Today's harvest

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I had to pull out a few pepper plants today - the plants did not recover from those wind storms I had recently; though only one showed visible damage, the wilting was almost immediate with 2 of them, and the Datil - the one that was worst - was the slowest to wilt. I let peppers ripen, as much as they could, then pulled every pepper from the Arunas, when I pulled the plants. I'll separate the unripe peppers, and probably make some Thai green curry paste with them, and freeze it.
mostly Aruna peppers, but a few Thai peppers ripening. 8-12 by pepperhead212, on Flickr
 
I was over at my friend's garden yesterday (the ones I give all my "extra" seedlings to), and the Datil pepper I gave him is doing well, and he said I could have any I wanted! He said that he was the only one that can eat those, so he doesn't need many of them. The variety they liked was the one I thought would be popular - the Big Mic, which is a large, Anaheim/Numex, and mild, so everyone can eat it, but it has great flavor and production. She fell in love with that one, as well as several of the tomatoes, and had the same problems with the varieties I had trouble with, as far as splitting, and diseases. And also had the same varieties getting HUGE, and she realizes she has to give them more space! She wants to plant some garlic this year, too, so we were trying to find a good place for that.

Only one of those Aruna plants survived that (or those) wind storm, and today I pulled every pepper off the last plant, and pulled the plant. I also pulled a few ripe Datil peppers, and left those on the plant, to see how many more will ripen on the dead plant. The habaneros are ripening well, and producing well.
A bunch of green Aruna peppers, and a few ripe Red Habanero and Yellow Datil peppers. 8-14 by pepperhead212, on Flickr
 
Later today, when the shade was out back, I worked on the tomatoes, mostly, and got another 4 qts of the smaller tomatoes. The larger tomatoes I had inside, I had to take care of later, and cut them all up, to put into the dehydrator - 6 trays of them. Once they shrink up some, I can put some closer together, and put some peppers in the empty spots.

Those Zluta Gold Kytice cherries had a large number of ripe fruits again. They are sort of a semi-determinate, in that they produce a large number of flowers, then a bunch of fruits, almost all the same size, and ripening at the same time, then shortly after picking, another large number of blossoms open in the same clusters, that were just sitting dormant, waiting for something to trigger them! It's too bad they are so small - their only drawback. Good flavor, though not as sweet as Sunsugar or Sungold. They are very disease resistant. Some people might like the fact that they don't grow as tall as most other cherries.
About 2½ c of the Zluta Gold Kytice, and a few others. 8-14 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

A 4 qt bowl of the smaller tomatoes, 8-14 by pepperhead212, on Flickr
 
More tomatoes harvested today, a few cucumbers. Beans are only an inch long right now but soon.

We'd cut all the lavender last week and put it all on a tarp to dry. I reshuffled the bunches to spread them out in different ways. They were dry and ready to take off the stems. I folded the tarp over them and walked on them, turned them walked on them some more, until the stems were separate from the flowers and seeds. The flowers filled a one gallon container plus another quart. It smells so lovely.
 
I picked a whole bunch of butterfly pea flowers, put them on the counter, and woke up to only one flower( none on the floor or anywhere to be seen). Picked a bunch more, put them somewhere else in a bowl, and half are missing ( no windows open, breeze ...). I think one of the cats has got to them.
Cucumbers done for the season ( second planting not doing well at all, so going to remove them. Tomatoes winding down
Peppers having a second wind. I usually pick more peppers in September than the rest of the summer.
MY second planting of Okra is also kicking in.
Shiitake mushrooms only shrooms producing this summer. ( have a few others just waiting for the right conditions).

In a few weeks my third planting of string beans will wrap up, probably start lettuce , arugula and kale in cells soon to replace them. Last year I was harvesting those leafy greens up until new years ( kale lasted til the following march )
 
blissful said:
@larry_stewart feeding the cat butterfly pea blossoms! The new catnip. Maybe they taste good to the cat?
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My wife is the one who changes the litter boxes and saw no ' evidence'. but I cant imagine what else happened to them. May set up a hidden camera so we can see who the culprit is.

Oh yeah, so far having a really good fig year . 3 varieties already ripened, and have a few more Im waiting on.

Anyone see any spotted lantern flies in their area? I saw 2 , but I know others who are about 1/2 hour away from me are getting infested, so its just a matter of time I guess.
 
hmmm @larry_stewart no blue poop. :LOL: Speaking of poop, the two small deer have been raiding the garden at night. Mr bliss has been spooking them with a flashlight.

No lantern flies here, cross my fingers. There were 2 cicadas making noise in the trees this summer but otherwise, no infestation.
 
blissful said:
hmmm @larry_stewart no blue poop. :LOL: Speaking of poop, the two small deer have been raiding the garden at night. Mr bliss has been spooking them with a flashlight.

