There’s only one way to describe the weather here lately, and that’s HOT-T-T! High temps are supposed to be in the mid 90s all week, hitting 96F today. That has meant gardening chores have to be done as early as possible in the day. It has to be bad on tomato pollination, but only time will tell how bad it really is.
And speaking of tomatoes, we got our first taste this week, a couple of Sun Golds and a Sweet Baby Girl harvested on June 17th. There were others ready later in the week, but these first three were special. My wife and I shared them. These were from early plants I got in the ground on 4/14.
Here’s what the harvest bucket looked like last week with a cucumber joining Purple Queen beans, broccoli side shoots and yellow squash.
I harvested almost 3 pounds of Purple Queen bush beans. We cooked a batch of them to eat, and froze the rest. I put some of them in freezer bags along with zucchini, cabbage and onions and froze them for making minestrone soup later on.
Purple Queen bush beans
The onions were some of the Super Star plants I set out last fall. They weighed in at about 4 ounces each – not huge, but tasty and much appreciated in the kitchen where last year’s crop is long gone!
I also harvested some nice Fun Jen greens from the greenhouse, before they melted from the heat. We had them in an Oriental Chicken Salad, mixed with a little lettuce.
Fun Jen greens
We continue to get nice harvests of side shoots from the various broccoli varieties. These are from Piracicaba. I’ve been freezing all the broccoli we can’t eat.
I sauteed some of the yellow squash with a bit of olive oil and added some fresh basil from the herb garden. It made for a quick and easy side dish.
No critters were ‘harvested’ this week, but I did see a rabbit hiding out in the raspberry patch. It better behave, or I’ll do my Mr McGregor impersonation!
All total we harvested 21 pounds of veggies this week, making our yearly total 193 pounds. For more gardener’s harvests, visit Daphne’s Dandelions.
Wow great harvest! Those beans are beautiful!!
A great harvest as usual! The piracicaba broccoli is starting to grow on me. We’re finally started to get a good amount of side shoots. It’s interesting that the only shoots that tasted bitter are the ones from plants that were stunted a bit because I had set them out too early this year. I’ll probably start this variety later next year.
Beautiful beans by the way.
Also, I’m in awe by the size of your garden.
I love those purple beans!
Ha! I knew that we were not the only ones that enjoyed purple bush beans…a very nice harvest.
We must be having the same weather. It’s so so so so HOT!! It’s too hot for me!
We just love purple beans…yummy. They are the only type that I plant….except for some dry beans.
Great harvest!
Beautiful harvest. I’m adding purple beans to my list of must haves for next year! They’re gorgeous.
BTW, I love purple coneflowers. They reseed beautifully, and I consider them my old dependables. Pretty blog.
Ah tomatoes. Really what more can you say? The rest of the harvest looks lovely too of course.
You got lots and lots of food from your garden, as you generally do. Nice purple beans, and your tomatoes are already ripe! I planted mine at the same time as you did yours, but still only little green balls…
Wonderful harvest as usual. I keep waiting for harvests from my piracicaba broccoli, but only one main head (about 3/4″ across). I hope the side shoots are better. It doesn’t seem to like this year so far.
Beautiful purple beans and picture perfect cucumber! Great harvest!
Fantastic harvest this week! We’re a few weeks behind you. We’ve got baby cukes, green tomatoes and bean blossoms.
Excellent harvest! Congratulations on your first tomatoes! Your purple queen beans look beautiful. I didn’t think to plant purple ones…just green and yellow for us this year. I wonder if we’ll see Mr. McGregor’s rabbit pie featured next harvest Monday? 😛 I hope the bunny behaves…
I echo all the ‘beautiful beans’ comments. Do they keep their color when cooked?
No, they turn a dark green color almost as soon as they hit hot water.
You have lots coming in! The purple beans are very nice. I need to plant bush beans early next year, seems to really pay off.
What a wonderful harvest, as always. Guess who’s singing, “jealous?” 😉
Your Purple Queens have me feeling all giddy!!! The blossoms on mine are about to burst–I can’t wait!
The beans are beautiful! We grew them last year, but the kids won’t eat them because they squeak when you chew them. Go figure.
Beautiful harvest as always. What’s the difference between Purple Queen and Royal Burgandy green beans?
Everybody seems to like Sungold cherry tomato, I’ll have to try it someday.
I honestly don’t know what the difference is. I know the Purple Queen beans will do well in colder weather than most green beans.
We love our Sungolds. They are prone to cracking, at least they are in our climate, but the taste makes it worth growing them. And they are good dried too.
yes, it has been way to hot!! Your monday harvest looks so yummy! We harvested our first zuccini this morning. We will be having zuccini/egg suffle` for dinner tonight:)
All of your veggies are beautiful, especially those purple beans. Doncha just love that bright color? That’s a nice harvest for June, Dave. Here, beans are still a dream (unless I open a canned jar of them!).
The squash is very inviting, even as simple as it was to prepare, it just looks so delicious…I may not think that way in August, though.
Yes, by August squash won’t be so appealing for me either! Right now it’s a real treat.