The Backyard

The Backyard

Monday, July 16, 2012

Harvest Monday - July 16, 2012

Daphne's Dandelions hosts Harvest Monday whereby 50-60 fellow-backyard/patio/porch gardeners share their weekly harvests.  Click on her blog to see the others.  This was my lightest week of harvesting, but one of my busier weeks in the garden. It's onion time... which means about 400 onion plants will be pulled over the next month, cured on screens, then moved to the storage area. Like Daphne with the garlic (and others with onions), they won't be weighed until they head to storage or are cleaned for eating.  Red beets were turned into pickled red beets.  The process was just like my grandma's, complete with the hot-water bath canner.  6-quarts of pickled beets were the final tally.  I also harvested basil and rosemary for drying, and starting cleaning the already-dried thyme which is "time" consuming (pardon the pun), but no real weight is recorded for either.  And garden cleanup began to prep for fall planting.  All the broccoli was pulled and the area was cleaned up.  Compost was moved in but not yet spread.  The seeds were ordered:  only carrots, beets, spinach and lettuces -- all things hubby likes also.   The pick of the week is cucumbers, as you can see.  I believe I may have picked them slightly early because some of them were bitter.  I'll have to keep a watch on the flavor of the larger the pickles.  The exciting pick of the week was celery!  I never grew celery, so it was pretty exciting to pick my first bunch.   It was slightly small, but I needed some for bouillabaisse and wasn't going to go buy any with 12ish bunches growing.   Here's the final tally this week:

Carrots:  2 pounds
Celery:  .50 pound
Cucumbers:  4.25  pounds
Red Beets:  4 pounds
Peppers:   .50 pound
Swiss Chard:  .50 pound

Total Vegetables:  11.50 pounds



12 comments:

Robin said...

That's some really nice celery! It doesn't look like mine will be all that pretty this year :(

Mary Hysong said...

Very nice harvest. My celery is just popping up from seed. I just put in a seed order too; carrots, beets, lettuce and some other greens, for fall planting.

kitsapFG said...

Beautiful celery and those pickled beets look delicious. I am the only one that likes them in our household, so I only make a small amount and then have a tough time using them all up.

Daphne Gould said...

Fabulous. My celery is just stalled in the heat. I ought to water it more and it might grow. I hope at least it survives until fall when it has better weather.

Chili said...

This is my first try at celery and I'm very pleased. I had my doubts when starting the seeds (so tiny... couldn't separate), but it's doing well now. I water every other day and have it mulched with compost fairly high up the stalks.

Stoney Acres said...

Looking very good! I love those pickled beets. We are hoping to do some in the fall. We are growing celery for the first time this year as well but ours is kind of stuck with all this heat. Next year I'm going to try and get it in earlier.

Cozy Thyme Cottage said...

Hi, Great harvest. I use thyme and if you find a quick way of taking it off the stems, let me know! lol Your celery looks great to me! Nancy

Dorothy-Life With Boys said...

I hope my celery comes out lookin' like yours! It's been so hot & dry and it's not happy.

Anonymous said...

I love your peacock!

400 onions. Wow. That's a lot of onions. Your harvest looks great as do your canned beets.

Chili said...

The peacock is my neighbor's -- my mom. Her flock likes to make rounds and eat bugs and I welcome them with open arms. She has about 30 of them.

Bee Girl said...

Oh my...that's a lot of onions! Aside from bunching onions I didn't plant any this year...needless to say, I'm a little jealous!

Anonymous said...

Celery looks wonderful, bet it tasted fabulous in the dish too. I'm growing some for the first time this year too and it is starting to look good. The cukes and beets sounds great too, dispite the mild bitterness.