No lantern flies here, cross my fingers. There were 2 cicadas making noise in the trees this summer but otherwise, no infestation.
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No lantern flies here. We have the kind of cicadas here that come out every summer. They were really loud in June and July. I can hear one right now, but just one. They should be gone, soon. Then come the crickets and the blackbirds. I hate those.

CD
 
I saw very few spotted lanternflies this season, and I was looking closely on the same plants they were all over, the last few years - cucumbers, eggplants, okra, and basil. I'm thinking that maybe the high heat we had may have done something useful! Last season was very mild here, and the year before, while hot, not as hot as this season, though in August we have recovered, so I'm watching for them again.
 
They are all over the place near us. I saw a lot earlier in the summer, and then few around the house and in the garden. One day last week, I met Frank for lunch and there were thousands on his building bunched almost like a swarm of bees. The pillars of the building were simply loaded with them. :angry:
 
Today I got quite a bit of work done outside, due to the nice weather, but I would have done even more, if it wasn't so windy! Maybe tomorrow I'll do that stuff. The long beans are starting to mature now, and the eggplants are having a second on all of the plants, except for the Long Purple. And later today, I got 3 trays each of hot peppers and eggplants in the dehydrator.
3 more eggplants, about 3 more quarts of tomatoes, and the first 2 Thai red long beans, about 24" long. 8-20 by pepperhead212, on Flickr
 
I harvested about 3 more quarts of the smaller tomatoes today, and after that, I did another trimming of all those dead, and shriveled up stems and branches, from all those tomatoes it's produced since the last trimming! This has been an incredibly good tomato year for me, despite the near record heat summer I had in the area, until it came down in August. Once again, those Negro Azteka cherries were probably the most productive of all the varieties.
About 3 quarts of smaller tomatoes, 8-21 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Here are those smaller tomatoes, poured into a cleaned tray, to spread them out in. You can see the larger number of Negro Azteka in there. 8-21 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

The eggplants are coming back strong now, after an early August lull - I'm guessing a result of the heat in July, which didn't seem to affect the tomatoes much this year. These 9 harvested today are in addition to the 11 or 12 I cut up that went into the dehydrator yesterday. These are the first 2 Matrosik harvested of the second crop - one just under a pound, and the smaller one just under 15 oz, but the two plants are loaded with different sized fruits, and new blossoms.
More eggplants - 2 Ichiban, 5 Asian Delight, and 2 Matrosik, 8-21. by pepperhead212, on Flickr
 
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Picked the last of my Kirbies today. Kibies and cukes all done. Second planting didnt do well. Picked the last of my zucchini yesterday. Ripped up the plants today. String beans winding down, picked 2 quarts today. Tomatoes also winding down. Hopefully we get another blast of warmer weather to ripen what's left on the plants ( ripped up a few that had nothing on them). Still have a bunch of potatoes to pick, hoping this weekends weather will allow for it. Eggplants making a comeback. Picked a bunch, then the plants looked like they had some kind of wilt, but they now are looking healthy again with little fruit an a few flowers.
 
I picked 8 pods of okra, lol. A whole 8. And I air fried them whole, and ate them.
Mr bliss picked all the keeper onions. They are drying on the deck under the overhang tarped area.
I picked all the kale and the last of the tatsoi, 4 gallons packed leaves, two steamers full, about 14 cups cut and frozen. I eat it every day. They got watered today, sprayed with BT tomorrow.
We have 8 gallons of tomatoes, so maybe I'll be canning sauce tomorrow.
 
Not sure if you guys saw in the news last week that areas of New York got a foot of rain in 6 - 8 hours, well that area was my town, and the surrounding towns, Personally we had no damage, but many others had significant flooding issues. On a happy note, all that rain, along with the following cold front triggered my mushrooms logs ( which I inoculated over a year ago) to produce. Harvesting them today.
 

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Had more than I thought. Didnt count them yet but at least 50. Anywhere from 1.5 to 3 inches in diameter. I grew a couple different varieties . Some better for cooker weather, some warmer and some can handle both. I left a few of the smaller ones on the log to get a little bigger. Ive seen them double in size over night depending on conditions. I inoculated these guys ( gals) about 1 1/2 years ago ( I think). These are the logs 'borrowed' from a vacant lot in the middle of the night. literally around 4am I ended the lot with a saw and an axe. There is no doubt that if anyone saw me, they'd thought I killed some one and butchered them up. And if there was a body in there already , my DNA was all over the place. Anyway, it's been over a year and no one came knocking on my door, so I think Im in the clear and have over a pound of mushrooms to show for it. Another log is over 3 years old and still producing, I actually was going to toss that one, glad I didnt. I must have picked about 20 off that log alone. I remember inoculating that one during . around covid.
 

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@larry_stewart I remember that story you told way back then and your wife wasn't all that happy about you going around in the middle of the night. Reminds me of mr bliss getting up at 4 am to metal detect with a head lamp so he could see. 'You What?'
 
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