Changing of the Season Means New Harvests to Come

Now that most of my spring crops are done except for broccoli it is time to move onto the summer harvests that include pretty much everything in the garden right now.  Today I had a few harvests to do which include tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, beans, corn, and some broccoli.  Broccoli is the only spring crop that is left still producing vegetables that are good to pick.

When it is time to start picking tomatoes that is when you know you are at the peak of summer or getting close to the peak harvest season.  Right now I have plenty of cherry tomatoes, but they just have not turned red yet.  They are not quite ready to harvest, but a couple of plants do have some older fruit that have turned and enjoyed them in a salad a couple of days ago.  Those were the very first cherry tomatoes of the season so far.

A couple of days ago I also picked a couple of Roma and beefsteak tomatoes.  I like picking them just before they turn red because just before red they seem to last longer and are much more firm than if you were to pick them when they are bright red.  You could also pick them sooner and then place them on the window to continue ripening if you prefer.  Sometimes tomatoes that are not close to ripe drop on the ground and those I would place on the windowsill to hopefully ripen enough for consumption.

Corn is also another summer crop that happens to be ready around the begging of August and sometimes the end of July.  A couple of weeks ago some of the corn was ready and I began picking some of them.  I grew two types of strands of corn and for now only one of the types is ready for picking while the other still has a little bit more time to develop until it is ready to pick.  I would say another week or so and that corn will be ready.

I also plan to pick my onions and potatoes hopefully this weekend.  They are pretty much done and they are no longer growing or staying green.  This is the perfect time to start digging them up from the ground and enjoy their great flavor.

It is Almost the end of a Season for 2019 Until Fall Crops are Ready for Harvesting

At the moment fall crops are not quite ready for harvesting, but I would say in the next couple of weeks the first broccoli heads or the first kale leaves will be ready for consumption.  I also have a brussel sprout plant that is just about ready for harvesting which I may do either this weekend or sometime next week.

Now that my fall crops have been growing quite well I also am still harvesting various vegetables that I grew this summer.  Tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, and some beans are what is left of the summer harvest right now.  

My beans are probably done for the year and they have not been producing any more flowers.  There might be some that are hidden within the leaves, but I think it is safe to say that they have given their all. 

My tomatoes are also going the way of my beans and are done with producing new flowers for new fruits that can be harvest.  Luckily there is one beefsteak tomato plant that doesn’t want to give up and is still growing tomatoes.  As for flowers I think it is done, but the plant still has fruit on it that I will be harvesting sometime this month and hopefully before a frost.

 Peppers are another vegetable that I am still harvesting through the month of October.  These plants grew quite well this season and I have probably picked several dozen throughout the year using them for various things including a couple of batches of homemade tomato sauce.    There are still a few on these plants that I will be picking this week, but once I pick these last ones that will most likely be it for them.

 Last but not least are my eggplants that have grown the best out of most of my garden plants.  This could be due to the fact that I grew over 20 eggplants in the garden.  It was just a numbers game that I will have many eggplants to pick.  I have been picking them on a regular basis and I still have plenty out in the garden to harvest.  I would say that this is the largest harvest of eggplants I have ever received.

Two Eggplants Ready To be Made Into a Delicious Meal Right Now

I will keep this post short since not much has been going on except for harvesting plenty of tomatoes of all three types and some eggplants this week.  There are three eggplant plants in the garden at the moment and they all have a large eggplant on them that was perfect for picking this week.

Right now I have only picked two of them and left the third one out in the garden for the moment and will probably harvest that one real soon.  The other two were picked this past week and I will be using one of them today for eggplant Parmesan.  I will also be using homemade tomato sauce that I have stored over the past couple of years.  These were made with my Roma tomatoes.

Tomatoes of all types are continuing to grow on the plants and I am continuing to harvest all of them from week to week.  I don’t pick them every day and instead pick them only a couple of days per week to make certain that enough of them are ripe for harvesting. 

