What We are Harvesting in our Garden - August 4

It's harvest time! I love it when the garden reaches this point. True, I've been picking and eating things for a few months, but August is when everything seems to be ready to eat or preserve. All of that planning, watering, and weeding has paid off and you get to enjoy the fruits (or vegetables) of your labor!

• Beans - green Emerite pole beans and flat podded Dragon's Tongue (yellow bush beans with purple stripes)
• Zukes - I have two types: Rond d'Nice which are light to medium green round balls, and Straito d'Italia which are the regular old long ones with lighter green stripes. The small ones are ridged and look pretty sliced.
• Crookneck squash - Horn of Plenty and they are living up to their name. I love this variety because they aren't mushy!
• Herbs, herbs, and more HERBS! Parsley, cilantro (soon to be coriander seed), sage, dill seed (the 'weed' part is already dry), thyme, chives, basil, cutting celery, regular celery...they are all ready. I really need to get them dried for winter!
• New potatoes - Red Pontiac and Yukon Gold. They are baseball to softball sized now but still have that sweet, tender new potato flavor. We are going to have a great potato crop to store for winter. Yipee!
• Raspberries - Our Fall Gold plants have peaked and are starting to decline, but my what delicious yellow fruit! And the birds are not interested because they don't look ripe. The red varieties are just coming on.
• Onions, shallots, garlic - The alliums are ready to use, but not ready to store yet. I'll leave them in the ground to continue sizing up for a few more weeks (except maybe the garlic...I need to keep an eye on it so the paper doesn't distenegrate!)
• Carrots - but I'm letting them size up a little more because I got a good deal at the store and have plenty in the fridge.
• Wonderberries - one of the "test crops"...they have lots of fruit, and quite a few ripe ones. I don't like them plain but may make some jam or something out of them when more ripen.
• Apricots - only one left on our little tree but they've been delicious.
• Tomatoes - I haven't picked any red ones yet, maybe tomorrow. I have been eating lots of Sun Sugar cherry tomatoes though and they taste so good!
• Beets - they are ready but I'm not feeling like beets, so they are still in the ground. Sometimes I want them, sometimes I don't!

A few crops fell victim to some happy hens:

• Broccoli - eaten down to the veins.
• Cabbage - not touched until ready to harvest, then all six heads were eaten in one day!
• Lettuce - not bothered until the broccoli was gone, so I'd eaten what I wanted anyway. It was starting to get bitter.
• Chinese Cabbage - my earwig trap plants. Guess chickens like it too!

The peas have been gone for a month, but we had a good crop. Most of them were eaten by some hungry kids in the garden. I was especially pleased with the Mr. Lincoln peas - they were very productive and tasted so sweet. Not so impressed with Tall Telephone peas, but they grew on the trellis and were easy for the kids to pick.

Let me know if you've harvested something great (or gross)! Happy harvesting in your garden!

•