It’s time once again for Harvest Monday, where we celebrate all things harvest related. We’re getting lots of summer veggies from the garden now, plenty to enjoy for our own use and a few extras to share as well. Tomatoes are beginning to ripen, and the peppers are setting on too so it won’t be much longer for both of those to join our harvests.
eggplant and cucumber harvest
It’s been a great year for cucumbers here so far. I’ve harvested mostly slicing varieties with a few of the smaller pickling types. We’ve been enjoying them every way we can, and they have made almost daily appearances on our plates in some form or another.
Nokya and Excelsior cucumbers
Nokya and Corinto cucumbers
I used one of the big cukes in a Mediterranean Quinoa Salad I made to go with some roasted salmon we had for dinner one night. Along with the cucumbers I used some of our frozen Slow Roasted Tomatoes from last year plus fresh basil and oregano and some crumbled feta cheese along with a few olives. The cucumbers added crunch to this cool salad, and it would go well as a side dish with many things.
Mediterranean Quinoa Salad
It’s also been a great year for eggplant too. The early varieties (Gretel, Icicle and Fairy Tale) I have growing in containers has kept us well supplied, and the in-ground plantings are now beginning to set fruit also. We used some of our harvests to make an open-faced eggplant sandwich last week, one of our many favorite eggplant recipes.
container eggplants
eggplants and Korean avocado squash
open-faced eggplant sandwich
The summer squashes are slowing down, but we’ve had a good run. At this point in the season I’m not too sad to see the decline, especially when the other veggies start producing.
summer squashes
I also brought in some acorn squashes last week, three each of the Starry Night (green skin) and Goldilocks. Goldilocks is a tasty little squash with golden skin and flesh. It’s an AAS Winner that does well for me here. Starry Night is a bit bigger and has great flavor as well as good keeping qualities.
Starry Night and Goldilocks acorn squashes
Starry Night squash
We have lots of flowers blooming in our perennial beds now, but the hardy hibiscus plants are really putting on a show, Fireball has blooms up to 10 inches across on a 4 foot plant that has purplish red leaves. The native Scarlet Hibiscus (Hibiscus coccineus) has smaller blooms on plants that get a bit taller. The blooms on all these only last a day, but are quickly replaced by more buds that open on a daily basis here for most of the summer. The blooms are visited by butterflies and hummingbirds, especially the native ones.
Fireball hibiscus
Scarlet hibiscus
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 please check out what everyone is harvesting!
Our courgettes (your zucchini) are only just getting going. Beautiful flowers
So many nice cucumbers and eggplants! You sourced Starry Night from Johnny’s, right? I am wondering about your container gardening, something I don’t have much luck with. Do you fertilize them often, and if so, what do you use?
Will, at planting time I put a shovel full of compost and about a half cup of Happy Frog Tomato & Vegetable fertilizer in with the potting soil and mix it all up. That is the only fertilizer I give it, other than maybe a drink of fish emulsion water if I think of it. The hardest part for me is keeping the containers watered! The grow bags tend to make for bigger plants and more fruit than the big plastic pots I use. And yes, I got Starry Night from Johnny’s.