July 26, 2010: Monday Harvest

Daphne's Dandelions hosts Monday Harvest. Visit her to join in on the fun, and see what others are harvesting from their gardens.

The week of July 19-25













*Not all of the harvest was photographed


8 oz. basil
24 oz. pole beans (Fortex)
37 oz. beets
18 oz. cabbage
30 oz. carrots
51 oz. corn
12 oz. cucumber
22 oz. lettuce
49 oz. peppers (sweet)
72 oz. potatoes
45 oz. crookneck squash
114 oz. zucchini
25 oz. strawberries
65 oz. tomatoes

Total for week: 572 ounces = 35.75 pounds
Total year to date: 226.28 pounds

This week I picked my first Clear Pink Early tomato, and the flavor did not disappoint. I expect the flavor to get even better as the other fruits mature. Clear Pink Early is described as "Compact determinate plant loaded with long trusses of perfectly round, smooth, beautiful clear pink tomatoes. The flavor is very good, sweet yet tangy, making this a delightful addition to an early harvest. Heirloom variety of Russian origin." I find it more sweet than tangy, but that may change with later fruits. It is a pretty tomato, and really large considering the compact size of the plant.

I also picked my first Nyageous tomato, which is described as "A prolific, rare, Russian tomato variety. Beautiful, smooth, round, "black" tomatoes that are dark mahogany with dark gray-green shoulders. Nyagous is a wonderfully firm and blemish-free, 6 oz. tomato with lots of sweet, complex fruit flavors and a clean acidic finish. Up to 6 fruits to a cluster. A good market variety that has become a favorite of the Russian varieties. Resistant to cracking." It's rather short for an indeterminate plant. It was delicious.

So far, I'm impressed with:

Clear Pink Early, for being so compact, prolific and tasty.
Nyagous, for its beautiful, deep color and rich flavor.
Black Cherry for flavor and fruit size, being larger than most other cherry tomatoes.

I'm unimpressed with:

Gartenperle. It is loaded with small, red cherry tomatoes that taste absolutely nasty. I gave it several weeks (it was an extremely early tomato), but the flavor never did improve. Both of my plants are headed for the compost.

The jury is out on:

Minigold. It's early (my earliest), and prolific. The fruits are very small and rather thick skinned. The flavor is just so-so to me, but my daughter thinks they are very good. The color is pretty when mixed with the other (black and red) cherries. Since it grows well in a container, and stays quite small, it might be worth growing just for its earliness. The tomatoes are better than store bought.

This week I ripped all the lettuces from both lettuce beds, as much of it had bolted. The Red Sails and Parris Island Romaine were still lovely, so they were harvested. The beds were then given a good digging in of alfalfa pellets, and new lettuce seedlings were planted in one of them. Seed mats of carrots, spinach and lettuce were made for the other bed, and will be planted sometime this week. The day after I transplanted the lettuce seedlings, it turned really hot again....101F, and it's expected to get around 103F this week. I added some plastic netting around the new lettuce bed, as the sparrows had been ravaging the greens again. The same will be done to the other bed, just as soon as it is planted.

Mr. Granny had never eaten pesto. Mr. Granny would never try Italian sausages, even though I often cooked them for myself when he ate his bratwurst. Last night I decided Mr. Granny was going to eat pesto and Italian sausage, come hell or high water, so I cooked the sausages with tons of sauteed sweet onions and green peppers. I sauteed a bunch of garlic until soft, and tossed it into a bowl of spaghetti along with the home made pesto and all the cherry tomatoes I had on hand, halved. Mr. Granny not only ate Italian sausages and pesto, he ate seconds. And he asked for the leftovers for lunch. He is a convert, and even admits to liking the Italian sausages better than his brats!