The Final Harvest

These days I am busily packing up my household. For those who don't know, I was offered a new job (at last), which I accepted, the result being that I am moving. To Michigan. It was a difficult decision, but a job is better than unemployment, and the place where I am going looks like it will be a terrific place to work. Even so, I am heartbroken to leave my property here, with the apple trees just starting to produce, the native shrub hedge finally growing in, and my veg. garden soil improving each year.

Walking in and out of the back porch I kept passing the pile of runner beans that I brought inside to dry. Finally, this morning I decided it was time to shuck them, for the sun was out, the air was mild, and I needed to tackle the porch soon in the cleaning frenzy.


Each pod was stripped from the dried vines and its contents were placed in a bowl.


Idefix did as all cats do: sat on whatever I was working on. In this case, the unshucked beans.


All of a sudden, Toby bounded up and charged the fence. He ran and barked and turned and jumped and barked some more, completely beside himself. What could it be? I looked for a deer, but no deer was to be seen. Instead, I saw...

one of the many stray cats our neighborhood now has. Unresponsible cat owners have left their fertile cats outside and now we are overrun with a feral population.

Toby was defending his property and his own cat. This stray was not impressed, for it stayed there all arched up and fluffy for several minutes, no doubt laughing internally at the futile efforts of the dog.

I returned to my shucking and ended up with quite a good haul. I don't remember which beans are which, though. However, I think the little reddish-brown ones in the bowl with the large white ones are the dwarf bees, a very short runner bean that is considered "rare."

These might be the scarlet runner beans...

and these maybe are the sunset runner beans?

Would that make these the painted ladies?

Hopefully I'll have gardening space next summer and can plant these to discover (once more) which ones are which.

Harvest Updates

Two evenings ago I was dumping food scraps into the compost pile when I noticed a fair number of pea pods on the pea vines. I thought I'd pick a few for the dog's dinner, and ended up with a shirt full of peas! When I got them all shelled, I had well over a quart of 'em. Who'd have thought we'd have a pea harvest in mid-August!

Meanwhile, the beans continue to produce, and the zucchini are rolling in. This weekend I should tackle the potatoes - completely naked now thanks to the CPB. There's no point leaving them in the ground now to keep growing. Without any leaves, I can't imagine there's much food source for the tubers.

I'll need to pull garlic, too. The plants are all looking quite brown and deceased - much like the potatoes, actually.

The apples are ripening nicely on the Jonagold and Haralson. Several have dropped to the ground and have been nibbled on by who knows what. I've seen crows fleeing the yard with green apples in their beaks, but I suspect most of the damage is from rodents of one stripe or another. Still, I expect to have several apples this year, if all goes well.

I heard a NYS apple report on the radio this morning. The statewide harvest is down quite a bit (we did get those frosts after the trees blossomed), but they said the apples that did grow should be of exceptional quality. We shall see. I'll have to make my pilgrimage to the orchards early this year! It seems that like many things this season, the apples are ripening about two weeks earlier than normal. Hm...a trend across the entire plant spectrum this year it seems.

Giants from the Garden

Sure...it looks like any normal pile of beans...


...but let's put 'em in perspective:

And it's not like they are old beans - noooo - these are the first beans of the season. I need to check my planting map and see which ones these are. Could they be the Cherokee Trail of Tears?


The same could be said for the zucchinis:



And it's not like I overlooked them! There were no zukes on these particular plants when I checked them a week ago! Hmm...I wonder what I'll do with Jumbo there. Just finished up the first batch of stuffed zucchicni, and I finally tossed all of last year's shredded zucchini from the freezer. Maybe I'll just make loaves of bread this week - use it up right away and freeze the bread.

Crop Updates - an Evening in the Garden

My heart has simply not been in the garden this year. The weeds and pests have taken over, and I can't seem to get myself to care. It's the whole job thing - will I find a new one (and be moving), or will I be on unemployment come winter? With the former, I won't be able to reap the benefits of my veg garden, with the latter, a garden's worth of produce will surely be welcome if there is no income! I waver between the two. Some days I'm out there weeding and mowing, but most days I just don't seem to care. It's been a strange year.

I finally gave up on the peas. The freezer is full and the plants were slowing down. The pods that remain I'll let dry and then harvest for seed.

Still, other things should be ripening, so it was time to tour the beds and see what was what.

The garlic will be ready for harvesting pretty soon. The tops are turning brown, which is usually the indicator. I pulled up this one to check size - not too bad. I'll give the rest another week or two.


Ah - the Haralsons are starting to redden! I'm very excited about the apples this year. Only Haralsons and Jonagolds, but there are several fruits on these two trees.

As you can see, these runner beans are still refusing to grow up.

The pole beans are just not robust this year, either. Only now are they FINALLY starting to fill in, but even so, they are Spartan. Reasons? I have a few possibilities: these are the same beds in which I planted beans last year; I didn't use any innoculant this year; we had a cold snap early in the season; we had a lot of rain in June, and very little rain in July; and the soil is generally pretty poor. Take your pick.

But, the beans are blooming and that's a happy thing. The hummingbirds are content - between the beans and the bee balm, there is finally food for them in my yard.

