What Have You Picked From Your Garden Today

sanderson wrote:

yolos wrote: I planted my cucs later than normal trying to miss the pickle worm invasion that happens about now.

Did the late planting work?

So far, no pickle worms so maybe this worked.  But I have had no cucumbers mature yet and we really love them with our tomatoes.  Also, at least two groups of cucumbers are now showing signs of Downy Mildew which I get every year.  This time I separated my cucumber plantings into 4 different beds but so far Downy MIldew has found two beds.

Still picking Cubanelle peppers that were mislabeled at the nursery as Purple Beauty Bells, along with my prolific bounty of Mad Hatter peppers, herbs, and lots of arugula ("roquette" as my Cajun pépère
 called it).

Yukon Gold taters and Candy onions.  It was a grassy, weedy mess to be honest.

Tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, and more tomatoes. I've canned 2 batches of salsa, 2 batches of Crushed Tomatoes (one lid failed) and have over 2 gallons of frozen tomatoes to make tomato sauce late fall.

I recently finished harvesting and puting on drying racks five  , 16 square foot beds of several types of onions before it gets too dry and the onion fly lays eggs in the root area that will ruin the crops . 

I must have around 80 pounds of onions of all sizes ..some are  a decent fist size and likely a few jars of 1inch & a quarter pickling onion sizes .  Most are 2 to 3 inches in diameter . 

 We've almost got the first 3 inch dia brandy style tomato ripened ...things got almost stopped when we had the 40 oC heat some  three weeks ago .. plant recovery appear to be well under way as there are now lots of 2 inch plus greenies on the vines.

 Have been harvesting prickly cucumbers for three weeks ...  yes they are very prickly  but nice and firm not too watery . I get less indigestion probs with this type so will be using them next year . 
 Summer pointed Hispi cabbages have really come on so have the darn cabbage white butterfly caterpillars .    
 Culinary dried marrow fat peas were an emergency stand by , soaked them for thirty six hours in clean water , changes every 10 hrs or so then sown individually in a poked in hole then watered in three and a half weeks ago , they are just about to come into flower .. the slugs & snails chomped the earlyier sown ones one night when it chucked it down for 15 hrs. solid  with  very fine driven warm rain .

 The asparagus is finished for the gardening year  , now fed , watered and corralled in a hoop of water pipe on two support sticks till they flower then die off , then I'll cut them down to the ground and dress the bed in a clean new sterile weed free mulch .  We are still getting some strawberries of the greenhouse tubbed plants  but nothing like the last couple of years due to a crazy spring weather season . Carrots  are also out of kilter .. we actually had to buy in carrots to make our coleslaw's for all summer . 
This time last year we had 9 inch long x 2.5 inch diameter carrots galore Had to re-sow a lot of carrots that also cot eaten in the slug & snail fests  which took place inspite of me using slug & snail controls  . 
 Have had some pak choi for our stirfries and chines five veg style dishes ,till it suddenly broke into flowering mode for the second time after being cut down to a few leaves . 
 My single well rooted shop purchased celery " Stumpling " got eaten by slugs or snails before it could get established ..might be time for some more over the nest couple of weeks 
 Our rutabaga's ( swedes ) are easily ready for eating but I want them for winter so we might get some real whoppers if I can still use the misting sprays for 2 min twice a day to  keep them growing slowly .

Picked 23 big green & black caterpiller's off my veg ....

Ha ha cunning plan ...

 I've a 7 litre " caterpillar spanner " to remove them using " Resolva bug " spray  just before it got dark .
 I swear there were hardly any there yesterday evening before dusk .
Hopefully tomorrow  things will be rescuable , the late sown peas full lush green juicy leave and a few flowers were reduced to green netting & a few flowers in 24 hrs .

This morning's harvest.  The Millionaire eggplant are perfect, peppers in various states of maturity and even some overripe. Cayenne will be strung up to dry outside (Fresno style    ).  Poblanos blistered and deseeded for freezing.  Bells mostly prepped for freezing. Jalapenos maybe as stuffed jalapenos baked in the over.
 

Last night I made Spiced Tomato Soup with 2 net quarts of washed and just cored and quartered tomatoes.  I didn't peel per Ball instructions because the pureed soup will be frozen in portions and not safely canned.

My garden consists of eight 4'x32' raised beds.  This has been a trying summer in south Texas with temps above 100 most days.  Beans blossomed but never set fruit.  Tomatoes did little better.  There have been some victories though.  First time to plant tromboncino squash.  They are great!  Somewhat resistant to vine borers.  They are prolific like zucchini.  Best grown on a trellis or even better, an arbor.  This will definitely be a regular in my garden.  Still picking all types of squashes and 4-5 pounds of okra every other day.  Over the winter I installed drip irrigation.  That has been a life saver.

Because of the heat, I ignored picking okra for one day, and look what happens!

I picked a ripe Red Kuri squash!  It was the only one I saw.  I have lots of peppers.  But need to get time to can/pickle them.