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.