A baking and gardening journal. Mostly.
by A.J. Coltrane
Previous post here.
21 pounds of produce today, a new single-day record. That brings us up over 180 pounds for the season, including 65 pounds of cucumbers and 70 pounds of tomatoes.
The wind was picking up as I was taking this picture and preparing to bring everything inside. It’s now raining really hard. It looks like I got outside (and back in the house) just in time today.
The Roma tomatoes seem to have hit their “timer”. Here’s a picture “before” the big pile above:
by A.J. Coltrane
Previous post here.
It feels to me like fall is coming, and the plants agree. The lemon cucumbers will need to be pulled soon. The regular cucumbers aren’t far behind. More and more fruits are dropping off of the plants, especially when the hard rains come, so today we pulled all of the tomatoes that looked like they were at least 95% of the way there — I’m not sure that some of the varieties are intended to be uniformly red all the way to the stem, anyway.
(All pictures taken during a heavy rain.)
Today’s harvest. The Brandywines in the back right average about 5″ in diameter and 1-1/4 pounds each. It’s basically six tomatoes weighing 8 pounds total:
At the start of the year the cucumbers were straight, dark green, and relatively round on each end. Then we started seeing more twisty ones with bulbous ends, and straight ones with tapered stem ends. Now they’re coming in much lighter in color and misshapen. The first little one to rot on the vine happened this week. Note the two different colors here, and the moldy leaves — I’m guessing this is how the cucumbers tell you they’re about done:
by A.J. Coltrane
Previous post here.
The tomatillos got pruned earlier in the week. Yesterday the tomatoes and cucumbers received the same treatment. I also trained the cucumber vines towards the “front” — the whole box has been leaning “back”:
The lemon cucumbers are nearly done:
by A.J. Coltrane
Previous post here.
I decided that the tomatillos were due for a pruning on Tuesday. There were a lot of yellow leaves in the understory, and a lot of unripe fruit was just dropping off of the yellow vines. I figured pruning off everything that looked sick would leave more sun for the healthy plants, including the tomatoes in the adjacent box. Anything that was yellow was targeted. So I pruned and pulled and pruned and pruned and was left with one healthy plant, and one stump. The weaker of the two plants had basically completely crapped out, but I didn’t realize it until I physically stuck my head into the plants and started cutting.
I also pruned out all of the little runners and new blooms. I don’t think that there’s time for anything totally new to make it all the way to fruition. It really cleaned up the mess, and both the remaining tomatillo and the tomatoes should benefit.
On the bright side, I found another five pounds of tomatillos that had been hiding within the vines.
I had no idea that many tomatillos were in there. It was “Here’s one. And here’s one. Here’s another…”
In retrospect though, it makes sense. The two plants were purchased at basically the same size, but the surviving plant started growing way faster, and the weaker plant started growing, then needed more support because it wouldn’t stand up under it’s own weight. The imbalance was compounded by the fact that the stronger plant was in position to get much more sun, since the weaker one was sandwiched between the strong one, the lemon cucumbers, and the tomatoes.
One winter project is going to be figuring out a layout for next year that maximizes sunlight for everything involved. Live and learn.
—–
Late edit: Today takes it to 112 pounds of stuff for the year!
by A.J. Coltrane
Wow! It’s September already! The tomatoes and peppers are still in full swing. The cucumbers and basil are hanging in there. Everything else is at varying stages of calling it a year.
Previous post here.
An overview from the deck. (Clockwise from bottom left: cucumbers, peppers, basil, (top row) brussels sprouts, lemon cucumbers, tomatillos, three boxes of tomatoes. In the center it’s marigolds and bunch onions.) That light colored blob on the top right is a Brandywine tomato:
The raspberries are now established. Hopefully that’ll be some no-work goodness next year:
by A.J. Coltrane
Previous post here.
64 pounds of stuff this month, including a little over 24 pounds in the last seven days.
August 27:
August 29:
and
Here comes the thunderstorm. I’m guessing it’ll be total carnage outside tomorrow.
— Late edit, maybe 10 minutes later. Here comes the rain. It’s raining *hard*.
by A.J. Coltrane
Previous post here.
Both zucchini plants dropped below the Vickie Mendoza Diagonal this week. The fruits have been molding on the vine, or in the case in the patty pans, falling off before they’re fully grown. I’d give the zucchini a “season grade” of “C” or “C-“, more on that in another post.
I cut out about 15% of the basil today as well — I figure it’s got a maximum of about three weeks before it’s done for the year. For the remaining tomatoes and peppers it’s now a race to ripen before the first frost.
Today was a good day for tomatoes. Pictured below is about six pounds, bringing the total for the week to ten pounds of them:
The Sun Golds “before”:
And “after”. I thinned out the leaves, especially in the interior, at least partly so I could see the fruits:
by A.J. Coltrane
Previous post here.
I think I’m staying away from the word “harvest” for the same reason that I avoid the word “pizza” when making flatbreads — everybody has preconceived ideas as to what those words mean..
Anyhows, here’s yesterday’s colorful “harvest”.
The Tequila peppers got grilled and turned pale. Kind of a letdown. The tomatillos are going to become a green salsa really soon.
Bonus boy cat pic:
by A.J. Coltrane
Previous post here.
I think I’m staying away from the word “harvest” for the same reason that I avoid the word “pizza” when making flatbreads — everybody has preconceived ideas as to what those words mean..
Anyhows, here’s yesterday’s colorful “harvest”.
The Tequila peppers got grilled and turned pale. Kind of a letdown. The tomatillos are going to become a green salsa really soon.
Bonus boy cat pic:
by A.J. Coltrane
Previous post here.
A very productive week. I’d have to guess at least 15 pounds of stuff. The cucumbers, tomatoes, and basil are all in full swing. The midweek “harvest”:
The lemon cucumbers are going nuts. In a related note, the leaves are starting to look funky. My suspicion is that all of the plants are using their energy to produce fruit and they’re letting their leaves go south. I’m also going to guess that the leaves are going to look awful by the time the first frost rolls around. Here’s the “harvest” from Saturday — four days later. ((L-R) Lemon cucumber, bunch onion, Glacier, Sun Gold, Stupice):
FlatbreadGarden 