Garden Harvest as of July 2014

[Cassie K]

I have been harvesting pounds of tomatoes for the last two weeks. The tomatoes started ripening around the middle of July.
The Tomatoes I am currently harvesting were transplanted at the beginning of May, while the other half of the Tomato garden was planted at the beginning of June.
The later Tomatoes will start putting off at the beginning of August. It seems Tomatoes take five months of growth before they start putting off fruit.

Here are some of the photos of the Tomato harvest...

07/17/14 Harvest


07/25/14 Harvest



07/27/14 Harvest





07/29/14 tomato harvest

The Cucumbers were sown at the beginning of May, and they are finally producing during the middle of July. I probably planted over 400 Cucumber seeds, only one third put off Plants while a quarter are producing Fruit due to location of plants (shady). I have already harvested many cucumbers this week alone. I expect them to put off for another month and a half, which may equate to 80-100 Cucumber fruits.

Here are the photos of Cucumber harvests...


07/25/14 Harvest


07/25/14 Harvest

The Greens (lettuces, spinach, and kale) were sown at the beginning of April and after a month I began to harvest 2 lbs of greens every week for two months. Because the greens are growing at my Grandparent's house, I am unable to harvest everyday, and because I did not harvest regularly the greens got old and bitter after two months. I was still able to harvest up until two weeks ago, so I am satisfied. I perhaps spent $12 for greens and got back $40 worth.
After the ground dries I will be tilling to plant more greens for a Fall harvest. I will sow them at the beginning of August, and begin to harvest by September. The greens will die out around October.

Here are photos of the first Lettuce harvests...









I am saddened by the progress of the Squash. I have always had success with the Zucchini and Yellow Squash. I transplanted them at the beginning of May, and I certainly expected to harvest much more than I have, especially since there was a Gigantic Zucchini plant. Here are some photos of the Squash harvest so far...



07/10/14 squash Harvest


07/25/14 Zucchini harvest


Black eyed pea harvest...


07/29/14 Harvest


Some pictures of other fruits I also harvested...
















Original post @ Garden harvest as of July 2014 from Vegans Living Off the Land

-Cassie K

 

[firelily99]

Thanks for sharing that with us, clearly you have done extremely well. Great that you can grow lettuce - it gets too hot around where I live to do it other than in the spring.

 

[Kansas Terri]

This morning I harvested 50-odd cucumbers from just two hills! I am glad that I only planted the two!

I planted the seeds a pinch at a time, so I do not know how many plants are in those two hills, but they gave me 30 cukes last week, and the smallest one was over a foot long. The large ones are 2 feet long and they are not bitter in flavor at ALL! The seeds are from www.seedaholic.com. I am certain they can tell me the variety of cucumber I ordered last winter: I no longer have the seed packet, but I think I will grow this next year as well!

In the mean time, there are 2 Food Pantrys in my area: for you non- USA folks a food pantry is full of donated food and poor people can pick up food for free. As well as the produce gardeners cannot give away to friends (and we have far too many cucumbers for us AND our neighbors) the Food Pantrys are full of food that is about to expire. The grocery stores donate the unsold food before it expires and they get a tax break, and us gardeners would rather give it away than throw it away. I shall have to take a load up today or tomorrow.

I am making pickles in my refrigerator from some of my cukes. I made the brine, and instead of pouring HOT brine over the sliced cucumbers I used it cold, and I simply set the open jars in the fridge and let them be for two weeks. They are rather tart for me, but it is not bad for a first try. Today I will add more sugar and taste them in a few days. The brine consists of apple cider vinegar, water, sugar, salt, garlic, and dill seeds. I did not measure most of the ingredients, so I cannot give the recipe. I instead looked at an on-line recipe and got the amount of salt to vinegar and water (I ALWAYS measure the salt because small differences make a huge difference in taste), and I guestimated the sugar, the garlic powder, and the dill seed! I am afraid that I just put some in.

On the DOWN side, so far I have only gotten 3 cherry tomatos from my tomato plants! It is not very hot this summer, and few people have red tomatos yet.

 

[Cassie K]

Tomato and pepper harvest from today, july 30th...



I will be harvesting Cantaloupe and pumpkin fruits in the next month or so, around September or October. In my "progress" video I show you the eight cantaloupe fruits, butternut squash and pumpkins growing in my compost bins. Here are a few photos of them...


butternut

eight cantaloupe


cantaloupe 8


cantaloupe 7


cantaloupe 6





pumpkin1


pumpkin 2


pumpkins 3 and 4

 

[Rosyrain]

Those harvests all look amazing. My cucumbers always grow with balls on them like some of the pictures above. Why is that? At least I am not the only one so I am not doing anything wrong.

 

[claudine]

Looking at pictures in this thread has made me feel so hungry! I must have some vegetables
The cucumber in the first post looks hilarious
I've never grown nor eaten cantaloupe. What does it taste like? I often see it in stores.

 

[btatro]

Beautiful harvest this far! So far I have only gotten cucumbers lol. My pepper plants all got eaten as well as my beans Lots of tomatoes growing, but still green. Also have a few zucchinis on the way!