It’s time once again for Harvest Monday, where we celebrate all things harvest related. We got some much needed rain this weekend, and I’m sure the garden will appreciate it. After getting off to a wet start this year, it dried up in May. That was good for getting things planted, but not for them growing. Still, we are getting lots of harvests, and that now includes blueberries. My wife is in charge of those harvests, and she has picked 6 pounds of them so far. They are so tasty, and we have been enjoying them for breakfast and for snacking, then she freezes what’s left. I’ve been using some of the ones we froze last year in my fruit smoothies too.
blueberries
homemade toasted muesli topped with blueberries
The heat has brought on the eggplants I have growing in containers. Fairy Tale and Patio Baby are my two favorites for containers, and they always give us the first taste of eggplant before the plants in the main garden start producing. The small fruits are perfect for grilling, stir fries or for roasting in the oven, which is how we prepared this first batch. The plants are loaded so there will be more to come soon.
Fairy Tale and Patio Baby eggplant
The squashes are loving the heat too, and I have an assortment of them coming on. I’m freezing a lot of them for use later on in soups. I also use the frozen zucchini in my smoothies. The smoothie is a good place to put a lot of different fruits and veggies.
Dunja and Safari zucchinis
Zephyr squash
Tempest squash
The first Centercut squash were eagerly awaited. We love these roasted or grilled. More are setting on the two vines I planted this year, so I am hoping for plenty of these to eat. Last year they were so productive we were giving them away!
Centercut squash
Cucumbers are not minding the heat in the greenhouse either. The 7082 variety is from Row 7 Seeds (like the Centercut squash) and was bred to have a little bitter flavor to it and stand up to cooking. I plan to grill these two and see how they taste prepared that way. We’ve been enjoying the others pickled and fresh for salads, and a spiralized cucumber salad is on the menu for this week. Itachi is a mild flavored white skinned one I grew last year for the first time, and Corinto is my long time favorite for slicing cucumbers.
7082 cucumbers
Itachi and Corinto cucumbers
It’s been a good year for kohlrabi here too. The hybrid Kossak variety is delivering big ones I use for fermenting plus fresh use. They have been weighing between 1 and 1.5 pounds each, and even at that size they are tender with no woody spots or pithiness. I’ve harvested 26 pounds of kohlrabi so far this year, which is more than all of last year’s spring and fall crop combined. I am quite happy about that since it is one of our favorite veggies, so versatile raw, cooked or fermented.
Kossak kohlrabi
It hasn’t been a great year for napa cabbage though. I had one head rot on me before it was ready to cut, and the two I did get have a lot of insect damage. I usually put daikon radish in with my cabbage kimchi, but I didn’t plant any this spring so I will substitute kohlrabi. I also plan to make kohlrabi kimchi without any cabbage in it which is a favorite of mine when we have plenty of kohlrabi.
ingredients for kimchi
napa cabbage
The lettuce is not happy with the heat, but I’m still cutting it in the cool of the morning before the heat makes the leaves wilt. There was a little tip burn on the Garden Babies in the below photo, but the Sea Of Red is holding up well. It is truly my new favorite red lettuce, which is a good thing because I planted quite a bit of it!
Garden Babies and Sea Of Red lettuce
Harvest Monday is a day to show off your harvests, how you are saving your harvest, or how you are using your harvest. If you have a harvest you want to share, add your name and blog link to Mr Linky below. And be sure and check out what everyone is harvesting!
i noticed that our blueberries were ripening but they won’t have berries as large as yours
Great blueberries, and six pounds no less. You should have a great year with them. Ours are just starting to color-up, and I’m glad, because we enjoy them in smoothies too. I had to read the cucumber paragraph twice. Do you really grill them and spiralize them? I didn’t know they could stand up to either treatment. Great looking squash, kohlrabi, and cabbage too.
It’s my first time to try grilling them. They do spiralize nicely when raw, much like zucchini does.
I’m jelouise. I lost my garden when our house burned down and we moved from IL to OH. Life will never again be joyous for me. “playing in the dirt” gave me meaning at 75 yoa!
I am sorry to hear that Ray! I may have to give up gardening some day, but I hope it’s not for that reason.
Your harvest is magnificent, wow to the blueberries, the Zephyr squash, the Fairy Tale and Patio Baby aubergines especially tantalize me.
Oh just look at those beautiful Aubergines, Dave! And my Kohl Rabi have just moved out of the germinated seedling” phase, and there you are with nice ones to eat! Lovely!!
Whoa, 26 pounds of kohlrabi is amazing. Since your bulbs are so large it actually wouldn’t take that many of them to get to that. Your squashes and eggplants look great as well. This is such a fun time for the garden.
Your squash looks so pretty – especially the Zephyr! I wish I could grow more varieties, but I don’t have the space, and also I think my fiancé would murder me. I’m already on thin ice with six zucchini plants!