The garden seemed to go into overdrive this week. The kitchen island has been loaded up every day with goodies from the garden, and the freezer is filling up fast.
The blueberries and blackberries are hitting their peak, even as the tomato harvest is just beginning. We picked about 3.5 gallons of blackberries, and a gallon of blueberries. We got several quarts of the small-fruited varieties of tomatoes this week, plus a few of the slicers. The dehydrator has been busy drying some of the tomatoes.
We got our first sweet pepper this week, Carmen, from a plant growing in a large pot. I’m continuing to experiment with peppers and eggplants in containers. It does seem to be a worthwhile way to give us an early taste of both of these summer vegetables. This Carmen pepper looked more like a bell pepper, but the others coming on show the more tapered shape you would expect from an Italian bull’s horn pepper. It was juicy and sweet on a salad.
Sharon cucumbers and Carmen pepper
From the greenhouse I continue to get cucumbers, plus the occasional lettuce plant. Anything growing in the greenhouse here in summer has got to love the heat! The Sharon cucumber variety is supposed to be cold-tolerant, but it seems to love the heat as well. I made some cucumber salsa with it one day, a simple mix of diced cucumbers, some salad burnet flavored vinegar, mint and onions. It made for a cool side dish on a hot day.
cucumber salsa
And the lettuce has amazed me. I planted heat tolerant varieties in the greenhouse back in early June (New Red Fire, Loma, and Magenta). While the outside temps have reached the upper 90s, it has gotten over 120F in the greenhouse. None of these lettuces have bolted. New Red Fire and Magenta don’t color up as well in the greenhouse, but that’s ok.
New Red Fire lettuce
We are happy to have any lettuce at all in this heat! We used some of the Magenta leaves for BLT sandwiches one day.
Magenta lettuce
It was our first BLTs of the season, but I’m guessing it won’t be our last. I even baked a loaf of whole wheat Honey Flax bread for the occasion.
BLT sandwich on Honey Flax bread
I couldn’t wait any longer and decided to dig one of the Caribe potato plants. It rewarded us with almost a pound of new potatoes. I cooked them up with some green beans. This was one of the plants growing under straw in the new lasagna bed. I hope the rest of the plants do this well!
That’s a sample of what we’ve been harvesting in the last week. The total harvest for this week was 69 pounds, the largest yet of 2010. To see more gardener’s harvests, visit Daphne’s Dandelions.
It’s nice to see that there is some lettuce growing in the heat of the summer.
Delicious sandwiches!
While all the harvest looks great, I particularly love the first photo grouping. I could just sit down and eat all of those tasty items! I have not dug into my Caribe potatoes yet – just the Yukon Gold’s. I think I will give them a test dig this week and see how they are coming along too.
Your harvest looks amazing! Now I want a BLT!
What a wonderful, wonderful harvest!
It all looks so good. I ned to get a dehydrator, just finishing up the cherry tomatoes that I did in the oven last year but using the oven when its 90° outside is out of the question. The berries look fabulous.
The dehydrator does heat up the kitchen, but not as much as the oven. We also run it overnight sometimes, when it’s cooler.
Wow! 69lbs for one week is GREAT! I’m hoping to do so well with then the next 5 years. This is our first year and we have only just begun with the smaller gardens in back:) We will be doing lots of edible landscaping along with those.
Another fantastic harvest! I’m impressed your Carmen pepper is ready. Our ‘June Gloom’ coastal fog showed up a bit late…now being July, and our peppers are NOT amused. Hopefully we’ll warm up a little, and they’ll catch up soon. We’re growing Carmen and Lipstick, and at the moment, our Lipstick peppers seem a bit further ahead…but not ready yet. Your potatoes look great. Hoping to harvest some ourselves very soon. I peeked at some Rose Finn Apple fingerlings yesterday, and it’s looking promising!
Our fingerling potatoes aren’t quite ready yet, but I’m resisting the urge to pull one of the plants. The harvest of them will likely be smaller anyway, and I don’t want to make it even smaller by digging the plants too soon.