The first two blossoms here are runner beans (scarlet and painted lady); the others include Cherokee Trail of Tears, Rattlesnake, and Blue Coco, among others.

Beans are starting to form. I imagine in a week or so I will start picking and freezing.

Look! A tomato!

The zucchinis are doing well - lots of blossoms and some fruits already, which something seems to be enjoying.

I picked these last night and after some judicious trimming, they became stuffed zucchinis. Rice, sausage and tomato sauce.

After a slow start, the cukes are now loaded with blossoms!

I admit, I have been a poor gardener this year. Not knowing if I was staying or leaving, my heart just hasn't been in my garden. So, I did not patrol for pests, and here is why one wants to keep on top of CPB infestations:

The leaves were completely gone from the spuds and the plants were brown and dead. Still, I was hopeful that there might be some potatoes underground, even if small, so I dug in with my hands.

Voila! Not a whole lot, but better than none at all. These are, I believe, purple majesty potatoes.

Scrubbed up, they are a beautiful purple-black color. It almost looks like a pan full of very large black olives!

The inside, as you can see, is a beautiful deep purple.

And look! Purple smashed potatoes! I know, some folks will turn their noses up at this, but I think they are lovely. And they taste just wonderful.

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Beans Galore!

It had been two days since I last picked beans, thanks to the rain, so last night I knew there would be some ripe ones. Boy, was I right! I nearly filled up my half-bushel box on one bed of pole beans! By the time the pole beans were picked, I had to get a second basket for the bush beans. Total harvest: nearly a whole bushel!

I have the most colorful beans: purple beans, green beans, yellow beans, green beans with purple stripes. Last year I also had yellow beans with pink stripes, but I ran out of room this year and none of the runner beans were planted.

And what does one do with all these beans? Well, one doesn't have time to make the planned zucchini bread! Nope, one is up until 11:30 PM cutting them. I refused to start the blanching and freezing process that late, though, so that will be the project for tonight. Soon the freezer will be full of beans!

Oh, yes...and peas

We finally had a sunny day on, appropriately, Sunday. A nice cool breeze and temps in the 70s. Very nice indeed. After doing the dishes, cleaning the kitchen and mopping the floor (not a big deal for many folks, but major for me), I threw clothes in the washing machine and spent the rest of the day outside.

A quick tour of the garden surprised me with actual pea pods on some of the peas! I didn't think any of them had gotten that far, since I've only just started to see flowers on the plants. If I was a pea-pod-eater, I would've had a feast, but no, I prefer to eat the peas themselves, so they will have to ripen a bit before I pick them.

My lettuce, however, is still no more than a half inch tall! (Even the peas are under two feet tall.) I'm disappointed to still have to get my greens elsewhere! Although...I

It's amazing what a little bit of sunshine will do. I strung up "trellises" for the pole beans (the corn is just never going to get tall enough to work) in the morning, and by afternoon the beans had already sent up tendrils to grab them! Not as fast as kudzu, I'm sure, but not far behind!

Found more CPB on plants I haven't sprayed, but those that were sprayed before the last week of rain seem to be CPB-free...for the moment. (And there was much rejoicing and dancing in the streets.)

Views Around the Estate

Here are the latest views from the gardens.

Bush beans and potatoes. I only had three beds left for potatoes and beans, but I had more potatoes than I thought, so I had to tuck them in anywhere there was room. Combine this with all the volunteer potatoes from 2008 and even 2007, and I will be over run with spuds this year! I really must work out a better storage system for them, because they sprout before I get to eat them all!

Cukes and sunflowers. At least I think those are cukes. Not too many squash family seeds sprouted this year, so I kept adding miscellaneous seeds to the beds to the point where I'm not sure what is sprouting where!

Garlic. The garlic is growing very well. I snapped off the scapes this last week - they were lovely with their curlicue shapes. Bagged several up to give to friends, but no one seemed to want them. I think one needs to be in an up-scale urbanesque area to find a market for scapes. (Yes, those are potatoes with the garlic...leftovers from 2008.)

Carrots. I have six or seven carrot patches squeezed between the onion patches. This last weekend I divvied up several of the carrot clumps, moving them into areas where carrot seeds didn't sprout. Looks like I may need to move some more. The sunshine and rain from the last couple of days made many of the carrot tops just shoot up. My goal is long carrots this year, not hundreds of midget carrots. Hopefully the transplanting will help with that.

Pumpkins. I had to dig into the remains of the manure pile to get enough in one spot to plant the pumpkins this year, but there seems to be enough "juice" left for them to do well (so far). All we need now is some sunshine!

Broccoli and cauliflower. Yes, they are there under that row cover by the crabapple tree. I haven't peeked under since I planted them...don't want to be discouraged. This year I'm thinking of leaving the row cover in place as a foil for the cabbage whites and their larvae.

Peas. Lots of peas and they've started to flower. None are terribly tall, though. Maybe some are just short varieties, but I suspect the lack of sunshine has also stunted their growth.

Moving onto the flowerbeds, we find several plants in bloom. The lupines are pretty much finsihed, but now we have toadflax,

foxgloves,

verbascum,

garlic chives,

valerian,

mountain bluets,

and Maltese cross.

The splashes of color brighten things up, even on overcast days.