Our tomatoes are coming in very slowly this year. We are so thankful for Apple Pie Gal's advice about freezing tomatoes for easy peeling and canning. We would be lost this year without it. Belle simply freezes each tomato individually as it ripens. Then when we have enough to do a batch, she'll thaw, peel and can. We've eaten a few tomatoes in dishes, but we're still waiting on our first batch of cans. How sad is that?
This week we (I mean my nephews) doubled the size of our mid-bed using composted yard waste. We laid a bed of composted yard waste directly over the existing grass. I think we should have killed the grass first and then turned the soil into the compost, but time was not permitting. We're going to plant our brocolli, cauliflower and cabbage directly into the compost.
I'm thinking next spring we'll turn the dirt underneath into the compost above. Over winter, the grass we covered will hopefully become mulch and fertilizer for our spring plants.
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| Our hard working nephews visiting from Auburn, WA. Thanks guys! |
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| More space for our cabbage, cauliflower and broccoli seedlings. |
Harvest Totals
Bell Peppers 3 lb 2 oz
Cantaloupe 23 lb 5 oz
Honeydew 10 lb 4 oz
Jabeneros 14 oz
Jalapenos 4 oz
Raspberries 1 lb
Tomatoes 25 lb 1 oz
Acorn Squash 1 lb 8 oz
Butternut Squash 14 lb 4 oz
Spaghetti Squash 29 lb 8 oz
Watermelon 77 lb 6 oz (4 melons averaging approximately 19 lb)
Total 186 lb 8 oz
Please stop by Daphne's Dandelions to see some of the wonderful harvests that gardeners throughout the world have had this week.
Hurrah for visiting helpers! That new bed should be a great addition.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on the nice squash harvest. We are having another "low to no" squash year again. Unusually cool summer has not been helpful on the squash family front.
Send those nephews over here now, please! :)
ReplyDeleteI like your freezer solution for the tomatoes. It's hard to know what to do when they all ripen at different times.
Beautiful harvest!
What a great winter squash harvest! I'm waiting (rather impatiently) for ours to be ready! Congratulation on the helpers & your immense harvest tally this week! Wonderful!!!
ReplyDeleteVery nice! Looks like someone is stocked up on Squash now!!
ReplyDeleteWowzas!! Look at those melons and squash!! Congrats on an amazing harvest!
ReplyDeleteMy goodness what a big big harvest you had this past week! I bet there is no room in your kitchen!
ReplyDeleteI could use some visiting helpers at the plots! Do you lend out relatives???
Join the club. I have never had a tomato crop so slow to amount to anything and I fear it will not if something doesnt give soon. Your harvest looks like it should keep you busy for a while at least ;)
ReplyDeleteAll those squash... love it! And, when everyone else is done with them I'll be glad to let the nephews vaca here in Florida for a few days in return for some work! ;-)
ReplyDeleteWow - your watermelons took off! :) that's great! Hope your family likes squash! hee hee...
ReplyDeleteNice to have some young muscles around :o) Those butternuts look delicious ...I've tried several times to raise them and only got one that was just a spoonful :o(
ReplyDeleteSometimes your own advice is still a pill to swallow! My pressure canner took a dive on me right in the middle of my first batch of spaghetti sauce...so into the freezer that went as well as all the tomatoes I've picked since. You can probably hear me growling from there...
ReplyDeleteBut you look like you have some goodies there to keep you busy! That's very encouraging! And extra hands make for quick work. Hooray!
That is a very giant harvest. Look at each of those size. Amazing.I never had much luck with squash harvest. Something I have to work on next summer on how to grow them in a very limited space.
ReplyDeleteYour squash looks wonderful. I wish my squash had really done well this year, but we will see what I get come fall.
ReplyDeleteKitsapFG,our helpers have been great. Unfortunately they went home. They're closer to you now than to us. Maybe you can get them to come to your place do a little work there!
ReplyDeleteJen, thanks for stopping by and commenting. We've really been thankful for the tomato idea this year. I should warn you. When they thaw all the water comes out of the tomato. Belle tells me that's good for the way she cans them. She would know.
Bee Girl,I visited your blog and saw your squash post. It looks like the bees are going their work. When's your first frost date?
Allison, yea, we're over stocked. Now all we need to do is figure out what to do with it.
Holly, wowzas is what we said too. We knew there was a lot of squash in the garden but it wasn't until we brought it inside that we realized just how much it was.
Robin, Belle has been working hard to manage everything. You know how busy this time of year is. Thank goodness for our nephews. To bad they had to go home earlier this week.
Jane, since Monday I've pulled several tomato plants. Our window sill is full of green tomatoes. We're gettin' nothin' here.
Barbie, my nephews said they've always wanted to go to Florida! To bad we had to send them home to Washington this week.
Hanni,yea it really did. We still have 4 or 5 melons to harvest. We're going camping in September and hope we can take at least one of them with us. I visited your blog for the first time. You're doing great stuff. Thanks for visiting mine.
Ginny, we don't have much experience with butternut squash. I'm thinking we'll bake it in the oven, slather with butter, salt and pepper and enjoy.
Apple Pie Gal, I hear the growl. Around here when we growl it sounds like a pirate, Aargghh!The extra hands have been great.
Malay Kadazan girl, we can't believe how much squash has come. Maybe you can use your space by directing a vine or two across the very top of your wooden fence.
Daphne, thanks Daphne. I look forward to seeing yours later this fall.
I hope your tomato production picks up soon! I was hoping to try my hand at canning our tomatoes this year, but I think I may end up having to buy some in bulk in order to be able to put some up. Oh well. There is always next year.
ReplyDeleteAnd wow! Almost 200 lbs of harvest this year! Fantastic.
Prairie Cat, thanks for stopping by. I hope our tomatoes pick up too. We're not hopeful though. The weather seems to be cooling off and the plants are in terrible shape. We'll get at least enough to can a few quarts. Thankfully we've done well with other vegis.
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