Harvest Monday - November 19th 2018

Because I planted everything so late, we've only really got the last last last last dregs of summer here.

Chimayo peppers, which are currently drying to become flakes.

Juliet tomatoes, which will be coming back in earnest next year, and Tie Dye Berkeley and Carmello, which will also be coming back next year.

Happy fall!

Harvest Monday - October 8th 2018

This post is part of the Harvest Monday series over at Our Happy Acres.

I'm still here, still growing. My harvests were looking very much the same for so many weeks and I figured I'd start posting when new things cropped up and then suddenly it was fall. And now here we are.

My Aji Amarillo plant is not, in fact, dead. It bounced back after its pyrethrin run in and it's been an incredibly fruitful plant. I'm really happy with it.

Tomatoes are still going, but I'm going to pull them out sometime this week. I've been really happy with the varieties I planted this year and many of them will be coming back next year.

Carmello, Piccolo Dattero, and Berkeley Pink Tie Dye will all be coming back next year for sure. Pink Tie Dye was my first Wild Boar tomato and it will not be my last. Carmello is a really even, tasty (it is very sweet tho) and reliable tomato so I'm looking forward to more of that. Piccolo Dattero has really been the most productive plant in my garden and I anticipate I will be growing this tomato for a long time. 

Sungold (from territorial seed) and Jaunne Flamme also did really well this year and are in consideration for next year. They did the least well (but still well) in our extreme heat.

Camp Joy and Amish Paste had very very weak disease resistance and are unlikely to return. Ditto for Blush and the Artisan cherry series.

 It grew up and over the tree next to its trellis so it looks like we have squash trees. 

My Trombocino squash plant looks terrible, but is still everywhere. I did absolutely nothing to this plant all season and it has thrived. It's currently growing squash in the neighbors yard as well. 

Anyway, I'm pretty pumped to turn everything in and  start fresh.

Arcado hyssop, Benary's giant wine, fireworks gomenphrena, flamingo celosia, qis carmine, rudbeckia - bakers creek mix, zeolights calendula.

Harvest Monday - August 20th, 2018

This post is part of the Harvest Monday series over at Our HappyAcres! 

I haven't posted in a month mostly because things are business as usual here! I felt like my harvests were getting tedious.

This into infinity with small variations.

And it's mostly still that! I accidentally killed most of my eggplants (pyrethrin mixed too strong. oops) I gave them a hard trim and they're growing back, but I'm feeling fickle and ready to seed fall plants so we'll see. 

Off type Pink Berkeley Tie Die! It tastes pretty lame.

I'm still drowning in Trombocino squash and tomatoes. Also I wasn't quite ready to harvest that pumpkin, but the landscapers made the decision easy for me by mowing the entire vine. 

This vine is about 20 feet long and has grown all over the yard and into my shed.

I've also got a few Golden Nugget squash. They're a little on the shrimpy side because I planted this one too early. The other plants have larger squash on the bush.

Also, lots of green chiles. I'm growing Big Jim from Kitchen Garden Seeds (which I looove) and Numex Joe E. Parker from Renee's (which are fine). Also unpictured are my Chimayo chiles from Native Seed Search and my Baby Aji Amarillo peppers. I've only had a few of those so far buuuttttt....

I was at a bar near DTLA recently and they had Aji Amarillo Feta Dip! I've never seen Aji Amarillo in the wild so that was cool. Definitely going to try to recreate it if I get enough peppers off my one plant. We'll see. That bar is primo. 

Harvest Monday - July 16th, 2018

This post is part of the Harvest Monday series over at Our Happy Acres.

More of the same over here and I'm not mad about it. 

Trombocino, Armenian cucumbers, an avalanche of fairy tale eggplants, shishito peppers, some green chiles. 

Last year I said I wasn't going to grow Sungold again. On a whim I ordered a packet from a different company (Territorial) and this selection is so much better. Large firm fruits that don't split. Big enough to be worth harvesting. Sweet and tart. I wish I'd planted more than one vine. 

Piccolo Dattero is another recommendation I took from Michelle's blog. It's incredible. It has these especially fat trusses and the fruits are tasty and easy to harvest. It's not my very favorite flavor of cherry tomato, but it is really good and I will definitely be growing it again.

Green chiles. These were getting sunscald so I picked them on the early side. They're good, but they'll be better later in the summer. 

Joe E Parker from Renee's

Harvest Monday - July 9th, 2018

This post is part of the Harvest Monday Series over at Our Happy Acres.

