The Backyard

The Backyard

Friday, September 14, 2012

Quazi End of the Season Tally

There's probably two more months of good produce-growing left in the season, but I'm calling it quits for the year.  My tomatoes got the blight and were all pulled (about 20 plants), and the pole beans were blown over by a wind and killed them.  Since I met my goal of a half ton, it's truly time to celebrate and relax a little.  I'll continue to harvest some odds and ends like carrots and spinach, but besides the white and red potatoes to get out of the ground, most big harvests -- and definitely preservation -- are done for the year so I can get a little R&R.  Here's the final tally of everything.  The total tomato harvest takes the top honors at 184.5 pounds. 

Food 2012 Total Weight
Asparagus 5.00
Beans, Lima 1.75
Beans, Kidney 1.75
Broccoli 36.75
Carrots 12.00
Celery 11.50
Corn, Sweet 114 total 45.25
Cucumber 31.00
Fennel 0.50
Kale 4.50
Leek 0.25
Mesclun Mixed Greens 4.25
Greens, beet 2.00
Green Beans 39.50
Onions 164.50
Peas, Sugar 13.25
Peas, Snap 13.00
Peppers 72.50
Potatoes 26.50
Radicchio 0.50
Radishes 7.00
Red Beets 26.25
Rhubarb 5.75
Romaine Lettuce 6.00
Squash, Butternut 20.50
Squash, Dumpling
Squash, Spaghetti 11.75
Spinach 3.00
Sweet Potatoes 77.50
Swiss Chard 1.25
Tomatoes 184.50
Total Vegetables 829.75
Fruit
Black Raspberries 10
Strawberries 36
Watermelon!  85
Cantaloupe 38.25
Red Raspberries 11
Grand Total 1010.00

Thursday, September 6, 2012

One Half Ton Celebration

I'm having a BIG glass of wine tonight to celebrate the half ton mark of harvested produce from the backyard in 2012. The wine will help my aching back relax a little too after hauling in the 68 pounds of sweet potatoes and 30ish pounds of tomatoes that put me over the 1/2 ton mark.  The tomatoes gotta get cooked up this weekend along with the 10ish pounds of peppers that also gotta get picked.  Banana peppers salsa here we come.

Sunday, September 2, 2012

Harvest Monday - September 3, 2012 - Closing in on 1/2 Ton

896.75 pounds with this week's 59 3/4 pound harvest.  I never, in a million years, thought someday I'd be hauling in a half ton of food into our house from the backyard.  I have to be honest though - I'm tired!  I've never wanted frost to come as I am wishing for it this year.  I even started pulling live, producing plants out of the ground.  Two peach tomato plants were pulled that were vining everywhere --  into the sweet potatoes, onto the other tomatoes, on the pepper plants -- they were truly invasive and just lost their life.  But don't fret folks, there's about 3 other plants still producing WAY too many peach tomatoes.  Oh, and the green  beans are about to die too.  I hit 33 pounds of green beans with this week's 10 pound harvest.  That's plenty of beans to get me through the winter.  So here's the tally for the week:

3/4 pound Kidney Beans (disappointed with the kidneys: only got 1 3/4 pounds total)
5 pounds carrots
1/4 pounds mixed greens
10 pounds green beans
6 3/4  pounds peppers
1 pound red beets
18 pounds tomatoes
16 1/2 watermelon
1 1/2 red raspberries

59 3/4 total for the week

896.75 total for the year