Happy Monday, everyone!
Well, as I mentioned yesterday, the cold is toying with us! We were forecasted to hit freezing temps last weekend, but alas, nothing happened. I’m guessing this will be our last large harvest before bringing in all the green tomatoes in the next week or so and the potatoes that we’re hoping have matured under cover, but I may be wrong…the weather here is pretty unpredictable, so we’ll see.
We did wind up with a couple of surprises this week, though…a few delicious strawberries (who knew those would come back around?), three whole, ripe Mystery Melons (notice the rind in the photo below…it’s supposed to look like that…and not like the one we had a week ago), and a bunch of Dave’s Happy Yummy Peppers (notice the two different looking, orange peppers below? They both came from the same plant. Interesting, right?)
Man, will I miss the variety that we’ve been blessed with this year once the garden is really put to rest. I’ve fallen in love with all of the colors that came out of the yard this season!!!
Oh! On a bit of a bummer note…I found an error in our monetary tally sheet. It turns out I was crediting us twice for our eggs. We can’t say the chickens pay for themselves and then also count the eggs as income on the garden sheet, now can we? well, at least not honestly 😉 I got it fixed, but am feeling quite frustrated as 1) I made such a silly mistake and 2) I thought we were really close to meeting our goal for the year. I’m really not so sure anymore since the bulk of our final crops came in last week. After all this, I did wind up amortizing our drip irrigation costs from 2012 thru 2014. I couldn’t bear looking at such a huge number, so I spread it out a bit. Oh well…
Anyhow, in egg related news, our Ladies have slowed their laying down considerably with only 43 eggs this week. It’s been steadily going down for the past couple of weeks with our shorter and cooler days, but to pull 6 a day from the nesting boxes instead of the 13 we were getting at the height of summer is quite a drastic fall. It’s OK though, we couldn’t keep up with their production at it’s peak anyway 😉
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| Mystery Melon, Happy Yummy Peppers, Italian Heirloom Tomatoes & Lemon Cukes |
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| Daphne’s Cherokee Purple Tomatoes & Trail of Tear Beans, Romas Tomatoes, Tomatillos & Lemon Cukes |
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| The tiniest German Butterball Potatoes. We kinda forgot about this bin so it’s a wonder we got any 😉 |
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| More cukes and more tomatoes. OH…and a couple of random strawberries!!! Who knew??? |
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| Love = an Italian Heirloom |
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| Orange Flesh Purple Smudge Tomato |
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| An almost ripe Pie Pumpkin. We’ll see about this one… |
- Apples
- Granny Smith = 1 lb 10 oz
- Red Fuji = 1 lb
- Golden Delicious = 4 lb 6 oz
- Gala = 3 lb 12 oz
- Chard = 2 oz
- Cucumbers
- Lemon = 6 lb 4 oz
- Mystery = 1 lb
- Mixed Greens = 2 oz
- Mystery Melon = 6 lb 9 oz
- Pears = 8 oz
- Peppers
- Happy Yummy = 10 oz
- Jalapeno = 1 oz
- Pole Beans = 2 oz
- Potatoes (German Butterballs) = 10 oz
- Pumpkins (Pie) = 11 lb 12 oz
- Strawberries = 1 oz
- Tomatillos = 2 lb 11 oz
- Tomatoes = 11 lb 5 oz
- Eggs = 43
Nice colorful harvest, do you know where I can buy some duck eggs around SF and ABQ area?
Thanks Mac! I believe that Angela at http://www.highdesertchronicles.com/ has some duck eggs 🙂
Looks wonderful… We had freeze Friday and Saturday only a few cabbages, the brussel sprouts, and some chard remain viable. It was a good year!
Well, cabbage, brussels sprouts and chard are delicious, so it sounds like you’re still in good shape! 😉
Great looking harvests! We’ve been flirting with frost here too. I harvested all our stuff anyway, to be on the safe side. I do recognize those Happy Yummys! I’m glad you got some that looked like the originals. My German Butterballs were about the same size as yours.
You know, even the tiny little German Butterballs are so delicious I don’t mind their tininess! 🙂
That’s a great harvest; especially given the time of year and the inconsistent weather patterns. That Cherokee Purple sure makes me long for one. I allowed one of my spring planted ones to hang around. Its got flowers and a few small green toms on there now…we’ll see if I get any in the next month before it gets too cold.
I do hope your Cherokee Purples ripen up for you before the cold hits!!! My fingers are crossed for you!
I have had plenty of sugar pumpkins finish ripening inside! Sometimes it is necessary when critters and stuff threaten. You have lots of great stuff! I really should do lemon cukes again next year, my daughter really likes them. She sure likes the random strawberries too!
Oh, thanks for the hope! I would love for them ripen up nicely in the pantry! And really, who doesn’t like random strawberries 😉
I must remember to grow cherry tomatoes next year. Just looking at your Orange Flesh Purple Smudge Tomato is making my mouth watering. Bet that was one tasty tomato.
Oh yes…the Orange Flesh Purple Smudge is definitely a goodie! It’s been worth the wait, but I do hope we get a couple more before we have to pull it all down!
Wonderful harvest. We have our first threat of front this Friday night, but not all the weathermen agree yet. I’ll be watching more closely on Friday. I’m not too worried about losing my summer crops though. I think I might have had enough of the zucchini and beans already.
Yeah…sometimes the season can seem too long! I am pretty ready to be done for the year 😉
Nice late season harvest! Everyone is gearing up for frosts in seems on the garden blogs this week. We do not have that threat quite yet, so I am letting things stay in the garden as long as possible. Love the Happy Yummy peppers – fun to get variety from the same plant!
Oh my…yes, enjoy the lack of frost warnings as long as you can!!!
You have a very nice looking harvest there! I envy those tomatoes! I’m pretty much down to cherries now and a few small green ones. Your potatoes and peppers look great too!
Thanks! It’s been a good year for tomatoes so far! I’m hoping for a couple more red ones, but am thinking ing they’ll all have to come in green very soon!