The harvest looks good, but that bread looks pretty good too. Care to share the recipe?
Cheryl, I’m off to volunteer at the hot lunch program today, but I will post that bread recipe ASAP.
Your cherry tomatoes and berries look wonderful.
I can’t wait for that first BLT. I may have to make one with my cherry tomatoes which will ripen long before any of my large fruiting tomatoes
What a gorgeous harvest of delectable foods! I do so wish Mr. Granny would eat something besides that horrid, store bought white bread. Your honey and flax loaf looks and sounds delicious.
I thought Mr Granny was with Momma S! It is good that Lynda and I have similar tastes. She and I pretty much like to eat the same things, including whole wheat bread.
YUM – BLTS! I have two tomatoes reddening. I expect to pick them any day now so will have those for next week’s harvest post.
Cucumber salsa – I’ll have to try that.
What a fabulous harvest. I can’t believe the lettuce grew for you in the greenhouse. Mine has bolted long ago.
OMG, 69 pounds in one week, that’s a full time job to harvest and use all that! Wow. I’m salivating over that BLT, I’ve got the bacon, lettuce, and bread (rising now) already and there’s one tomato in the garden that is nearly there . . .
Funny, you have a bell shaped pepper that should be pointy and I’ve got a pointy pepper that should be a bell – did our seeds get crossed in the mail?
Michelle, I did a doubletake when I saw that Carmen pepper. It wouldn’t be the first time I got the labels mixed up. But the other peppers on that plant look normal for a Carmen.
All of my lettuce has bolted. I will write down the names of yours that have lasted longer and plant those next year! Your veggies look scrumptious. That BLT made my mouth water!
Red Sails lettuce also stands up to the heat. I’m planting some of it today to replace what’s been harvested. It and New Red Fire are good for all seasons IMO.
Wonderful harvest. I can’t believe your lettuce is still going strong. Ah, BLTs! You have me drooling over your pics.
Amazing harvest, everything look so good and delicious, I haven’t had a good BLT in ages.
I’m still waiting for my cukes to come in, it’s a new variety for me this year, I should go back to me old standby girls cuke.
I’m getting a pen/paper right now before I forget to write down your lettuce variety. They must have some superpowers to grow in this heat. Your cucumber salsa sounds really interesting, too. And 69 pounds of harvest, in one week? Whoa. Now I feel kinda silly for feeling happy about my finally getting over one pound in a week. 🙂
No reason to feel silly! Growing your own food is reason enough to be excited, regardless of the amounts. I haven’t always grown this much food. Since I retired, I now have more time to devote to gardening. It keeps me out of trouble (mostly)!
Wow, that is quite a harvest! Love the berries! And that sandwich looks scrumptious!
You always seem to have such a nice variety of fresh produce from the garden. I was wondering, how large is your garden? I think that one of my favorite foods is a BLT…with lettuce, tomatoes, and onions, fresh from the garden of course.:) Your bread sounds good.
Thanks Mike. We have about 2500 square feet of total space devoted to fruits and vegetables.
Impressive, Villager. I like the sound of that cucumber salsa. We need to use up some cukes, and I may try it. Wonder if it would work with a little plain yogurt, stuffed in pitas…
Mmm, cucumbers with yogurt on a pita – what time is dinner?
What a haul! Fantastic harvest!
You and me, we’re on the same wavelength. BLTs are how my husband and I celebrated our first tomato of the summer too.
What a great harvest. Thanks for the tips on the heat-resistant lettace varieties. I tend to not think of lettace in mid-summer but now it sounds very do-able! Please, when you have the time post your bread recipie. It looks yummy as well.
I love the look of those cukes – perfect shape and smooth texture. I’m not crazy about the spacemasters I’m growing this year. Prolific but pretty bland.
It seems like you’ve been harvesting lettuce for months now. I really need to look into non-bitter, slow bolting varieties next year.
Wow! What a fabulous harvest! I am jealous, my garden experienced summer today for the first time this year (except when we had 85F in January, and then 56F in July). I hope it will soon catch up with yours.