The Last Big Harvest of the Year

I meant to write this post earlier in the week. Unfortunately, I'm still recuperating from some surgery I had performed on Monday and haven't had the will or strength to do so. Before the snow storm hit, I spent a day cleaning up the garden and harvesting a ton of veggies. These will keep well in the fridge as the garden becomes a less hospitable place to store food.

I would consider this to be the last great harvest of the year. I still have some odd and ends left out there but for the most part, this accounts for the bulk of this year's fall garden. When it comes to growing fall beets, I still have a lot to learn. They took much longer to grow then my spring-sown beets and produced only small roots that were a bit gnarled. Still, they'll be good peeled and steamed.


The mice were beginning to show interest in the carrot bed so I went ahead and pulled every single last one. Last fall, I lost my entire fall crop to them. This time around, I was feeling less than charitable so up they all went. Most of them could have spent more time in the garden but young carrots are better than no carrots.


I also picked enough celery to last us all winter. These were HUGE. We don't eat celery raw so what won't be cooked within the next couple of weeks will be chopped and frozen for later use.


A bowl of Chinese broccoli, wild arugula and Winter Density lettuce. Out of all of the lettuces I planted this fall, Winter Density is the only variety that hasn't turned bitter from the cold.


More leeks - the bulk of these will be chopped and frozen as well.


Tatsoi, broccoli shoots and Yukon Gold potatoes. The potatoes were from my two buckets. Unfortunately, they were riddled with holes and had to be tossed.


Finally, I waited as long as I could to harvest my lemon grass. I grew these from five cuttings I'd purchased and rooted from the Asian market last spring. These turned out much better than I had anticipated and will store will in the freezer. I use lemongrass to flavor grilled meats, soups and curries.

An Indian Summer Harvest

I hope my fellow gardeners here in New England are enjoying the warm weather as much as I am. It's not often we experience temperatures in the 80's this time of year. After a long stretch of cold and rain, I'm sure our fall veggies appreciated it as well.

This past week, I picked the first of our fall turnips. This Asian variety called 'Tokyo Market' is milder, sweeter and not as tough as your average supermarket turnip. (Thanks again for the seeds, Mac!)


This batch was the best I've grown so far. My prior attempts at growing Asian turnips produced golf-ball sized roots. This year, I upped the spacing between each plant to 4 inches and got much better results.


Spinach is a great cut-and-come-again veggie in our garden. I snip leaves every few days to use in soups and pasta dishes. The cooler than normal August we experienced this year probably had a lot to do with why our spinach is thriving now.


Another carrot harvest - still no signs of rodent damage. Hopefully, the mice will stay away this winter.

I've yet to master growing fall beets. These are on the smaller side. I just don't think there is enough light in our garden is time of year to encourage the roots to fatten up.


Our leeks this fall are much better than the previous. We have good-sized white stalks that are at least a foot long. Since I've yet to grow a decent crop of onions, leeks are a great alternative this time of year.

Fall Garden Tour

Now that summer is coming to an end, here's a preview of this year's fall garden. All in all, I was good about getting our fall crops started on time. In a few weeks we'll have to break out the row cover at night, but nonetheless, I'm hoping that we'll be able to harvest continually from the garden until at least early December.

In no particular order, here is what we'll be eating (hopefully) during the next few months:


The fall beets (lower right) are slowly sizing up while the fast growing Tokyo Market turnips should be ready in a couple of weeks.


The spinach is practically ready for us to harvest. The winter carrots (right) on the other hand will be pulled in December and January, that is if the voles don't get to them first.

Red russian kale in the background and gai lan (Chinese broccoli) in the foreground. I have another bed of gai lan that should be ready in a week or two.


Here's a bed of Asian greens.


I am growing a ton of leeks this year and they are looking really good. They are much fatter than last year's crop.

I have two Jade Cross Brussel sprout plants that survived the groundhog attacks earlier this year. Can we defeat the cabbage worms and actually get a harvest this year?


My fall carrots should be ready in another month or so.


The Bonanza broccoli is doing well and should be ready soon. On the other hand, I'm worried that our cauliflower won't head up in time.


This will most likely be my last year of growing Napa cabbage. It's impossible to keep the slugs away from this plant. Also, our fall crop has bolted prematurely due to the sudden change in temperatures. I think I'll stick to other Asian greens that are easier and faster to grow.


I don't expect much from our fall snow peas but that won't stop me from trying to grow them.


Finally, I have several varieties of winter lettuce this year. These will have to be harvested by early December their quality quickly diminishes after that point.

In addition to this, I sowed some mache, claytonia and French Breakfast radishes the other day. What's growing in your fall garden?

Mid-August Bounty

This post is a bit late, but here is what we harvested in the past week. The tomatoes are finally starting to ripen in large numbers. This year I grew half as many plants as we did last year (forty), which in some ways is good since last summer at this time, it was quite stressful trying to keep up with the tomato harvest. However, this year I'm a bit worried that we may not have grown enough to get us by in sauce and salsa for the next twelve months. I may have to increase the number of plants for next year.