I am enjoying both my cherry tomatoes and steakhouse tomatoes.  I have been making slices out of my steakhouse tomatoes and placing them on my sandwiches or just eating as is.  I have been placing my cherry tomatoes in my salads and eating them hole a few times per week.

This past week I picked a large harvest of both steakhouse tomatoes and cherry tomatoes.  There were 260 cherry tomatoes that were picked yesterday along with a half a dozen of steakhouse tomatoes weighing over a pound each ripe for harvesting. 

This just means more slices of tomatoes will have to be eaten each day in order to go through these large sized tomatoes.  More salads will have to be eaten in order to go through all these cherry tomatoes that I keep picking each week.

Hundreds of Cherry Tomatoes are Just Waiting to be Harvested

Although there plenty of cherry tomatoes to be picked that doesn’t mean that there are no other types of tomatoes or vegetables ready for harvesting.  In fact I have been picking steakhouse tomatoes throughout the past week and have been enjoying them on a daily basis with my sandwiches.  Roma tomatoes are also just about ready to be turned into sauce once I pick just a few more in the next couple of days.

Eggplants are confirmed to finally be pollinated now that all three plants have at least one good size vegetable thriving.  I am going to wait as long as possible in order to get them to get them as large as possible before harvesting them.  Making eggplant Parmesan out of them is the best meal to make with this unique vegetable.

My sunflowers that I have planted through the season at different times are now producing their flower heads and should soon be opening.  The first ones I planted back in April or May are the first to start producing heads and will most likely be the first to open.  I would say that they will start opening very soon and maybe by the end of this week.

My melons are doing quite well and most of my vines have at least one melon growing on them.  I have a couple of crimson sweet watermelons that are growing the best out of all of them. 

My pumpkins have also started to ripen and one of the first ones is pretty much totally orange in color and probably ready to pick soon.  While the first one is done ripening I still have others that have just started producing pumpkins.  I hope that this new one will be able to get to a good size even though it is late producing a pumpkin.

My cucumber vines are on their way to producing plenty of vegetables.  Most of them have plenty of flowers which means I should have plenty of cucumbers in the near future from most of them.  I picked three of them today from three separate plants.  I can’t wait to many more of them.

How The Entire Garden is Progressing

I wanted to write a simple post about the production of my plants that I have in my garden.  Since most of them are growing fruit I thought it would be good to give an update on all my plants.  This would include corn that is starting to grow, clusters of Roma tomatoes, cantaloupes ready to harvest, and eggplants that have finally started to grow.

I was outside today and I wanted to pick most of my vegetables and fruits, but instead I just picked up many cherry tomatoes that had fell to the ground.  Yesterday it rained and with it lots of wind which knocked down and few plants and many cherry tomatoes.  I will go outside tomorrow and pick all the rest of the fruits and vegetables that are ripe.

I have eggplants that are beginning to grow this season and it will probably take them some time to grow to full size.  They usually mature late in the season as compared to other plants.  They are similar to melons and take quite a while to produce fruit, but when they do they get bigger each day.  I will document them from the beginning until I harvest them.

Next on the list is corn.  I wanted to let you know that the corn is going good and this goes for the stalks that have produced silks with ears of corn ready to mature.  So far I have a few that are growing well and I will be harvesting them soon as long as the weather cooperates.

Pole beans are doing good and are continuing to grow flowers which is a great sign of more beans to come.  Potassium is how you can get more flowers on your plants especially when it comes to beans.  They need this nutrient in order to get all the flowers possible and reach its maximum potential yield.

Pumpkins are done for the season and I could probably pick them now if I wanted to, but I will wait as long as possible and pick them as close to October as I can.  This is when I like to cut them open and take out the seeds and bake them in the oven.

I thought zucchini was done a month ago, but after I gave them some wood ash and manure they have started getting newer leaves and more vegetables.  They are not done yet and I think I will be getting many more as long as I keep feeding them what they need.