The Modern Victory Garden

Each Monday, Daphne’s Dandelions hosts “Harvest Monday” where everyone submits links to their blog posts summarizing their harvest for the week.   It’s fun to see what people are producing from gardens from so many different regions, and how they are using it.   Check it out and join in!         

We have had a weather warm up this past week and the tomatoes responded by kicking up the production of ripe fruit.    The warm up has also caused the pumpkins to set more fruit, but it is unlikely they will make it to maturity since it is so late in the season.   However, if we continue to get a warmer and drier than average fall there is at least some hope that a few of the larger ones will make it to the finish line.  

On Monday I harvested a couple of rather ugly (but tasty!) tomatoes, three zucchini (there is another one in that picture underneath the big one), and a leek.        

The tomatoes were placed on the counter to finish ripening up.   The largest of the three zucchini was given away to a friend at work who had asked me to bring her some.   The rest of the zucchini, some ripe tomatoes already on my counter, and the leek were used to make a hamburger and Spanish rice dish for Monday night's dinner – with chopped up zucchini and tomatoes which made it a one dish meal and gave it lots of nice color.                 

Thursday evenings harvest included several tomatoes, several ears of corn, and a couple of cucumbers.              

The tomatoes went on the counter to finish ripening up and the cucumbers went into the fridge to wait for enough other cukes to be harvested to be sufficient for a batch of dill pickle relish.   The corn was part of Thursday night’s dinner.             

On Saturday, I did the annual potato patch dig and lift.   The vegetation had almost entirely died back on the patch.   Here’s how the bed looked when I got started. 

And here is how it looked when I finished.                     

I worked all afternoon to get this project completed, as we wanted to keep our Sunday free so we could spend it at Point No Point beach enjoying the sunshine, sea air, surf, and watching the fisherman on the point and the ships sailing by through the channel.   When I finished up late in the afternoon, I had harvested almost 60 pounds of potatoes.                

While this is certainly a respectable harvest and more than enough for our winter needs it was disappointing nonetheless, because I had pulled twice that amount from the adjacent same-sized bed last year.   The only difference year to year was our abnormally cool summer, which seems to have had a profound impact on so many of the 2011 crops.   The potatoes were put in ventilated cardboard boxes with shredded paper in the bottom and then stored away in our cool and dark garage.   The garage is slightly damp and always cool but never goes below freezing thanks to a space heater that kicks on when temps get close to freezing.   As a result, it is a great storage location for our annual potato supply.                   

After the potatoes were harvested on Saturday, I also harvested the last of the corn and some spinach for dinner that night.    We had grilled steaks, corn on the cob, baked potatoes, and a large spinach salad topped with cranberry raisins, glazed walnuts, and goat cheese crumbles.   Yum!            

Sunday was largely spent at the beach, but when we got home I harvested a bunch of tomatoes, some beans, a little basil (did not make it into a picture), and some blackberries.   I forgot to take a picture of the beans until after I had already started prepping them for dinner!              

The tomatoes went on the counter to finish ripening.   These combined with a few from earlier in the week and few more yet to be picked should give me enough tomatoes to do a batch of pint jars of diced tomatoes this coming week.   I also have several whole tomatoes that I have been tossing into the freezer – accumulating them until I have enough to do a batch of sauce.   The berries were just placed on the counter for snacking.   The beans were cooked and tossed with some butter and a sprinkle of salt and then served alongside some ravioli with a creamy garlic, basil, and Parmesan sauce for the Sunday evening meal.             

Harvest totals for the week of September 5th through September 11th (rounded to the nearest ¼ pound).

• Beans 1.25 lbs
• Berries 0.25 lbs
• Corn 2.25 lbs
• Cucumbers 0.25 lbs
• Herbs (basil) 0.00 lbs (not enough to round up to ¼ lb)
• Onions/Leeks 0.25 lbs
• Potatoes 58.50 lbs
• Spinach 0.25 lbs
• Tomatoes 8.75 lbs
• Zucchini 1.75 lbs

Total For Week 73.50 lbs

Total Year To Date 297.00 lbs                             

Eggs collected this week – 25                       

Laura

kitsapfreedomgardener