I have been out of town / it is peak summer vegetable season, so lots of people who are not me are harvesting things and sometimes things go directly from the vine to the grill and/or my mouth.

~~***In other words, this post is a hot mess***~~~

(Get ready for some terrible pictures.)

First Armenian cucumber. I planted four of these plants for some reason!

About to have five hundred. 

First zucchini and first trombocino. Terrible picture because these went directly onto the grill. The trombocino vine has already overgrown its 8 ft trellis and is climbing up a tree now.

In this picture I am screaming "Can't you hold them anyway that doesn't look like a wiener?!"

Tomatoes. They've been trickling in for awhile, I've just been bad at documenting them. Most of them have gone to roommates or friends. So as of writing this I've only tried a few of the varieties I'm growing. 

I took most of my seed suggestions this year from Michelle at From Seed to Table. Even though we live in very different climates we seem to be a similarish distance from the ocean (maybe) and gardening California is radically different from how my parents or anyone I know gardens. So any advice I can get is good advice, but also Michelle's advice is really good.

The real stand out of my garden this year is Jaune Flamme. Seriously these are SO good. Each plant is loaded with smallish to medium size fruits and they taste incredible! Tart and delicious. I just love this tomato.

The red tomatoes are Carmello. I like this tomato! It's easy, prolific. The fruits are pretty and tasty. I like my tomatoes more on the acidic side and this is definitely that.

The big stripey tomatoes were the only type I grew that I hadn't read about on a blog. Pink Berkeley Tie Dye and so far I'm so impressed. Incredible disease resistance. Very prolific for having such large fruit. No splitting yet. I'm also growing black krim this year and Pink Berkeley is putting it to shame. These taste great. 

 Fairytale and Patio baby. Still churning out fruits. 

 For the fourth of July we had a ton of things from my garden. Bean salad (Maxibel beans! They're so good!), Jaunne Flamme tomato and moz salad with some yard basil, hella squash. 

Anyway, happy summer.

Harvest Monday - June 18th, 2018

This post is part of the Harvest Monday series over at Our Happy Acres.

Twwwwiiiiinnnnsss.

Basil, which went into some pesto. A mix of Botanical Interest's Large Leaf Basil, which does indeed get some very large, tough leaves. But it's a good variety that does well for me and I'm into it. Also some mystery basil from Renee's.

Still just a trickle.

Jewels

 Beans beans beans beans beans.

Maxibel bush beans and a few Kentucky Blue pole beans.

 A cucumber avalanche. This is from THREE (3) vines. Iznik makes me want to pound on my chest and chant "IZ-NIK IZ-NIK" like a frat boy.

Even though it seems like the trees were all leafless yesterday, the orchard is already starting to fruit.

Baby jujubees.

Apples. Variety, mysterious.

Hachiya persimmon.

Harvest Monday - June 11th 2018

This post is part of the Harvest Monday series over at Our Happy Acres.

Cucumbers! Eggplant! Beans! Most of these Maxibel beans went straight into my mouth. The eggplants are patio baby, which are a new-to-me variety that I absolutely love.

Pretty plants. Terrible photo.

Last year my eggplants were really vigorous and healthy, grew into these huuuuge, round, spiky trees, and gave me like, one eggplant every three months and they usually had sunscald or something. I bought the Patio Baby seeds after reading the variety spotlight at Our Happy Acres. These are well behaved, compact plants. No spines! Tons of eggplants per plant. Well worth the money.

It was like this.

Last Kolibri. First tomatoes of this planting.

These cucumbers! Iznik! I love it. They're so prolific. They're container friendly. No mildew so far. Each plant has approximately 49930402 cucumbers on it. 

Two harvests in one week. These also went straight into my mouth. 

The remaining cukes went into smashed cucumber salad. 

Harvest Monday - June 4th, 2018

 This post is part of the Harvest Monday Series over at Our Happy Acres.

Still not a lot going on here. Sad small garlic harvest. I planted it too late in a location where it didn't get enough light or water. 

Inchelium Red deliberately photographed with nothing for scale. 

Last three leeks. 

King Richard. That blanching though!

Sad harvest. Picked a huge quantity of green tomatoes to ripen inside and culled five (5!) diseased plants in an attempt to save the rest. Two Amish Paste (aka Patient Zero), Blush, Sunrise Bumblebee, and a Pink Berkeley Tie Dye plant that actually showed no signs of disease, but was really just in the thick of it. 

Also pictured my boyfriend who came to take the green tomatoes inside and also brought me a glass of wine because I was extraordinarily salty about having to pull this many plants this early.