Taking Onions out of the Totes and Eggplants of the Plants

 The month of August is never the time when onions are completely done and dry them in the sun and get them ready for consumption.  This was an unusual year for the garden due to rainy weather, but was definitely a good change compared to last season with very little rain throughout the summer months.  This might be why they were not ready for harvesting during July which is when I tend to pick them out of the ground.  Even with all this rain I still was able to pick them and have a decent size harvest.  I also got much larger red onions which I was happy with and hopefully these onions alone will last to the new year.

 Eggplants are also another vegetable I have been harvesting more recently and have already eaten the first of the season.  I have about five plants of eggplants and each of them has at least two or more vegetables growing on them.  Some are small, but most of them are about medium size and I can do plenty with these vegetables once I start picking them on a consistent basis.

 

My tomatoes are also coming in quite well and I have already made some salsa out of my beefsteak tomatoes because I had too many and I can only eat so many BLT's every day.  I still keep the best ones for my sandwiches and still there are many tomatoes that need picking, but just waiting them to turn color.  

 

Broccoli has also been prominent in the garden with many of their heads ready to be cut from the plant.  Although I would rather pick the heads in the spring or fall this particular type of broccoli is good in warm to hotter than normal weather.  Although they can still grow in cool weather I wanted them in order to pick broccoli throughout the year.  Although it didn't work out that way I still have plenty of time to possibly pick smaller broccoli from these plants

 

.Peppers and cucumbers are still being harvested, but I think my cucumbers are done for the season with only a couple of healthy vines left producing fruit.  Peppers on the other hand are still producing vegetables and I think a couple of hot pepper plants were able to survive this season.  I was certain that none of them sprouted, but I think I was wrong and it looks like one or two possible habaneras are alive and well in the garden.  I will have to wait and see if these are the hot peppers that I tried sprouting during the early springtime.

Onions Up and Done With Corn and Others on the Way

My onions were picked a week or two ago and I needed to dry them before they can be used.  I dried them outside for about a week or so.  They were dry enough on Tuesday and that is when I decided to bring them in for the first time.  Just about thirty pounds was picked in total along with 170 total onions that were picked from the soil.  This was definitely a good harvest this season for onions.


Corn is very close to harvesting and within a few days or so the majority of them should be ready for serving.  I only got a couple of them so far and these were most likely the early ones that you have every season.  Once most of them are ready I will probably pick them all in one day or within a couple of days consecutively. 



Beans is another vegetable that happened to be ready for harvesting.  Unlike corn I was able to pick quite a few beans for the first of the season.  Approximately three pounds was gathered from all the vines that are growing outside.  Although there are not as many beans growing this was a good number for the start of the bean harvest.  I hope to get many more in the real near future.

Pumpkins, melons, tomatoes, and more are beginning to show the fruits of my labor.  I have many tomatoes that are growing and they are sure starting to turn with cherry and Roma most likely the first to the dinner table.

I think the next vegetables that I will be picking include cucumbers and or peppers.  I have a cucumber that is just about ready, but I want to leave out there for another day or two.  I don’t want to pick it too soon before I have a chance to add lime to the soil.  I don’t want to pick this cucumber and have it taste bitter. 

Melons will most likely be last along with the pumpkins that I have out there.  Only a couple of melons and a few pumpkins are growing for the moment.  The only thing that I am waiting for are my eggplants to begin showing signs of harvest material.  They do have flowers which are a good sign and hopefully they will begin producing fruit in the near future.

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.

Every Onion Out of the Soil and Accounted For

I loved removing my onions from the soil yesterday because what I saw was a great harvest and a good season for onions.  I do not always get a good harvest, but this year I think I have figured out exactly how many bulbs should be placed in each tote for maximum potential.

Twenty bulbs were inserted into each tote this year instead of thirty like last year.  This is probably why the weight of the onions last year was so low.  This year was much higher and they look much better in quality.  Quantity always looses in organic gardening.  95 onions and 30 pounds was what I got this year from these vegetable.

Here is the large pile of onions that I collected yesterday.  I was able to braid the stems together making them much more easier to use for consumption.  Take a look at what I did with them so you can do that same as well.

Now that you know what I did with my onions yesterday, today brought some more fruit and vegetables.  I picked a cucumber that had not been growing anymore and a tomato that was at its prime.  Check them out below.

I also picked another two and a half pounds of blueberries.  This looks like this is one of the last harvests that I will get out of my blueberry bushes.  I will have to start thinking about what I am going to different next year with these bushes in order to get more of them consistently.