Happy Monday everyone!
According to the Farmer’s Almanac, we are in for a cold, wet winter! I’ll take the snow, but am hopeful the cold part is a normal cold and not a frigid one!
We are planning two hoop houses in the backyard this year in which to over winter a few crops. In addition to plastic sheeting and water bottles to help keep the greens from freezing, I’m also investigating a reflective sheeting I recently read about which, if placed correctly, will help build and maintain another level of warmth in there. I’ll have to elaborate later, once my research is complete and I’ve begun the process 😉
Onward!
As some of you already know, this week brought us our very first, very abundant apple harvest! This is, most definitely, a very exciting time for us! Growing and harvesting fruit is a big deal for us and, with our warm spring, it’s been a very good fruit year for our young trees! Now, there are still several apples on the trees, so I anticipate another harvest in the next couple of weeks, but this is the bulk of it 🙂
Also, the pears you see in the tally below are only the ones that have fallen off the tree. Most of them on the tree aren’t ready, but the fall offs (while a little bruised) are totally fine and the juiciest, most delicious pears I’ve ever tasted! I can’t wait to see how many we’ll actually wind up with! It won’t hit anywhere near our apple totals, but I will be happy with whatever we get!
This week also brought the last of the Summer Squash and Zucchini as well as the last of the Bell Peppers. Most things are looking a little ragged around the edges and it’s becoming the time of year when I have a little battle inside about just how long I should leave it all in the ground. It’s hard to watch it all die back, but there’s definitely a part of me that’s ready to not think about so much vegetation anymore. Not yet, but soon.
- Apples = 36 lb 2 oz
- Cucumbers
- Lemon = 2 lb 9 oz
- Pears = 3 lb 2 oz
- Peppers
- Bell (Green) = 5 oz
- Happy Hot = 4 oz
- Jalapeno = 3 oz
- Mystery = 2 oz
- Shishito = 3 oz
- Pole Beans = 5 oz
- Pumpkins (Pie) = 3 lb 5 oz
- Summer Squash = 6 oz
- Tomatillos = 1 lb 3 oz
- Tomatoes = 11 lb 9 oz
- Zucchini = 1 lb 13 oz
- Eggs = 69
Nice harvest. I have to ask what do you consider cold since you can keep things growing in a hoop house over winter.
On average, we get down into the 20s and low 30s throughout winter with occasional dips into the teens and single digits. Not everything does well in the hoop houses, and we’re still learning what’s worth trying and not, but I like the experiment of it all. usually, our overwintered veggies are the first to provide anything in the spring, which is a nice treat 🙂
I would be totally jazzed about an apple and pear harvest! I know exactly what you mean about the summer garden giving way to fall. It gets to looking weary and “shaggy” and the orderly neat person in me shouts to do something about it but taking things out too early unnecessarily reduces the valuable food production from the garden.
I am definitely fighting the urge to tear it all out…school is distracting me now though, so it’s better 😉
Such a lovely harvest of apples makes me very jealous – our trees won’t produce for another couple of years at the least. And that colorful basket is very nice too.
Thanks Jenny! The apples are quite a treat! Our warm spring was a huge blessing and there is fruit all over town! It doesn’t happen every year, so we’ll take it 🙂
Lovely apple harvest, such pretty green ones. Growing season is coming to an end, and everything is slowing down. Hoping my window boxes experiment will extend the season.
Thanks, Norma! I hope your experiment works, too!
Anbother good harvest. Those apples are lovely!
Thanks, David! I really was a good harvest week 🙂
Your apples are beautiful! It is a bit sad that your growing season is coming to an end. Good luck with your hoop houses this winter. I’m interested in reading about your experiments with the reflective sheeting.
Thanks Michelle! I’ll post about it as soon as I know what we’re doing 🙂
wow you had a nice week. Nice apples! I’ll be interested to hear about your research.
Thanks! It was a very good week with all those apples 🙂 Small, delicious gifts!
I feel very excited too hearing about your first and big apple harvest:). I like lemon cucumber but they never seems to be prolific in our garden. Looking at yours made me missed them. The harvest basket is also fill with lots of delicious stuff.
Thank you for your kind words! I have heard that other people have had a hard time growing Lemon Cucumbers, but they always do really well here. Not sure if it’s the dry heat or something else, but they do much better than any other cuke I’ve tried to grow. I say, find what works where you are and stick with it! 🙂