Digging Up all My Carrots Today

Just wanted to mention that it was finally time to pick all my carrots that I had planted this year.  Two full rows of carrots is what I dug up today and was able to fill three buckets full of carrots.  I am glad that I planted more than I did last season and I think it definitely is going to pay off this winter.  Once I can them in jars I can then use them throughout the season.

I also wanted to mention about one of the last heads of cabbage that I picked last week.  It was probably one of the best ones that I harvested this season.  It was eaten by cabbage worms and was actually a pretty good size.

Cutting Up Pumpkins for Halloween

The best time to start cutting pumpkins that were picked from the summer or fall is the day before Halloween.  That is what I did this year because I love removing the seeds and then baking them in the oven.  They make for a good snack and are very filling especially if you have quite a few of them.  I did cut up four of my pumpkins that I thought needed to be used very soon.  I don't like to see pumpkins go bad so I usually pick the ones that I think must be cut right away.

 Here is the inside of one of the pumpkins that I cut this past weekend.  It only took about an hour or a little bit more to remove all the seeds and insides of the pumpkins.  They were not too big so this made the job much easier.

I had quite a few seeds just from four pumpkins.  I wasn't able to eat all of them and I still have three more pumpkins that need to be cut.  These will come much later and probably only one at a time.  This will mean less seeds to eat all at once depending if I can make these pumpkins last as long as possible.

Picking Broccoli Heads and Large Kale Leaves

For the past couple of weeks I have been picking some very large kale leaves that have been growing from most of my plants.  Today was just the third time that I had picked some leaves.  Only twelve leaves were harvested, but I am more happy about their size rather than amounts. 

I have just started picking broccoli which started a couple of days ago with the first head to be harvested.  I have not used it yet, but I am thinking about using them to make some broccoli and cheese soup.  I only eat broccoli in cheese soup or if there is cheese on it.  Yesterday I did pick a couple more heads and today I decided on cutting a few of the broccoli side shoots which look ready to eat.

Here is the first broccoli head that I picked earlier in the week.

I picked these broccoli heads yesterday.

Here are just a few of the side shoots that I picked this afternoon.

Kale Ready for Second Picking While Last Watermelon Harvested

This week was actually a little eventful even though most of the garden is done including the last of the summer crop.  Some of the last vegetables I picked would include eggplants, peppers, and tomatoes.  This was the last from the summer season and now it is on to the fall season. 

Before I talk about my kale and broccoli I wanted to mention the last watermelon that I picked last week.  This one was the largest watermelon that I have grown and it was time to pick it before it went bad by being outside.  Once the vine died I knew it was time to pick it right away.  The melon weighed 46 pounds which is a personal record for me and I hope to break that next year. 

Today was a good day for picking kale and taking a look at some of my broccoli plants.  The heads are beginning to grow on most of them and one of them actually looks like a good size and I might be picking it real soon hopefully.  For now just my kale is ready for harvesting and I should be picking some of my cabbage soon as well.

Time for Picking Kale and the Last Pumpkins

I started picking my kale plants today because they had very large leaves that were not going to get any bigger and had to cut them off the plant right away.  I could have waited a couple more days, but I like to pick a little bit at a time rather than several leaves all at once.  I got 37 leaves in total that came from eight plants that I have growing in the garden.

The good news is that there are still plenty of leaves on the plants and the leaves that I picked today were a real good size.  If I can have harvests like this for the rest of the season I will be happy.








Pumpkins were another vegetable that I picked today.  I wasn't going to at first, but then I thought that this is the month of October and this is the best time to pick them.  Instead of just picking a couple I decided to just pick all of them.  I will only cut a couple of them to use on Halloween and the others I will wait just before they begin to rot and then cut them open.

One of my vegetable plants that are still producing flowers would be my peppers.  I saw that my plants had plenty of peppers on them and I picked as many that were ready.  It is great that they are still producing flowers this late into the season.  Once the first frost comes then that will be the end for most of the garden.

