One word to describe this years garden: Dissapointing. :(
This year is not a good year at all for me. My tomatoes have all be ravaged by blight. I'm not the only one. This is the problem this year for most farmers in the northeast.
Fortunately, I still have something in the garden for me to harvest. We have decided that due to the blight problem we should pull our potatoes, that way we at least get the ones that are good. I planted about 2 pounds of potatoes(Yukon Gold and Dark Red Norland) and the picture below shows what I got from it. Not many but at least I got something.
The garlic I planted last Fall did great! I planted German Extra Hardy. They were pulled about 4 weeks ago. We have used a few heads already and they are delicious! Note to self: plant more garlic this Fall.
My cukes and zukes are doing good this year. I had initially started the seeds I purchased but those didn't grow, so I went to the local nursery and bought 1 plant each. These are the zukes and cukes I picked over the weekend. I have picked a few times before this and made an awesome Zucchini Apple Bread this past weekend. Don't worry, I will post the recipe sometime this week or next week.
Also from the garden: cabbages are looking good as well. I haven't harvest any of them yet but should be soon. My purple haze carrots are/were excellent! Sorry no pictures. I really should have taken some pictures of the carrots because they are really cool looking. The outer edge of the carrots are purple but the inside is orange! I gave some to my co-worker and her daughter's first reaction was:"Eeewww...I don't want those moldy carrots". A few days later, she asked her mom to ask me for more "moldy" carrots because they tasted really sweet!
I have also planted some cool weather veggies for the fall: radishes, fennels, napa cabbage and peas.
Since I have no tomato this year, I had to buy them. This weekend we went to a local farmer and bought 1 bushel(roughly 50lbs) of tomatoes for canning. We made mostly tomato sauce and some hot salsa. Out of the tomatoes we got, we made 5 jars (pint size) of salsa and 20 jars (quart size) of tomatoe sauce. I am heading to pick up some more tomatoes for sauce as soon as I finish posting this post.
And lastly, I will leave you with a picture of some sunflowers. Have a great day!
17 comments:
YD, we found that when we noticed our tomatoes having end rot - or really most any problem the answer was so simple - powdered milk and epson salts. I got this great book and I went by what he said and that's how my tomatoes were saved. The book addresses so many things it's Jerry Baker's "Terrific Tomatoes, Sensational Spuds, and mouth-watering melons."
Still getting home grown tomatoes up is better than canned in the store. You'll be glad you went to the farmer's maret!
I had disappoiinting reults this year, too. Thankfully, my zucchini did well. That way I can say it wasn't all a total failure! LOL!
Boy, you have us beat on the tomato sauce! I haven't had a chance to can much of it yet....and I need to go buy some tomatoes, too.
We're in the same boat. I got 50 or so pounds of tomatoes (we usually get several hundred pounds), corn and sunflowers and that's about it. Pathetic! I have written off this year and am planning for next year!
You got more than I did! My corn all rotted. I barely got a handful of green beans from my surviving plants. And only one sunflowre made it. I did get a bunch of cherry tomatoes.
I have higher hopes for my fall garden. It is more of a garden and less of a bunch of plants tucked here and there.
we also noticed that our tomatoes had some horrible rotting going on...
The harvest looks wonderful, those little potatoes are adorable!
Sorry the khrop yield is disappointing to woo!
The 'taters look yummy!
Hugz&Khysses,
Khyra
Sorry about the bad garden luck this year! Wish you were closer, my maters are just now winding up and I'm picking baskets of them daily and don't have the time to deal with them. I've heard a lot of people had blight problems this year, but I seem to have avoided it. Maybe it was good that I got things planted so late!
I love the purple carrots!!! So sweet compared to the orange and red.
Wow - all that canning must have kept you busy! :-)
Yes, as you know, a disappointing year down here too. Especially for potatoes and corn. :-(
I'm hoping to plant a fall garden too, despite the wedding to-do list. I'm still enjoying gardening though - a great stress reliever! I hope you still enjoyed it! Hugs!
YD: I am so impressed! Sorry we haven't stopped by in so long - your garden is producing more than many here. Because it's been so relatively cool, the tomatoes haven't been up to snuff, except in a few micro-climes around here. Your jars look so tempting!
Hugs xo
Sammie and mom
You are my hero - I can't imagine doing all that, and I want to gardener, I really do :)
YD
We so admire people who have obvious green fingers. Sorry about your bad season, but your veges somehow look super.
You are an inspiration and remind me of my own days on the farm.
Lots of love
MAX'S MOM IN SA
OMDDDDDDDDDDD!!!
An we have some of yours tomatoes sauce dear S&J?????
Mommy and dad tryied to have their gerden too...but this year was too hot and lots of our plants are died!!!!
Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr....
so...next time!!!!!
Ehyyyyyyyyyyy girls!!!!
We're going on with our tunnel!!
We think that you had a great idea about that!!!
But pleaseeeeee.....start do dig your tunnel too so we could meet you soon!!!!!
CAn't wait to meet you half way!!!!
WE LOVE YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!
Smack smack!!!
Not a bad haul considering our swampy summer. I was lucky to grow grass in the yard!
You are awesome - I wish I could garden, much less do canning :)
I love your photos. Our garden was really late this year. It must be an epidemic because all of my friends have had the same problems.
Thinking of you,
Lacy
P.S. Your blog is rockin'!!! I'm so glad you started it!
You got a heck of a lot more from your garden than I did from mine this year! Your potatos look great! I got a couple of shriveled up carrots, and a handful of raddishes. I did get some decent zuchinni, but that was about it.
Oh well, there's always next year.
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