Bountiful Harvest

The garden has come into its own in the last week.  We have so many wonderful veggies that are growing.  I can hardly keep up with the harvest.  I think that the turn in the weather has made a huge difference.  It is much warmer now than over the last month.  All of the plants were just waiting for summer...

Beets

Many of the beets have grown large enough that I had to pick them, regardless of a specific purpose.  I decided to can several of them.  I ended up canning four pint jars of straight beets, no pickling.  They are a beautiful deep red color.  We have also eaten a lot of them, although I cannot seem to get the boys to eat them.  They've all tried at least one beet, but nobody likes them.  I don't understand.  They are so sweet!

The carrots are finally large enough to harvest.  I knew when I planted them that they had a long growing period, but it seems like forever.  They are wonderful, crunchy and sweet.  I have been putting them out before dinner and the kids eat them like candy.

Nantes Carrots

The bunch onions are big enough to harvest now.  K likes to raid the row and just eats them raw...but I suppose I am glad to see him eating out of the garden, as that was the whole point.



Blue Potatoes

The potatoes are doing great!  We had a few deer sample the tops, but not much.  My only concern is that I cannot tell if I miss a large potato when I try to harvest them.  I don't pull the whole plant, but rather, reach my hands in through the dirt and feel around.  I'm doing it this way so that the plant can continue to produce, although I don't know if they actually do that.  I have found a few russets that were huge!  I guess at the end of the season, we'll see if we missed many big ones.  The dirt is pretty hard around the center of the plant, so I cannot get my fingers in there easily.  I don't want to use a tool because I can easily cut the potatoes.  Dillema.

The lettuce is pretty much over.  Not only did the heat hurt the beautiful heads I had growing, but the deer found them and laid waste to much of the rows.  Funny, they are very specific in their choices.

The snow peas are producing like gangbusters!  I cannot believe that just two weeks ago I was worried that they wouldn't produce for me at all.  The heat brought flowers and the flowers brought peas.  We can pick the entire row in the morning and by the evening it looks like we haven't picked at all.  The kids (and I) are eating them as fast as we can and still I have bowls and bowls of them.  I hate to freeze them, as I don't think they are nearly as good, but I also don't want them to go to waste.  I have been able to sell them at a very good price...$2.00 for four ounces!  And people buy more and more each time I have them.  Not a bad profit.

Speaking of, I should list the prices I'm using so that I don't have to figure it out again next year.

Bunch Onions - 12 in a bunch - $1.50
Radishes - 6 in a bunch - $1.50
Carrots - 9 in a bunch - $2.00
Snow Peas - 4 ounces - $2.00
Beets - 5 in a bunch - $3.00
Lettuce - 8 ounces - $2.00
Spinach - 8 ounces - $3.00
Beet Greens - 8 ounces - $3.00
Blue Potatoes - 1 pound - $3.00
Red Potatoes - 1 pound - $2.50
Yukon Potatoes - 1 pound - $2.50
Kennebec Potatoes - 1 pound - $2.50
Russet Potatoes - 1 pound - $2.50

And while I'm at it:
Broiler Chickens - 4 pounds - $15.00
Pork - on the hoof, you pay butcher/cut/wrap - $1.75/pound
Pork - we butcher/cut/wrap - $3.50/pound
Raw Goat Milk - 1 quart - $3.50
Duck Eggs - $6.00/dozen
Goose Eggs - $1.00/each
Chicken Eggs - $4.00/dozen

Ok.  Other notes on the garden... 

I had a cucumber just appear on one of the plants.  It was the size of a large sausage, but the end looked funky so I picked it just in case it was going to rot.  Otherwise, the cucumber plants are limping along.

The yellow onions are growing great...except for the occassional sacrifice to the tiller (the row is a bit narrow and it's easy to catch the side with the tiller).  I want to pull one, just to see, but I want to wait till they are larger.

The second set of beets and carrots are doing well.  The beets should be ready in a week or two and the carrots...who knows...they are slow pokes.  I would like to plant more beets next year.  They are easy to can and SO good.

The pepper plants are finally starting to flower.  I don't know that we will get much from them, but I am encouraged to see them growing a bit more after their rough, frosty start.

The tomatoes are flowering, but no fruit yet.  They have been sampled by deer a bit too.  I'm not sure, but I feel like I should trim off their bottom limbs to encourage them to spend more energy up top.  I'll have to look it up, but they just seem very "bushy."

The corn is almost up to my waist and the centers are starting to send up their "flowers."  I sure hope we get corn this year.  Everyone says it's nearly impossible to grow here.  Ours seems to be doing well.

The sunflowers are almost chest high.  No flowers yet, but these are the Mammoth sunflowers so I think they need to get a bit taller first.

The squash are all flowering and there are lots of baby zucchini and crookneck.  No pumpkin or winter squash babies yet, but the plants look really good.