Two More Watermelons Picked One Left to Go

There were three watermelons in the garden that were finishing up ripening in the past few weeks and it looked like it was time to pick them.  The biggest one in the garden I decided not to pick because the plant is still alive and has a few green leaves.  This is usually a sign that the watermelon is not ripe, but within a week or so it might be ready for harvesting.

The two that I decided to pick today came from a plant that had turned brown mainly due to the face of the cooler weather and it had exhausted all of its energy on the fruit it grew this season.  I usually like to wait until the stem is ready to come off or comes off on its own.  Today it happened to come off on its own on both of the watermelons and that is when I chose to harvest them.

Check out the watermelon below because this is the last one that I have to pick for this year.

First Watermelon Harvested for the Season

This week was a little exciting with the first watermelon picked.  Although I did pick the smallest of the four that are growing in the garden it still was a pretty decent size.  The other three are much larger and I am definitely looking forward to picking them sometime in the near future.

I also had some cantaloupes that were ready for picking and I picked two of them which only leaves one more left in the garden to harvest.  I had a good crop of cantaloupes this season even though they were medium sized they still were very delicious.

Got the last beans of the season this week as well.  They were done a little bit earlier than past years, but still picked enough to store for the winter months.  I also had another harvest of cherry tomatoes and some peppers that are still growing in the garden.

Coming Down to the Last Harvests for This Season

I would say that the garden season of 2016 is coming to a close and it is almost time to start removing plants and cleaning up the garden.  I have started doing that with my beans, but that is all I have been doing in terms of cleaning up the garden.  I have removed one sunflower but that is about it. 

This coming week I will have to start digging up all my plants including sunflower and corn stalks along with tomatoes, zucchini, and other plants that need to be removed because they are no longer producing.  Even though we are at the end I did end up picking some tomatoes, eggplants, cantaloupe, and cucumbers.

Picking Enough Roma Tomatoes for More Home Made Sauce

Today I had plenty of tomatoes to be picked.  This doesn't mean just Roma tomatoes which will be used for making sauce, but I also had many cherry tomatoes and steakhouse tomatoes that were ready for harvesting.  One cherry tomato plant is done for the season and was no longer producing any more leaves or even flowers.  I only have three more left which should provide me enough to last at least a month hopefully.

Here are my steakhouse tomatoes which are best used for slicing and placing on sandwiches or just eating as is.  This is probably the biggest harvest of these types of tomatoes this season.  They are quite a good size and still good enough for slicing.







Some more pole beans were harvested this afternoon and this will probably be the last post about these beans for the season.  They lasted not as long as usual, but I still got enough out of them to be proud of.  I didn't want to forget mentioning a couple more peppers were finished ripening on the plant.

Time to Make the First Cut in My Honeydew Melon

I thought that today would be a good time to start cutting up my honeydew melon since it has been in the fridge for a few days.  I do not like warm fruit and I like to leave them in the fridge for at least a day in order to make it cold enough for consumption.  I wouldn't say all fruits need to be cold to eat, but at least melons for the most part.

I would say it looks very juicy from this picture and it definitely was juicy when I took a slice from it.  I was glad that I planted these types of melons and I hope to grow them again next year to hopefully get them a little bit bigger.







A few more fruits and vegetables were harvested today.  Some of them include peppers, tomatoes, and even one more cantaloupe.  I already finished the first cantaloupe that I picked a few days ago and now another one was ripe enough to bring inside.  I would say a couple of days and it will be ready to cut open and eat just like my honeydew melon.

Cherry tomatoes and Roma tomatoes were on my mind today because I had a few Roma tomatoes from another harvest and wanted enough to make some tomato sauce.  I found about 12 more and they were a pretty good size.  I also had some more cherry tomatoes that I needed to pick as well.  I also picked a few more peppers that I thought were ready enough to eat.

