Three Summer Crop Vegetables Harvesting Continues

 It is that time of the season where most of my vegetables are going to be ready for picking and harvesting.  So far I have been consistently picking cucumbers and zucchini and this weekend I started with harvesting my corn for the first time this season.  Corn usually ripens around the same time and I usually pick an entire row as long as they are the same type or breed of corn.  I have two rows of corn and the second row will soon be harvested in a couple of weeks.  For now I picked an early type and that is what I have been enjoying for the past few days.

The cucumber vines in the garden have been growing since the beginning of May and have been just producing cucumbers on a weekly basis.  I have been picking a harvest pretty much every week and yesterday I probably picked the most so far this summer.  I am glad I am picking plenty of cucumbers because I need to make up from last year when I only picked just a couple of cucumbers from one or two vines.  

It seems that I will be picking tomatoes next from the garden.  Many of them are ripening slow because of the cloudy and rainy weather that has been around this year.  I am sure that with a couple of days of some sun most of them will be harvest prone.  These would include all the types of tomatoes that I planted such as cherry, Roma, and beefsteak.  There was one on a plant yesterday that I should have picked, but I will wait another day before I get to enjoy it's juicy flavor.

Eggplants are another vegetable that looks like it will be ready soon.  These plants I started inside because this is one plant that needs much time to mature and it seems that they are maturing earlier than normal which is a good thing.  I would guess that all the plants have at least one eggplant growing from them and possibly more with all the flowers that they had on them.  I would guess sometime this month at least one or more eggplants will be mature enough for harvesting.

Wondering What I have Been harvesting Today?

Today was quite a busy day with cutting the tops of the onions now that they are dry enough to bring inside.  I also decided to pick the rest of the corn that were on the stalks, picking several cucumbers, picking a zucchini, and putting away the tables that the onions were drying on.  Now I just need to wait for things such as melons, eggplant, and pumpkins to ripen so I can harvest them as well.
 

For the moment I have been continuing to harvest peppers, cucumbers, zucchini, and corn.  The very last of the corn was harvested this afternoon.  There might be an ear here or there still on the stalks, but they will not be very big and not worth the time to pick them.  I will remove the husk from them and place them in my onion totes which will decompose over the winter for nutrients for my onions in the spring time. 

 

Zucchini I have been picking for the longest this season.  I now have four newer plants that were added about a month or so ago and they are at the point that they might be producing female flowers real soon.  This means that I might actually have time to begin picking zucchini from them.  I just picked a large zucchini from one of the older ones that were transplanted into the garden.  This is the biggest so far this season and hopefully will get several more before the season is done.

Peppers are also a very consistent vegetable to pick through the season.  I have started picking them a week or so ago and now most of the plants have plenty of flowers along with plenty of peppers.  This season I planted Chinese giant instead of the normal California bell pepper.  They are very similar except for the fact that the Chinese giant ones maybe a little bit bigger than others.  I guess I will find out with time how big they can get.

How about Some Corn on the Cob?

Yes that is what I was able to enjoy yesterday with a decent harvest of some of my corn.  I like to cook all of them right away or at least the same day that I pick them and with that I got to have some corn to eat with my dinner.  They were quite large and delicious and I can’t wait to continue picking all the rest that are still out there.  I would guess that I have about a dozen or so left to harvest.


Beans are also flourishing and some more of them were picked as well.  I still have many growing on the vines which means I should be getting some more this month and hopefully through September as well.  As long as those buds and flowers keep coming I should have many more harvests.


A few peppers, cucumbers, and a couple of Romas were the harvest of today.  I even had one zucchini that was ready as well.  It is just the second round for my zucchini plants are there are a couple more out there that are not ready, but I should be picking them soon.

Peppers, Corn, Tomatoes, and Cucumbers

This week was very busy with lots of harvesting of many of my vegetables.  Some of the vegetables that I was able to pick included the first of the peppers, corn, cherry tomatoes, Roma tomatoes, zucchini, and even more cucumbers.  I have many more vegetables on the way including my eggplants which look almost ready to pick.

My peppers were picked about a couple of days ago and it was the very first harvest of these sweet delicious vegetables.  I wasn't sure if I was going to pick any more, but there are still many more on the plants which means I will be harvesting many more in the near future.

Today I picked the first corn of the season which I wasn't sure was going to be ready today.  I had been looking at them throughout the week and thought that sometime this week I would begin picking them.  Today was that day that they finally were ripe enough to pick.  I don't want to pick them too early and I don't want to pick them too late.  I like to pick them when they are just right.

I also have been picking Roma tomatoes this week as well.  My cherry tomatoes are doing very well and I was able to get 52 today and some more a couple days ago.  Once the cherry tomatoes are done or most of them have been picked that is usually when I start getting large Roma tomato harvests.

A few days ago I picked some more cucumbers which I didn't want to leave outside for too much longer.  Most of my plants look exhausted, but some of them are still growing vines and producing flowers along with vegetables.  I am not sure how much longer they will be producing, but hopefully it will be for as long as possible as long as the weather holds up.

Harvesting Twenty Two Ears of Corn and Seven Steakhouse Tomatoes

These are just two things that I didn't plan on doing today, but it ended up working in the end once I went into the garden to take a look at my plants.  I knew that the corn was probably ready to bring inside and eat immediately.  What I didn't know was how much there was to pick and how many ears I would have to cook. 

Twenty two was the total amount of corn that I picked this evening.  I decided on removing the covering from the ears and cook them for dinner.  They were definitely worth all the work that I gave them and all the rain recently was definitely a big help.  You can see for yourself how good the corn came out this season.

Tomatoes were also ripening and mainly the steakhouse ones.  The Roma tomatoes will most likely be picked in the very near future such as during this week sometime.  I didn't get as many steakhouse tomatoes as I usually do because of the amount of plants that I grew this season.  I planted less than normal thinking I would still get plenty to eat.  The fact is that I got enough for a summer season and as long as they last a couple of weeks I will be happy.

I Now Have Corn of my Own That I can Eat and Enjoy

Corn has finally arrived in time before the season starts winding down.  I knew I was going to get corn, but it all depended exactly when this would happen for me.  A few weeks into the month of August I was able to collect the corn that I needed for the summer.

Yesterday is when I did this fun and easy task of removing and checking the ears for ripe corn.  I didn't just want to go out there and start cutting down all the ears on the stalks because chances are that I would likely remove some there were still ripening.

The one thing that I did was check them pretty much every day until yesterday, so I knew that the corn would be coming out very soon.  Once I had pollinated them I could then wait a few weeks for them to develop and once they had reach their full size I could then look at them and wait until they were ripe.

Only 24 were cut from the stalks yesterday and weighed in at 15 pounds.  I was happy with this and I wasn't so worried about the weight and size as I was with the taste.  I cooked them like usual and they came out to be incredibly delicious.  Tender and sweet just like all corn should be.  Here are some photos that I took of the corn harvested yesterday.