Harvest Journal: 1 September

Last evening as heat leached from the day, we spent an hour bringing in produce that was ready for harvest.

The garden is looking shabby--not unusual for the time of year;  in some spots we gave up on weeding. Vines of squash, cucumbers and melons have run wild, creating a tangle of now wilting leaves and woody stems which must be carefully navigated to find the relevant items.

Butternut squash, initially a bit stunted by the long July draught, went into high gear with the heat and moisture of August. Squash vine borers gave us a miss this year. 

The tomato plants set out in hope of a fall crop are thus far a disappointment, growing leggy, slow to develop. Tomatoes are a frustrating venture here. We have tried heirloom varieties, others that boast of superior blight and disease resistance, bush types. We've tied plants to stakes and wires, surrounded them with cages, dosed them with a copper based fungicide.  About the best we can expect is a few tomatoes of moderate quality, enough for the table in the weeks before plants succumb to blight. 

I had hopes for the tiny yellow pear tomatoes for salads--the plants sent out wild tentacles of growth in spite of judicious pruning. Half-ripened tomatoes split and fall to the ground. The plants have become host to tomato horn worms which I pluck off and stomp.

Potatoes have done well. Like the butternut squash--a late fall crop in our native Vermont, potatoes here need to be harvested in the heat of late summer.

A few sweet potatoes grown from two large sweet potatoes that sprouted while neglected in a dark corner of the pantry

Green peppers have been so abundant that I have twice taken some to the Beachy's produce farm.  I would have been content to see them shared rather than going to waste, but Mrs. Beachy insisted on paying for them.  Peppers can be diced and frozen for winter casseroles, but must be carefully packed or the smell and flavor will spread to everything in the freezer.

Melons have been excellent. We've shared them, eaten many, thrown out some that sat too long in the fridge. Only a few have been damaged by marauding racoons or possums. The electric fence is doing its work.

I've now had two pickings from the late crop of green beans. These are Tendercrop. Not enough for canning or to fuss with the vacuum sealer. I'm finding some 'bug' damage to the leaves of the bean bushes as well as minute 'holes' in some of the beans, although I didn't detect the usual nasty bean beetles. 

Cabbages, broccoli and Chinese cabbage settling in after the rains--I'm keeping a wary eye out for white cabbage butterflies and their offspring, the green 'loopers.'

Not long ago I put out chunks of a stale melon for the delectation of the nightly wildlife visitors. 

How ironic that seeds have sprouted in the gravel walk!