Grow Lettuce Grow: harvest

Showing posts with label harvest. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

hey little garden, why you so sad?????

my poor little garden. it's so sad. the hubby, champion for all things underdog, said it's never gonna improve if i don't stop talking crap about it and to give it a chance. i, of course, am ready to yank it all out and get ready for fall. but then he screams that it is only july and i should stop being so negative. so, i gave the little bugger some fish emulsion yesterday to see if it could bounce back from the terrible soil i planted it in and the retched heatwave we're having. only time will tell. i give it to mid august before i tear it up.

third round of the littlest harvest.
the two cherokee purple tomatoes that we ate were awesome!!!!

the tomato and pepper plot.

peppers on the right.... soooo small and only two tiny peppers so far.

thank goodness the juliet tomatoes are doing something.

waiting for the third cherokee purple to ripen.

very small green zebra.... waiting, waiting, waiting for them to also ripen.

plot #2: squash, one pepper, two eggplants.

one tiny little eggplant is a coming!!!!!!

hey, here's another one!!!!!!

Saturday, July 21, 2012

the littlest harvest

like i said before, this year's backyard garden it a bit of a bust. but it's trying. it really is. as not to get to depressed about the situation, i am not weighing the produce this year (except that from the community garden plot, cause we are supposed to record it in the notebook down there). so here is the evidence from what i like to call the littlest harvest......

2 overly mature eggplants, 1 juliet tomato, 1 cherokee purple tomato.

i should note here, that this is my first year doing eggplant. the hubby loves them, i find them barely tolerable, although the plants are pretty. which explains why i unknowingly took to long to harvest them and the bottoms started to turn yellow. i read that they may be to mature to eat at that point and very bitter. and boy they were right.... yuck!! so folks, take my word for it. if your white eggplant has started to turn yellow on the bottom, toss it into the compost. as for the cherokee purple tomato, i really wanted to let it ripen further on the vine, but it was my ONLY sizable tomato out there, and i was terribly concerned that the squirrels would get it. so, after standing in front of the tomato plant for about 10 minutes, rocking back and forth, debating should i pick it or shouldn't i, i went for it. i'll slice it later and let you know how it tasted. assuming that the neighbors haven't called the law in regards to the crazy lady outside in her rob hovering nervously over a tomato plant.

a few days later.......

two, yes two, actual zucchini!!!!! and one small white eggplant.

all delicious!!!!!

today i harvested a handful of juliet tomatoes an another cherokee purple. there is also a one more small eggplant (along with one turning yellow.... sad face), a zucchini, and a yellow squash getting ready to be plucked sometime tomorrow (picture to follow soon). i'm thinking i will try to make some veggie chips with a yogurt or white bean dip..... we'll see.

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

getting some produce love from the garden in january!!!

it's been a little dry here lately, so i though i'd go out, check under the row cover, and water the fall garden. i really didn't expect to find much new going on. i knew the swiss chard had taken a hit the other night after the row cover had gotten blown off and a light snow fell on the exposed leaves. and i knew the the mustard greens were doing pretty good after i quickly reached under the covers two nights ago and picked some for our soup. but i really had no idea as to what was happening with the beets and turnips. well surprise, surprise!!!!!

look at that little garden grow!!!!!

it looks good from up here, let's take a closer look.

what the heck!!!!

there are some turnips growing in there!!!

who knew?? not me. i wasn't expecting that at all.

i was just gonna do a little watering.

see the little bit of purple top peeking out.... that's me turnips!!

there was quite a few of them out there in various stages,

so i just pulled out a few to see what they looked like.

aren't they pretty!!??!!

the rest of the turnips i'll leave in the ground for awhile and harvest as needed. if we get more frost or a big freeze, in the end, that will just make them sweeter as the plant sends all it's sugars down to the roots for survival. and the row cover is proving to be useful at keeping the frost from damaging the green leaves. as for the beets, well, they were a failure. but if i remember correctly, i did not give them as much love as i did the turnips in the beginning, so i may only have myself to blame. i pulled up all the beets, which were growing in the middle, and that made it easier to water both the mustard greens and turnips, so c'est la vie. the swiss chard was looking a little sad under it's tent, so either the snow did it's deadly deed, or the soil was simply a little dry. i gave them some water, and with the temperatures rising a bit this week, we'll have to wait and see if they perk up over the next few days. stay turned!!

now just image what i can do once i get around to building cold frames and proper row cover!!!!

Thursday, August 11, 2011

and i call him, BIG RED.....

(german johnson pink)

i didn't mean to pick him. he came off the vine when i was trying to clear out the three other big boys that the squirrels had decimated. i put him in the window with the other early picked tomatoes to ripen. (your really rolling the dice out there if you leave any orange on the vines for the squirrels to see.) i'm sure he would be more tasty if left on the vine, however a "not as tasty" tomato is better than no tomato at all. and, when all was said and done (as seen above), he had no trouble coming into his own in the safe and sound confines of the kitchen.

in other news, it's been a weird summer in regards to our travel schedule. normally we rarely go anywhere, and hardly does anyone come visit us. but, for the past year or so, it seems that's all we do. we hosted folks for thanksgiving and easter, my sister visited, we went to both memphis and chicago for extended weekends, spent over a week up north in michigan, my mommy is coming to visit next month (which is awesome 'cuz she hasn't seen any of the places i've lived in over 10 years, and has never met mr. keebs..), and i just now planned a trip out to portland for next month as well. this makes it somewhat difficult to keep tabs on posting, and with all the coming and going, makes it near impossible to track our household food spending, yet again, steering me off track with my 3G project. but, what i do have for you at the moment is a tally of food harvested from my little backyard garden ranging from the dates 7/21 - 8/9, along with a few pix from along the way.