Harvest Time!

Actually harvest time is anytime in our garden; not just in the autumn. We generally have a good offering of our favorite veggies all summer long, though each summer is different depending, of course, on the weather. This year was very hot and dry, so overall the garden didn’t do as well as some other years, including tomatoes which are usually our biggest and best producing plants. We usually have 9-12 plants. I can tomato sauce every year, usually in August, to use over the winter for chili and spaghetti. This year because of circumstances beyond our control, we didn’t can until the middle of September and only put up 6 quarts. That makes me sad, but we’ll have to make it stretch somehow. Sometimes I can salsa, but this year I just made several batches of fresh salsa throughout the summer.

Onions did really well this year too; probably our best year yet.

Peppers did pretty good this year too, though not a bumper crop. We had some nice sweet red bells and red banana peppers, and (as you saw earlier) some huge jalapenos.

Cucumbers were a bomb; zucchini did well (they usually do), so we enjoyed many loaves of zucchini bread, courtesy of my Mom.

Herbs didn’t do that well. The oregano never came up; basil did okay, but the cilantro, as usual, was all out of sync with the tomatoes. (I grow cilantro to use in salsa). I planted a second batch that’s just now ready. Fortunately we still have some tomatoes so that means more fresh salsa this fall.

Potatoes didn't do all that well, but we'll have enough for the winter for us and my folks. Once we started digging the potatoe hills we realized that we had a few volunteer red potatoes. A nice surprise.

That's it for this year's garden. It's sad to see it go, but I know it has to be. We'll let the earth rest (and so will we) and we'll be ready to do it again in the spring.