It’s been a good year for vegetables here so far, despite our current heat wave that is setting records and wilting gardens and gardeners alike. Yesterday thunderstorms started popping up all around us, and I decided to dig the fingerling potatoes before we got a soaking rain and the soil turned to mud.
As it turned out, the thunderstorms bypassed us, but I’m glad I dug the potatoes. I planted one pound of Russian Banana potatoes back in mid-March. Each hill I planted yielded a little over a pound of potatoes, for a grand total of almost 17 pounds of lovely fingerling potatoes. Some of them are going to get roasted tonight for dinner.
bucket of Russian Banana potatoes (click on any image to enlarge)
I had to order these seed potatoes from a catalog, and I almost didn’t do it because they cost $6 a pound, which is a lot more than other seed potatoes cost locally. I’m glad I did though. I believe in this case the harvest was definitely worth the $6 spent!
couple of nice sized fingerling potatoes
Of course, I’m not literally digging the pole beans, but I do appreciate their ease of harvest. When my back is tired from other tasks, harvesting the pole beans from an upright position is sure better than bending over the bush beans! I planted Fortex, Helda, Marvel of Venice and Musica this year. The Fortex beans are just now setting on, while I started getting the others about a week ago. Fortex is sure worth the wait though. It’s tasty and usually very productive for us here. The yardlong beans are just now beginning to bloom and set on too.
variety of pole beans
Two other new items in the harvest basket this week were the Striata d’Italia and Tondo Nizza zucchinis. Striata d’Italia is the striped one in the below photo, while the round one is the Tondo Nizza. I got seed for both from Seeds From Italy.
Striata d'Italia and Tondo Nizza zucchinis
I also pulled up the rest of the Red Tropea onions. I won’t weigh them until they have cured, but I got several pounds of these lovely onions, including ones we’ve already eaten. I also finished digging the last of the garlic crop. I won’t weigh the garlic until it’s cured, either, but it looks like a great year for garlic here.
Red Tropea onions curing
That’s a peek at what’s coming out of the gardens right about now. To see what others are ‘digging’, visit Daphne’s Dandelions, host of Harvest Mondays. Happy Growing to you!