Another week has rolled around, and it’s been a productive one in the garden, despite the cooling weather.
It's early September in the garden. The green beans are getting powdery mildew and I've picked a LOT of dead and dying lower leaves off the tomatoes.
This is the entire harvest from our Fuji apple tree. It's still a baby tree and not productive yet, but the apples are great.
This is the first basket of apples from the dwarf Granny Smith. Nothing dwarf about these apples though. There are still a couple dozen left on the tree.
Granny Smiths are my husband's favorite eating apple, but they're too tart for me. They make perfect pies, and that's what I do with most of them. I wish you could smell our kitchen.
This harvest of komatsuna (Japanese mustard greens) and bell peppers went into a stirfry.
I’m giving my vote of favorite new vegetable this year to Green Boy hybrid komatsuna from Kitazawa Seed Company. They’re very productive and really make a great addition to a stirfry. They’re better than bok choy in productivity, with a slightly stronger mustard green bite than bok choy. Delicious!
This is the entire harvest of Russett potatoes. One potato sprouted in my bag, so I just planted it. This was what I got, about double or triple the volume of what I put into the raised bed.
Our pumpkins and squash are producing nothing but male blossoms, so that's what I'm harvesting.
The squash blossoms and green onion went into scrambled eggs. The potatoes and more onion became homefries. And a Fuji apple and a couple of strawberries were our fruit for breakfast. All home grown, even the eggs!
This golf ball in the nest box needs a bit of explanation.
Our three silly hens all use the same nest box, ignoring the other two that are adjacent. When I peeped in and saw Henny Penny sitting on TOP of Chicken Little in the same nest box, I decided that they needed a box that was a bit separated from the others. I put a cardboard box in the corner of the coop opposite the preferred nest box and added some straw. They ignored it. So I put in a golf ball to give them the idea that they could use this box when the preferred nest box is occupied. Now they all want to use this one. Chickens! Not the brightest bulbs on the back porch.
Everyone is probably getting tired of seeing tomatoes, so I put this day's harvest at the end. I'm glad I have the Mortgage Lifters, because they're producing the bulk of the tomato harvest now. They're really productive, with each tomato weighing about half a pound.
And now, on to the week’s harvest.
FRUIT
11 oz. Apples, Fuji
3 lbs Apples, Granny Smith
0.5 oz. Strawberries
Subtotal Fruit 3 lbs 11.5 oz
VEGETABLES
4 oz. Bell Peppers
5 oz. Chard
6 oz. Komatsuna
2.5 oz. Onion, Green
2 oz. Onion, Red
6 oz. Potatoes, Russett
1 oz. Squash blossoms
6 lbs 3.5 oz. Tomatoes (mostly Mortgage Lifters)
Subtotal veggies 8 lbs 1.5 oz.
TOTAL HARVEST 11 lbs 13 oz produce plus 10 eggs
If you had a harvest, visit Daphne’s Dandelions and post your results.
BTW, I was up until nearly 3 am working on a database for my yearly harvest. So far, I’ve harvested 164 lbs of produce and 404 eggs this year. Not bad for such a tiny urban homestead.
Lou Murray's Green World 
That’s interesting that your Mortgage Lifters are so productive. Every time I’ve planted them, they’ve been the poorest performer in our garden. As for chickens, well, yes…not the sharpest tools in the shed. Our girls often pile up in one nest box, leaving the others empty. Go figure, and for some reason this morning I found our rooster sitting in the nest box! That, I simply can’t explain, except that, well…that’s chickens for you! 😛
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Hi Clare. I haven’t heard great things about Mortgage Lifters from others, but I had to give them a try. I’m pleased with their productivity, especially since the other varieties have petered out or are taking a break. Was that silly Frodo sitting in a nest? There’s no accounting for chickens and their behaviors.
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Gosh, you weren’t kidding about your productive garden! What a great variety of produce you harvested just this week alone. Too bad the pumpkins and squash aren’t producing any fruits for you, but those blossoms look beautiful. You even found a way to work them into your meals, so double bonus!
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Thanks, thyme. Hope your Indianapolis garden is also producing for you.
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I’m a komatsuna fan too, though I’ve never tried that particular variety. My seeds just say komatsuna. They are just so productive and tasty. And I can never get tired of seeing tomatoes. Even with a counter full of them.
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Ah, Daphne, my tomatoes aren’t as productive as yours and my photos of them aren’t as nice as yours, but I’m happy with what I’m getting.
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Such a wonderful time here in the Northern hemisphere, gardeners are harvesting their produce all over the blogsphere!
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Matron, isn’t this a wonderful time of year? All harvest and very little weeding in the northern Blogosphere. Hope your England allotment is doing well.
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