Harvest Monday 8/29/11

Things have been hot, as you can see.  For the past 4 days we have had temps in the the 100-107 range!  Trying to keep the trees watered, as well as the garden.  I think that the heat has been good for the peppers, lots of little guys on the plants. 

 Still lots of limes and lemons.  TPW made some awesome lemonade the other day, forgot to take pictures of the fruit.  We are still getting Lisbon lemons the size of grapefruits off the tree.  The lime tree has lots of small fruit on it as well. 

 

Found this guy on one of the tomato plants.  We left him to close to one of the boys action figures.  By the time we got back it had already chewed off his leg, and looked like he wanted the other one.

Both Fig trees are staring to produce fruit.  I have seen a squirrel around, this morning I found a half chewed Fig.  It's on!!  The first couple of figs off the new tree have been huge.  Tomatoes have started up again, getting 3-4 every day.  We're actually getting more, but the boys and I eat most of them before they make it into the kitchen.  Still lots of squash and zucchini.  Having a hard time watching the avocado's ripen, they seem to be taking forever.  Soon.

Harvest Monday 8/22/11

The actual harvest was probably three to four times as big, however we have been eating it all so fast that I have not gotten to take pictures.  Tomatoe's have definately slowed down, only getting 2-3 a day, compared to 8-10 only three weeks ago.  Peppers are coming on, finally picked one, sweet!  Also had the first fig from the tree that I planted in the fall, see picture below.  The fig was about the size of my fist!  But once again, I ate it before I realized that I had not taken a pic.  Cucs, and squash are still producing.  TPW froze a bunch of the tomatoes so that we can have home grown in the middle of the winter.  Squirrels have really stated in on my avacado's, but I'm ready 

 

A few more lemons and limes, lots of squash on the vine.  Should be good to go by the end of the week

The before and the after of the cherry tomatoes.  Once the boys saw these little babies they didn't stand a chance.  They were gone in 1:37, no joke.

This is the fig tree that I planted in the fall.  It's a Brown Turkey.  Seems to like where it is.

Something has been eating my pumpkins.  I have a motion sensor camera that I have been playing with to try and catch the little vermen in action.  No luck as of yet, but I'll get him, one way or another.

The Figs are here!!

                       Found the first fig of the season this morning, after I posted the harvest list.

Brown Turkey

 

Harvest Monday 8/15/11, plus a little more

I guess that I need to start taking pictures thriughout the week as I harvest.  The harvest for the week was probably double this but the boys and I usually have it eaten before we get inside.  Oh well.  Lot's of green zebra and Watermelon, the Early Girls have slowed down as have the Better Boy, Cherries are still kicking.  The squash and zuc's are still putting out fruit.  Going to get hot this week, shoud be triple digit by mid-week. 

The chickens are keeping cool by digging out little holes throughout the yard and laying down in them.  They will also dust themselves and eachother, good thing I don't care about the roses!

The people that lived here before us seemed to have just plopped down trees where ever they wanted and did not seem to think about the big picture.  Here is a Crape Myrtle between one of the avocado trees and the blood orange tree, I might make it a Crape Myrtle bush, or I might make it GONE!

Thought that  I had planted all green bell peppers, guess a yellow and a red slipped in with them.  Almost ready to pick.

 The pumpkins are still growing, no fruit yet?  Not sure when the little guys will start appearing, they boys are a little worried as am I.  The hanging tomatoes are doing well, just picked the first 4 tomatoes off of this one, and a few off  of the other.

 A little comparision of the avocado's, then and now.  The picture on the right was taken at the begining of the summer, the one on the left was taken this week.  Only a couple more months, then it's guac time.  We are all looking forward to it

Harvest Monday 8/8/11

Monday's harvest was pretty good.  Still tons of tomatoes being put out by the plants.  The cherry tomato harvest would have been bigger if I had not eaten half of them, they're just so darn good. 

 I like this picture as it shows a good variety of fruit.
I think that my favorite right now are the Green Zebra's and the Rose.  Cherokee Purple are really
coming on.  Only one Lemon Cuc, but they're lots on the vine.  A couple of squash and of course lemon's and limes. 

When we moved in there was a Lisbon lemon tree that looked like it was on it's last branch, but with some TLC it has made a nice recovery.  TPW made some lemonade that was out of this world.  Some of the lemons made 3/4 of a cup of juice! 

A couple of Golden Zucchini Squash, great on the BBQ.

Picked these little guys, the peppers have been a little slow, but with the heat that we have been getting I imagine that they will speed up soon.

TPW is the compost master, we were able to turn this wheelburrow full in 2 months, everyone thought that it was very interesting, lots of good bugs and worms for the girls.

The Avocado's are looking good, only the 2 Fuerte seem have fruit on them this year, Hass only has a couple.  As they get bigger I am going to have to watch the squirrels, they love them almost as much as I do. 

Couldn't bring myself to pick the Bell Peppers, they will probably be on the table by the end of the week.  Interesting shape TPW says they look like doughnuts, hope they taste as sweet.

Status report...

 I planted 2 Matilija Poppy plants last fall.  Pretty cool looking flower, one of The Boys said it looked like a fried egg.  Due to the fact that we live in a desert I am trying to plant native, drought tolerant plants.  Along with the poppies, I planted 5 native Salvia's.  They all seem to be taking root.  The cages in the back of the picture of the poppy are 8 Western Red Bud Trees that I collected seeds for from a local community college garden.  It's been 2 years, they are all now around 8-14 inches. 

All tomato plants are kicking it into high gear.  I am pulling in 5-10 lbs of tomatoes per day.  Watermelon are weighing in at 3/4 to 1 lbs each, Green Zebra, Cherokee Purple and Rose all have big fruit.  Hard to get an exact weight on the cherry tomatoes as they seldom make it in to the house. Cucumbers did not do well, except lemon cucs. Colonel Sanders emerging from the coop, looking a little surprised to see me, and checking up on each other just to be sure everything is in it's place.  Hot and low humidity.

 

TPW has been making some killer recipes with all of the tomatoes.  Heirloom Salsa, Tomato Sauce, Gazpacho, Tomato Juice, lots of BLT's.  The little guy insists on Green Zebra's on his bagel in the morning,

Farmer Vern, the guy who writes the news letter that goes along with the veggie box that we sometimes get, once said "The best fertilizer is a farmer's shadow."  Sounds pretty good to me.

Harvest Monday

I was away for a week, so TPW and the boys have been taking care of the garden.  Things seemed to have gone okay.  The tomatoes have exploded, all 6 plants, Better Boy, Early Girl, Rose, Watermellon. Green Zebra and Cherokee Purple, are producing.  The pumpkins are coming along, however some of the leaves on the raspberries and boysens are getting crispy.  Weather has been hot upper 90's, even had .06 of rain yesterday. 

Good thing that I am not a carrot farmer, this was the only one I got, but man was it sweet!

This was a basket that TPW gathered while I was away.  The beans have pretty much faded, but the herbs have taken off as have the cherry tomatoes.