Honeydew Melon for the First Time

This was the first year that I tried honeydew melons and it was a pretty good year for them.  Even though only one out of four plants survived I still think that it was a good year with the first honeydew melon that I picked today.  I have been growing melons for a long time and mainly cantaloupe and watermelons.  Since these are all melons they will pretty much need the same care as one another.  Adding another melon was just a simple step and nothing too major.

 It is a good size, but I am more concerned about the taste of the melon.  As long as it is sweet and juicy like a melon should taste, then I will be happy with this years melon harvest.

Four more peppers added to the list today.  There were only four to pick this afternoon and I didn't want to pick any that were not ready for consumption.  I like to leave them out until they have grown to their maximum size and then harvest them.  Today I found a couple that were beginning to go from green to red.  This is when I know I left them on the plant too long.

The First Melon Ripe to Pick

I just got my very first melon of the season today.  I actually didn't think that I would get one of them this week, but this happens to be about the average time when they are ripe and ready for eating.  It just happened to be a cantaloupe which I have plenty of.  I was hoping to pick my honeydew first, but when the melon is ready then I will pick it.

Some more cherry tomatoes and some pole beans were picked this afternoon.  I still have some cherry tomatoes on the plants, but I think the season for them is beginning to wind down and there is not that many left to pick.  I hope the plants would grow more, but I can't complain because the season has been quite good this year.

Along with cherry tomatoes I did happen to see some ready and ripe Roma and steakhouse tomatoes.  These tomatoes weighed a pound each and that is perfect for using them for sauce or just for slicing them up for a sandwich.

Roma Tomatoes Ripened Over the Past Few Days

Today I had checked out my Roma tomato plants and noticed that there were many that were ready for harvesting.  I had looked at them recently and many of them were not quite ripe enough.  With all the sun we have been having it looks like my Roma tomatoes had turned red quite faster than I thought they would.  This is good for me and I harvested 23 of them today which means I need to start making sauce out of them.

Most of them were a good size and lived up to its reputation of an average weight of a little under a pound per tomato.  Some of them actually weighed one pound and that is the beauty of these super sauce tomatoes.  I still have many more on the plants and they should be ripening very soon for more harvests to come.






Now my cherry tomatoes are just as bountiful and large for the type that they are.  Cherry tomatoes are usually the smallest of the three types of tomatoes, but can be real large.  I have been picking plenty of these tomatoes and today I scored the largest harvest so far with 154 cherry tomatoes!

I thought I had collected the most the other day when I got a little bit more than 100.  Today I was surprised to pick as much as I did and there are still many more out there to pick.

You can see from the picture on the left that there are still many cherry tomatoes that are almost ripe or still green.  This will lead to many more harvests and plenty of cherry tomatoes for salads and other delicious meals.








The last thing I wanted to discuss are my onions which I had left outside to dry them out before bringing them in and using them.  Now that the hot weather has dried them completely it is time to start using them.  I believe that they can last for the rest of the year, but will not extend into next year like the previous harvest did.  I think I will have to use more totes in order to get more onions to last the entire Winter season.  I got a little bit less, but they were still a good size.

Getting the First Two Eggplants Picked Today

One of the first vegetables to be picked today were my eggplants.  They seemed okay to be picked and I could have left them on the plant, but since they were no longer growing I didn't want them to begin to decay and start getting soft and mushy.  That is why I decided to pick them today and both of them had been on the plant for over a month.

Along with eggplants I did pick some cherry and Roma tomatoes.  I only got three Romas today, but the good news is that there are plenty of them on the plants.  I see very large ones that I can't wait to pick once they turn ripe and red.  Once I pick enough I can then work on making tomato sauce which is something I like to do with these tomatoes.  I got another 73 cherry tomatoes today too.

One last vegetable I want to discuss are my peppers that I picked today.  They were quite big and definitely a good size that I can use in any meal that I would like.  The larger the pepper the better which also goes for most vegetables and fruits in the garden.