Today's harvest

[blissful]

More carrots drying in the dehydrator.
I harvested our sunflower seeds, put some aside for planting next year. Boiled some in salt water, now roasting them.

 

[pepperhead212]

More peppers - imagine that!
I noticed some damaged leaves on some peppers, but only some varieties, and no frost yet. I also picked some more cherry tomatoes, and still a bunch half ripe ones. I might pull all my large tomatoes - no more producing, plus Monday is lawn trash day.
Last Kanthari peppers of the season, 10-28 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

 

[dragnlaw]

Been super busy all day almost finished!

 

[pepperhead212]

You did get the cans and jars on sale, right?

 

[dragnlaw]

Actually they were free, I was very lucky. Truck left them behind on a loading dock and shipper said 'what the heck, go ahead take'm'.
The labels on the can lids were a bit hard to take off, but with care I was able to save the front labels. The same labels on the glass jars were real easy to remove. you know, those 3 circles that look like a fan?

 

[pepperhead212]

I am still getting a generous amount of cherry tomatoes - less than the 4 qts I picked last time, but all these have ripened in just 12 days from that last picking. Again, I left only green ones on the cherries, and left those 6 plants, but pulled all of the other plants, as most of them were dead, though there were more green tomatoes, and a few ripening ones, but not many.
Cherries ripening, and all the rest mostly green, but all pulled. 10-30 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

4 days ago, 10 days after planting, 2 of my varieties of garlic had a few sprouts; today, all 4 varieties had a generous amount of sprouts - the Georgian Fire had almost all of them sprouted, and Estonian Red was a close second.
Garlic from the Estonian Red, one on bottom, and Georgian Fire, first two coming up, 10-26. Others all up by 10-30 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

 

[larry_stewart]

I love when the garlic pops up. gives me reassurance that they're vital. None of mine sprouted yet. Supposed to be warm next week, so im guessing they may make a run for it. one bed of carrots today. Nothing great, but useable.

 

[Kathleen]

I have garlic that I need to plant...but am wondering whether I am too late here in Zone 7.

 

[pepperhead212]

I would still plant it @Kathleen. I wouldn't think it is that late there.

 

[larry_stewart]

I would definitely plant them. I sometimes get my seed garlic from a garlic farm in Connecticut ( Zone 6a. They just recently worked their field to plant garlic. He usually plants in early November. Here's what it says on his farms website about when to plant garlic.

In general, plant as the weather becomes frosty (some frost at night) but before the hard frost (28-degree F.). You want the bulbs to put down some roots before the ground freezes. Water the bulbs at planting time to encourage immediate root growth.

I once couldn't make up my mind if I should plant garlic or not. Eventually decided to do it and it was in December ( happened to be a warm December), and sill had good Success ( Im in 7a).

Go get dirty and have fun planting.

 

[AlamocityPopcorn]

Here's what I harvested today. There's lots more out there. I'm waiting for some more bell peppers to finish turning red, and there are some tomatoes that I need DH to reach. I have some preserving to do now!

looks fresh and healthy.

 

[Kathleen]

I would still plant it @Kathleen. I wouldn't think it is that late there.

I followed Larry and your advice and planted the garlic. To be honest, I have not had great luck with garlic, so it is a small plot of it. I also watered yesterday and will water again tomorrow. For colder weather, I do have straw that I can layer over the plot. I love garlic...and well....okay, I love all produce. So I am hoping for the best!

 

[larry_stewart]

I followed Larry and your advice and planted the garlic. To be honest, I have not had great luck with garlic, so it is a small plot of it. I also watered yesterday and will water again tomorrow. For colder weather, I do have straw that I can layer over the plot. I love garlic...and well....okay, I love all produce. So I am hoping for the best!

Good for you!!!
I have found garlic to be one of the few crops that I dont have to fuss over. Plant in fall, harvest early summer. The only issue Ive ever had was poor drainage or over watering ( not sure which or both). But usually its a plant and forget type of a thing.
Hopefully next year you will be sharing pics of your bounty ( and me too) .

 

[larry_stewart]

Fresh Arugula, Chard, Leaf Lettuce and Parsley picked for dinner.
Picked a few of the July 4th tomatoes which were changing color ( the plant has produced 290 tomatoes this season).

 

[blissful]

@larry_stewart 290, while mr bliss was in the kitchen, I had to tell him. He feels so much better he's not the only 'counter of things'. That's a phenomenal number of tomatoes. I hope you kept some of that seed!

 

[larry_stewart]

The only ones I dont count are grape, cherry... I can only imagine how many they produce. The July 4th is by far not the greatest tomato, but its the earliest and lates producer, and 290 for 1 plant is pretty good. I have a spread sheet with all the numbers ( I'm one of those lol ). And even being the smallest of he tomatoes ( by weight) that I keep track of, it's #3 (out of 8) as far as weight of tomatoes per plant. They're good for things like gazpacho or dishes where you need the tomatoes, but the flavor if the tomato is kinda overpowered.

 

[bethzaring]

Harvested less than 10% of the carrots overwintering in the hoop house. That is a two gallon bag.

 

[blissful]

Good going, on the spreadsheets, @larry_stewart . I would do that but I have enough trouble keeping my canning recipes front and center during canning season. We make garden maps, so far, but not poundage or numbers for harvest. I harvested kale 6 times this year, but I can't tell you if it was a good or a bad year!

 

[larry_stewart]

Harvested less than 10% of the carrots overwintering in the hoop house. That is a two gallon bag.

Nice carrots! Wha variety are they ?
I was going to over winter ny carrots ( as I did last year with some success), but they are where my onions go in the spring, and I just got my hands on so aged horse manure , so I decided to amend that garden for hopefully aa bumper onion crop.

Good going, on the spreadsheets, @larry_stewart . I would do that but I have enough trouble keeping my canning recipes front and center during canning season. We make garden maps, so far, but not poundage or numbers for harvest. I harvested kale 6 times this year, but I can't tell you if it was a good or a bad year!

For tomatoes, Im just trying to down size a bit. Not necessarily in amount of plants, but to increase the production in the allotted space I have for them. So, I'm looking for efficiency. Clearly, there are so many other factors and things vary year to year, but it keeps me busy, ,makes me feel important , and puts good use to the math I thought I'd never use in my life ( I once broke out my calculus book when chopping down a tree, to make sure it wouldn't hit my house).

I have one row on my spread sheet the basically lets me know if it was an Average, Above Average or Below Average year for each crop. Although I have he actually statistics, is more by gut feeling and just what I noticed throughout the growing season. I usually use the info in that row when deciding which ( if any ) changes I'll make he following year.

 

[dragnlaw]

am I really reading this? LOL, may the dragon bless you Larry. You sure you are not GMing these poor plants?

ok ok, just kidding, please don't take offence!