Stoney Acres

For all my readers in the US Happy Labor Day.  We will be spending the day helping family move so it will be a day of labor for us!!

We finally had a break in the hot weather this weekend.  In fact in rained a lot on Saturday and even a little on Sunday.  The highs were in the mid 80′s which was a refreshing break and our forecast is for high 80′s for the next week.  We will see a steady decline now as we head towards October!

This week was officially our biggest harvest week of the the year. 81 pounds!!

Let’s start out with this years crop of storage onions.  We cut way back for 2012.  Last year we had over 70 pounds and that was too much for us.  This year I cut back too much though.  The heat and dry conditions really hit our onions hard and they never really sized up well.  Only 16 pounds this year so it’s a good thing we also have shallots in storage to help make up the difference.

The Zucchini plant has officially recovered from the wilt it was struggling with earlier.  It is putting out quite a bit of fruit now.

Here’s a new harvest for us.  These are a white patty pan squash.  We’ve never grown patty pan before.  There a fun looking squash and we liked the taste.  This plant also struggled with the same wilt that effected the zucchini so it is just starting to produce.

This was our first really big harvest of tomatoes.  18 pounds total, they all were canned right away for the winter!!

The melons are really coming on strong now.  We are also finally seeing some cherry tomatoes.  And the cucumbers continue to produce well.

Here’s another new addition to our garden.  This is a crenshaw melon.  This is our first year growing them.  They are a very interesting addition to our melon patch.  They are very nice looking fruit and all of them are sizing up to be like this one in the 5 pound range.

Here’s the Crenshaw sliced.  It had a very juice flesh that tastes similar to cantaloupe, but the flavor is milder and sweeter.  We really liked it this one is a definite keeper!!  We have 8 more melons this size on the way!!

Later in the week we had more cantaloupe, cucumbers and zucchini.

You know it’s September when you have to bring in your daily harvest in a box instead of a basket.  The peppers are back on.  After taking a break last week we got another 3 pounds this week,  with a ton more on the way!!

The berries are continuing to produce well.  We are competing with the snails for the strawberries right now.  They are after them like crazy, we are loosing 1 in every 3.  I guess it’s time for s0me snail bait!!

Here’s a little surprise harvest we had on Saturday.  These micro greens are actually the thinnings from my fall lettuce seedlings.  They will make for a welcome salad later this week!

I need to be clear on this one.  I did not grow this beautiful head of cauliflower. I can’t grow cauliflower to save my life.  This was a gift from our backyard neighbor and I couldn’t help but give him bragging rights for this beauty.  Look at this thing, it’s huge!  I had my daughter stick her hand in there for size comparison.  This head weighted in at over 4 pounds and he told me this is one of his smaller ones!  He claims it’s beginners luck, but to me this is a sign of a skilled gardener!!  Great job Keith!!

Here’s this weeks totals:

Cucumbers – 3.50 lbs

Zucchini – 5.50 lbs

Cantaloupe – 5.25 lbs

Strawberry – 1.55 lbs

Raspberry – .90 lbs

Watermelon – 15 lbs

Peppers – 3 lbs

Tomatoes – 22.75 lbs

Onions – 16 lbs

Beans – .35 lbs

Crenshaw – 5 lbs

Patty Pan – 2 lbs

Micro greens – .25 lbs

Total – 81.05 lbs

That brings our total to 295.10 pounds for the year!!  It sure helps us get closer to our goal when we get over 130 pounds in just 2 weeks!!

We are joining the Monday Harvest report at Daphne’s Dandelions and the Tuesday Garden Party at An Oregon Cottage, be sure to check out what other gardeners are doing around the world!!