Monday, August 8, 2011

Finally Harvesting Tomatoes


Today's harvest.  This is all I could manage to carry from the garden this evening.  I was soaked from being there for about an hour.  I'm sure that I lost a pound or two there.  My hair was dripping by the time I reached the back door.  I literally fall in.  I tried to pull a few weeds, add water to the compost bins and harvest these veggies.  I felt like I had gone a few rounds at the gym.  The humidity is incredible in these parts in August. 

There's more jalapenos, banana peppers, green peppers, and onions to be picked.  I'll head out early in the morning to collect those.  I'm quite pleased with my tomato harvest.  I have a combination of Celebrity, Better Boy, Big Beef, Roma and Amish Paste.  I'll be more adventurous with my tomatoes next year.  The little green fellow was accidentally plucked, lol.  I didn't weigh my harvest, but I can hardly lift the bowl.  I'll be canning these along with peaches and Salsa this week-end.  I plan to blanch and freeze fresh corn and green beans as well.  My daughter loves pickled cauliflower, banana peppers and carrots.  I'll make up a few jars for her to take home during her Labor Day visit.     

My Sweet 100 is loaded.  Oh what to do with those? Do you see my Chili Pepper?  It's my first of the season.  I am pleased with my red onions.  I didn't plant many, but those that I did plant look great. I'll be adding most to the Salsa and saving a few for burgers this week-end. 

It's going to be a busy week-end for me.  I need to plant my peas and carrots.  I'll be making baby food with those.  I'm a little behind on that endeavor.  What have you harvested this week?  Leave me a comment and I'll visit. 

11 comments:

  1. Nice harvest, especially the tomatoes. They look great! It looks like you'll have a lot of ingredients for sauces this year. I'm growing Sweet 100 too, trying them for the first time. But I think we started the seeds too late. The plants are very small. Pickled veggies fresh from the garden sounds like a nice gift to take home. :)

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  2. Food can be beautiful to look at as well as eat. Soooo much progress! Will you have enough for the winter?

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  3. @Comeca Jones - Oh yes, there will be enough for the winter. My plants are loaded with tomatoes and peppers. Should be able to harvest 3 or 4 more bowls of tomatoes and peppers. I have 200 ears of corn that I will be freezing and several bushels of greenbeans. I'll be planting peas and carrots shortly to harvest this fall.

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  4. Wow! you will be busy. Will you make salsa? If so, do you have a good recipe? good luck.

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  5. @Ann, I do have a good Salsa recipe. I'll post it, stay tuned.

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  6. Your tomatoes look incredible. My Early Girls are just starting to turn since I cut the water in half about a week or more ago. I have no idea when my Red Beefsteak or Brandywine will be ready. I did trim and weigh my garlic. 9 lbs. That's on my blog today and in the next few days I'm sharing how I can my green beans. I've put up 20 quarts now. I've harvested 1 squash. hah. It's an exciting time of year, isn't it?

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  7. So far I'm not loving the Brandywine. I am loving the Red Beefsteak heirloom. The Brandywine has fewer blossoms, smaller tomatoes, more crinkled, and the thing doesn't have a bloom below the 4 foot level. The only thing I'm waiting to see about is taste. The red beefsteak has bigger fruit and more of it. Have you tried this Cherokee purple they are all blogging about?

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  8. Oh and I have a glass top stove too. You'll have nothing to worry about with the presto pressure canner.

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  9. @Beeks by the Lake - I picked up seeds for Cherokee Purple on the clearance rack, they'll be in the garden next year. I'm dying to try them. Hopefully, they will germinate. I love the Beefsteak, they're great slicers and make great Salsa.

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  10. You should be getting plenty of vitamin C from all of those yummy tomatoes.

    I haven't harvested anything this year, but enjoyed watching you and others harvest. My nieces have been by and together we have hand feed a group of baby chickadees, I have just posted.

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  11. All! Looks pretty impressive to me! I'm about to harvest a load of green tomatoes. Someone told me you can ripen them by putting them next to bananas. Anyone know if this is true?

    Elspeth
    MyGardenSchool

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