Friday, June 24, 2011

First Harvest of 2011

Our first (real) harvest of 2011!


I'm not really counting the few strawberries or the onion we collected almost 3 weeks. In addition to the few berries we harvested early last week, we collected a whole pint of strawberries on Tuesday. The plants are in a raised bed and are doing really well, so much better than last year. The berries are small but sweet. Unfortunately we have no blueberries left. There's a mesh net over the bushes, but some birds or squirrels or other critter managed to get through the mesh and eat the rest of the fruit that were on the plant.  I hope you enjoyed the berries, you little jerks! I guess we'll try again next year.


We collected two small yellow squash and a handful of green beans.


We also decided to pick the small Golden Bell pepper that was on the plant, despite the fact that it wasn't ripe yet (i.e, yellow). We're hoping this stimulates the pepper plant into producing more fruit. 


Our first little broccoli! We have four broccoli plants. Two of them bolted at the end of May, but the other two plants are doing fine. We decided to harvest a little chunk of broccoli before the plants have a chance to bolt again, but we didn't cut all of it. This is what's left on the two plants:


I'm actually a little surprised that the broccoli plants seem to be doing fine. It has been so hot and humid over the last week, and I thought these plants didn't do well in the heat. We steamed up the beans and broccoli with our dinner last night. They were good!


And now I have something to really look forward to: Some of the tomatoes have started to turn red. This has got to be one of the most exciting things about gardening, especially because we have so many tomato plants.  There isn't much color in the garden until the tomato and squash plants start making fruit. We have bonnie grape and early girl tomatoes (above), and the plants look healthy. I hope they stay this way, and now that July is coming, I really hope I have lots of tomatoes to harvest.

13 comments:

  1. Congratulations on your early bounty. Love the broccoli photos.

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  2. Thanks GirlSprout! It wasn't much, but I'm hoping for lots more.

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  3. I agree that there is such joy in finding ripe veggies in the garden. My heart leaps every time I find things to 'pick' in the garden. Happy Harvest!

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  4. We laid 3 faux snakes in our strawberry patch and the critters stayed away. Really worked. Our strawberries are done now but we harvested quite a bit. Froze a few quarts--ate a lot right off the vines.
    Ann

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  5. Great Harvest! Sorry about your blueberries. The birds have been doing a number on my figs, and I am not happy about it!

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  6. Hurrah! They look yummy! We ended up going to a u-pick place and getting most of ours...you have a nice pintful there. Enjoy!

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  7. How exciting to get things from the garden! I am always amazed when someone grow broccoli. I try it every year, but have never harvested any. Looks like you're going to have lots of tomatoes!

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  8. @Sage Butterfly - "heart leaping" is a great way to describe it. It's exciting! (And then nerve-wracking worrying that something will eat it before you do).

    @Ann - I may have to try faux snakes. The mesh net we have works OK but it's not perfect b/c obviously they've figured out how to get around it.

    @hisbeautifulsinner - I'm sorry about your figs! I hope you got to enjoy some?

    @Hanni - thanks! We went to a u-pick place too but I love strawberries so much I wanted to grow my own too. :)

    @Holley - this is our first year trying broccoli. We've messed it up already but I'm happy to have gotten something out of it.

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  9. Wow, good harvest. Much earlier than here.

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  10. congratulations! that's an awesome harvest! it seems like everyone who grows strawberries is having better-than-ever luck with them this year, myself included. i'm not growing nearly as many as you are though.

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  11. Congratulations! Beautiful harvest

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  12. I picked my first green beans today, and just being in the vegetable plot made me feel good. Your harvest looks yummy. I admire your strawberries. I gave up on strawberries after several unsuccessful tries, which made me sad, as I love strawberries!

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  13. Wow! I know that was a lot of fun! and very rewarding! Good eating to you and may you have a bounty more!

    P.S... I'm glad that one of the broccoli plants made it so that you could experience and cook your own head of broccoli. Yay!

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