. This year I have decided to leave some to bloom to attract pollinators into my garden. We had a cold winter and any pollinators coming out of hibernation are going to need all the nectar/pollen they can get. My strawberries and blueberries are blooming like crazy. The girls are going to loooove all of the berries. One of their favorite things to do in the garden is pick the berries and eat them right off the plant. I am not too particular about them washing the berries, since I don't use chemicals on or near these plants. There is no need; they grow so well.

Perennial Food Plant Care

(I use this for all of my perennial food plants including the berries)

I fertilize with a side dressing of compost once in the fall and once right before spring. I water throughout the year when necessary and sometimes fertilize with fish emulsion diluted in water. I weed several times throughout the year when needed. It's well worth the effort!

Strawberry plant with blooms and immature fruit.

Sweet Winter Treats

Yummy Carrots.

Onions, Shallots, and Nappa Cabbage

Radishes and Greens

Novah helped me pick some french breakfast radishes. This type of radish is fairly mild; I find I can eat it right out of the ground (after rubbing away the dirt). Novah's favorite way to eat these radishes is sliced and smothered in ranch dressing.

Here is Novah in action, pulling radishes.

Shown are more greens; this post is a little late. I picked these sometime between my initial harvest and Halloween. The greens are just about ready to harvest again.