Monday, August 2, 2021

The Moment of Truth - Harvest Monday

 It is finally sweet corn season.  I was a little nervous about my earlier corn because pollination time happened in the middle of two solid weeks of rain.  That's not very good news for pollen.  The pollination looks fine.  Not perfect, but not bad for raised beds. So that worked out OK.  Not as good as last year.  However, I reduced from five rows to three to reduce crowding and that improved both growth and pollination in the center rows.

Another thing that is not as good as last year is the taste.  For the past two years I grew Gotta Have It.  This year I tried Northern Xtra Sweet instead because it is more adapted to cooler growing conditions and two weeks earlier.  Its also an sh2 variety, so I don't know if the weather is to blame or not but.  Blah.  So that didn't work out.  But it's still good corn.  Just not super sweet like I want it.



The beans are pretty perfect though.  Even from my very dilapidated looking plants.

Carminat, Monte Gusto and Jade

It seems to be a pretty good year for potatoes.  Better than last year.  I'm still working on our early Satina potatoes.  My goal is no longer to store potatoes through the winter to meet all of our potato needs.  I am more interested in new potatoes in season.  Anything that makes it to storage is a bonus.  Our favorite way to serve potatoes is a regional favorite called Syracuse Salt Potatoes.  


So how do you use up a lot of zucchini squash?  I've begun using it for salads.  Since I'm missing out on cucumber season so far, I've substituted zucchini.


This is essentially a Greek garden salad.  You can put a wide variety of contents in it.  The basis is zucchini, chick peas, feta cheese and Greek vinaigrette.  Then you add what you have:  cherry tomatoes, bell peppers, banana peppers, olives


This time of year I always have a couple of cold salads in the fridge for lunch or a supper side dish.  Cole slaw, broccoli and pea salad, zucchini salad.

Next will be tomato sandwich season.  The plants are loaded but nothing is turning just yet.  I have my eye on this Pike County Yellow tomato.  It is getting more pale every day which means it will soon start to color up.


6 comments:

  1. Your sweet corn looks nice and healthy, but maybe picked a week too soon? It's so hard to know when it's perfectly ripe. Anyway, I'm jealous as mine is nowhere near ready here in southeast NH.

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  2. Love your garden. Harvest looks great.

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  3. What a lovely garden and I see your fence! Thanks for joining us on Harvest Monday. My corn is still a week or two off. Always look forward to that crop.

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  4. The corn looks great, but too bad it isn't what you expected on the taste. Your zucchini salad sounds yummy. We use zucchini in frittatas, on salads, and even frozen to use in smoothies. I use a lot of it by grating and cooking in a skillet in a little olive oil or butter.

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  5. Gorgeous photos of fabulous veggies. We are getting a lot of cucumbers and our tomatoes are still green. Never had much luck growing corn. (Do you have horses?)
    Berlin's dam (Abdullah mare) also turned white. I think Wallace will do the same.

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  6. Eight Gate Farm: I think I let the earliest ears go a few days too long. The corn I picked the day after I just froze, but I nibbled the edges and I think it was sweeter. It might have been because it was a warmer sunny day. I know that makes a difference for tomatoes. Perhaps sweet corn as well?

    Tomato Thymes: Thanks 😊 nice of you to drop by

    Edible Garden: The fence is great. We have a higher single wire flagged to make it look higher to deer. And we also put up a hot wire to keep the coons from climbing over.

    Dave: It IS a long time to wait to get blah corn. But if I freeze it all and make corn chowder in the winter I won’t be unhappy with it at all!

    Lori Skoog: I can’t believe we are waiting this long for ripe tomatoes! The weather seems perfect at this point. Yes, I used to have horses. We showed Saddlebreds for many years. Grey was our favorite color (until we finally got one and had to try to keep one clean). Why do white horses always aspire to being brown horse? Those paperbagbrown chestnuts are looking better and better.

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