Today's Pickings

[Chuck]

Sorry Chuck.
It's my best ever harvest, by a country mile, of broad beans (fava)
Early potatoes are good, (I suspect eelworm) but the maincroppers look good.
Sweetcorn fine and runner beans are all doing well, but the garlic took a bit of a hit from rust, although I have taken 35 usable bulbs.
In the greenhouse, tomatoes, peppers and aubergines are progressing nicely, as are slicing cukes and pumpkins in the poly-tunnel.
Onions so-so, but peas doing well.
Going to plant my autumn cauli's and broc. right now.

The rain was really something. I literally lost about 700 square feet of garden. Rows, plants and soil .........................gone. Even the rabbit fence

 

[headfullofbees]

The rain was really something. I literally lost about 700 square feet of garden. Rows, plants and soil .........................gone. Even the rabbit fence

They whine here about "a month's rain in a day" when we may only, on average, get a few days' drizzle per month.
Sorry you lost so much.
Those cuke seeds you sent me last year, well the plants seem to have taken and they're growing now.

 

[filmjunkie08]

I thought it was only me experiencing a bad garden summer. It iis nice to know i am not alone. I had a good group of lettuce in the spring before the rains hit in north Texas. And my okra plants are producing slowly but consistantly. Virtually everything else died or looks poorly.

 

[mlm65]

Squash is coming in Great!

 

[Beth_B]

I've been eating greens for weeks (rainbow chard, collards, kale) and we've just started harvesting yellow squash and bush beans. There's lots of tomatoes and eggplants and bell peppers and zucchini coming along nicely too.

After two super-rainy summers Michigan has had so little rain this season we are approaching drought conditions, burn bans are in effect all over the place and crops are really hurting. But it's good for us backyard growers since we can control the amount of water the garden gets.

 

[filmjunkie08]

The squash and zucchini pictured above look scrumptious! My veggie garden has taken a hard hit this growing season. We had days of heavy rain followed by weeks of high temps. My plants really did not react well. Fortunately, my okra plants have stuck with me and continue to produce.

 

[zigs]

Just dug the garlic, pretty good crop. Cooking some new potatoes for lunch, having them with salted butter and mint sauce

 

[atlmom5]

Everything looks great! I'm really impressed by all the potatoes you harvested.

 

[Elena]

Can I show my first tomato in this year? We have a short growing season, so I take my tomatoes when they are yellow-green or pink-green.
The first tomato is holiday for me! They are my kids ! I'm shy, but I am very happy!

 

[filmjunkie08]

Okra plants still slow but steady in producing. Flowers on my eggplant but no veggie, yet. Experimenting with growing green beans in my sun room. Starting to see little beans on the plant.

 

[Beth_B]

Can I show my first tomato in this year? We have a short growing season, so I take my tomatoes when they are yellow-green or pink-green.
The first tomato is holiday for me! They are my kids ! I'm shy, but I am very happy!

That is a thing of beauty. Short growing season here too, I have lots of tomatoes but probably nothing for another week or so. Although I've eaten three whole ripe cherry tomatoes so far!

@filmjunkie08, if you add your location or USDA growing zone to your profile it would help give context to your posts. I read yours and wondering where you are that you have okra but not beans or eggplants yet!

I'm swamped with green and wax beans right now, lots of eggplants but not quite harvestable, first crop of carrots and onions have been pulled up. And all the summer squash is going nuts all at once!

 

[filmjunkie08]

Despite the heat, my okra continues to produce. Will go out this aftetnoon to see if any are mature enough to pick.

 

[abonnen]

Many seem to be posting threads, with photographs of their harvest, (and rightly so, as many are very impressive), so I hope you don't mind if I join in.

Another stone or so of rhubarb (I've used two stone for wine, have another stone in the freezer, made three batches of jam and lost count of how much I have given away) shows how poor a summer it's been weatherwise.
Usually rhubarb goes dormant here before the end of June, as temperatures rise, and, if lucky, we get a second flush in September as "summer" abates, but it's been so cold and wet this year, it's still growing.
The savoy cabbage on the left is approx. 3 lb and is destined for tonight's dinner, with the left-overs used to make a big batch of bubble & squeak, with home-grown onions and potatoes.
Then we have three courgettes (zucchini) to go with the dozen or so already in the fridge, 2 aubergines (my best attempt at growing them so far, as I'm well into double figures), 11 little cucumbers, delistar and superbel, all female varieties, with fine skins which mean no peeling, and a beautiful, if delicate flavour.
The bottom row has an ice-cream box crammed to overflowing with tomatoes; the standard ones are f1 Nimbus whilst the large cherry tomatoes are the delicious Maskotka, which I've posted about previously.
The beans fill and overflow from a 5 litre plastic tub. I'm picking this amount of them every day.

I was wondering how you make your rhubarb jam and what else you use rhubarb for, I have a lot in the freezer right now (we got it from a CSA) and usually just use it to make sauces for meats and things, but interested in other uses it for it.

 

[Beth_B]

I was wondering how you make your rhubarb jam and what else you use rhubarb for, I have a lot in the freezer right now (we got it from a CSA) and usually just use it to make sauces for meats and things, but interested in other uses it for it.

I'm not bees. But Google "rhubarb crumble."

 

[headfullofbees]

I believe it's called, "Rhubarb Crunch", stateside.
I slowly stew chunks of rhubarb in sugar, such that the chunks don't break down, but the osmo-juices reduce until they're quite thick, and use that for the topping of a cheesecake, (my own invention)
Rhubarb jam recipes are common on the internet, but if you add to this one:

http://allotmentheaven.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/rhubarb-jam-easy-recipe.html

1 heaped teaspoon of ground ginger and 4 lumps of sweet-pickled stem ginger chopped finely, it adds a warmth, a tang, and a complexity of flavour which I find very pleasing.

Prepare the rhubarb in similar fashion to a crunch/crumble, but encase it in sweet shortcrust pastry. for a real treat, hot or cold.

I've also made rhubarb sponge and rhubarb muffins, and, as previously mentioned, it makes really good sauces for a variety of meats, from lamb to gammon.