Speaking of tomatoes, my Gold Medal and Brandywine (Sudduth's Strain) vines are producing enormous fruit. It's not uncommon for a tomato plant to produce a couple of whoppers but in this case, most of them are pretty hefty. I'm a sucker for big ugly tomatoes.

As you can see, I have a few green paste tomatoes here as well. They were salvaged when the branch holding the cluster snapped.


I picked all of my Tongue of Fire beans this week. I've never cooked with fresh shell beans before. If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know!


The last of our sweet corn. :(


Two delicious Athena cantaloupes. (On a side note, I bought two amazing Canary and Piel de Sapo melons from the market the other week. I saved some seeds to hopefully grow them next year.)


I must be growing a different variety of purple tomatilloes this year because these are almost jet black. I'm excited to make a batch of purple tomatillo salsa. The watermelon you see here was picked because a section of the stem attaching it to the vine had died off. Unfortunately, it wasn't quite ripe yet.


The last of the Spring-sown carrots and possibly the last of this year's artichokes. They will surely be missed.


Finally, the last of the spring-sown beets. It will be at least another month before the fall beets are ready to harvest.

An Early August Harvest

I won't say too much about this week's harvest. The tomatoes are still coming in slowly (annoying) and the corn harvest has been fantastic this year, despite our minor raccoon setback.

Homegrown corn, when picked at the absolute right moment and cooked soon after, is a completely different vegetable from what you get at the supermarket and even at the farmer's market in my opinion. For this reason, I will do battle with every insect and rodent to grow it each year.


We picked our first years of Ruby Queen corn this week. This is my first time growing this variety and I'm happy to report it is incredibly sweet and tender - definitely one I will grow again.

And here is some of the other things we picked this week:








I can't wait to see what all of you are harvesting this week!

Summer's Bounty - Picks of the Week

We hand another bountiful harvest this week. The Hungarian Wax peppers are producing abundantly at the moment. I'll have to set aside a night this week to pickle and can them.


Tomato season has officially begun. (Hurray!) The near triple digit temperatures of the past few days have really helped to produce our first vine-ripened beauties. Not surprisingly, our first ripe slicing tomatoes of the year were Cherokee Purple and Amish Paste.


Our cucumber harvest was a bit out of control this week. The Tasty Jades are producing like mad. We picked at least two dozen - much more than we can consume as a family. What we didn't give away, I'll have to pickle this week.


We also picked about a dozen zucchinis this week as well.


I love Napoli carrots. They are the perfect size for kids to munch on and are reliably sweet.


The first wild blackberries were very sweet this year. I picked a small bowl-full today and Jonathan gobbled them all up before they made it into the house.


It's nice being able to pick more than one or two artichokes at a time. Our plants are producing well this year.


The chipmunks left me these two tiny ripe Seascape strawberries to pick. It's my own fault really. I still haven't covered the bed with bird netting yet.


The string beans are beginning to roll in as well. I can't wait to cook these up.


A bouquet of cilantro, (pathetic) red onions and beets. I think it would be fun to open a store that sold organic vegetable bouquets and arrangements instead of flowers. I'm surprised no one has done it yet.

Colorful Picks of the Week

The weekly harvest is finally starting to take on some serious color. Up until this point, everything has been mostly green. A colorful harvest always reminds me that summer is in full swing. Pretty soon, the tomatoes will add their shade to this rainbow until fall arrives and the greens predominate again. I guess we should enjoy it while it lasts.

As you can see, we've picked a few new things this past week. While I'm planning on making a big pot of chicken soup with the celery (soup in July, I know), most of what's remaining in the garden will be frozen for winter use. Homegrown celery in my opinion is VERY pungent and a little bit goes a long way.


Our spring sown carrots are looking very good this year unlike last summer. We've picked a couple dozen of them already and all but one or two have been perfectly straight. I've built two other carrot beds for this year's winter crop. Hopefully, the voles will stay away this time around!


I also picked the first artichoke of the year (yes!) and all of my plants now are starting to produce. The two golden beets I pulled this week were so delicious. This was the first time I've tried them and they tasted incredibly sweet.


My chamomile is now flowering. Better late than never I guess.


The Fava beans continue to roll in and we picked our first string beans this week. The greens ones are 'Contender'. This is my second year growing them and what a disappointment they have been. I think I'll try a different variety next year. I also picked our early sowing of Dragon's Tongue beans. I love them. They have a nice flavor and keep their crunch when cooked.


The cukes and zucchini plants continue to be productive. I also picked my first head of savoy cabbage today, albeit a small one. It was about the size of a grapefruit. My cabbages are taking FOREVER to grow and the heads are stalling at the moment. I just hope they don't bolt before they reach full size.


Finally, this was the haul from my five potato plants. I was afraid that the voles may have gotten to them but to my relief they didn't. Only one potato showed signs of being chewed on so I think I harvested these just in time. I sliced up a few and cooked them up in a gratin for dinner tonight. Boy were they good!