Happy Acres Blog

It’s time for Harvest Monday, where gardeners from all over celebrate all things harvest related. The weather here has turned dry, but with that came excessive heat warnings for our area and much of the U.S. I’m doing gardening work as early as possible in the mornings, usually before I eat my breakfast. The garden is still ramping up production, and this week I got the first eggplants from the container plantings. There will be more soon, and the plants are loaded with blooms and setting lots of fruit. We typically get several pounds of eggplant from these before the in-ground plantings begin to bear.

Fairy Tale and Gretel eggplant

And raspberries are still keeping us well supplied. I have to say they have been thriving on neglect, as I have done very little to them since planting other than to trim out the dead canes when they are done fruiting.

raspberry harvest

It’s not going to be a great year for the blueberries though, but my wife found a few ripe ones which we shared. We lost a couple of the bushes over the winter, and we have decided not to replant any new ones.

first blueberries

It does look like a pretty good year for kohlrabi though, at least the ones I have planted behind the greenhouse. This batch included the purple skinned Konstance (2025 AAS Winner), the white skinned Beas, and a couple of Terek.

kohlrabi harvest

We had another first last week, a great first harvest of the greenhouse cucumbers. There are three varieties I’ve gotten so far, and from small to large they are Mini Munch, Mojito and Nokya.

first cucumbers

It’s my first time growing the Mojito variety. They are medium sized with a lime-green skin and a mild flavor. I’m a fan so far, and I turned some of these into Quick Refrigerator Pickles.

Mojito cucumber

I got a few more squashes last week, both zucchini and the yellow Tempest. I haven’t started freezing any yet, but I hope to do so as more start coming in.

summer squashes

I made a pasta dish with some of the summer squashes. Baked Ziti & Summer Veggies is one of my favorites, with ricotta and mozzarella cheeses and both yellow squash and zucchini. Some of our fresh basil really perks up the flavor of this one!

Baked Ziti

And in the non-harvest wildlife sighting department, our big native mulberry tree is loaded with mulberries and every critter is feasting on the ones that drop to the ground. Deer are frequent visitors, but last week I saw a skunk and a newcomer to the garden – a gray fox. I had to zoom in the get the photo, because I didn’t want it to run off. It did run  eventually and I was singing Tom T Hall’s classic “Fox On The Run” for days!

gray fox

My big challenge this week will be to keep things alive in the greenhouse and outside. The heat wave is expected to last pretty much all week, and I will be trying to keep me and the plants cool until more normal weather returns – whatever that is these days!

greenhouse temp

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!