harvest Archives : Page 2 of 7 : Cast Iron Garden

May 13, 2023May 14, 2023

05/13/2023 room for pepper

Paula pulled up a garlic that was too near the interplanted peppers. Wow was it big!!!

October 17, 2022October 17, 2022

10/17/2022 it might get in 30s tonight??

Shackleton inspected sweet peppers as I brought them in on a red tray.

The long skinny red peppers are Corbaci sweet peppers. The round dark purple peppers are Purple Beauty sweet peppers.

August 24, 2022August 24, 2022

08/24/2022 giant squash time and other things

I thought I saw something in a firewood piece.

It was a mason wasp!

The Chef made a delicious dinner. BLT with farm share tomatoes and Paula’s sourdough bread. The okra and peppers side was breaded and pan fried, with both farm share and garden okra, topped with cholula hot sauce.

These corrientes cowpea leaves seemed maybe diseased because they were covered in light yellow speckles, so I removed them.

Some sort of fungus maybe on the basil? It is the round dark spot I’m pointing to with my snippers. I have been removing them. If anyone knows otherwise, I’d let a leaf miner live.

Trimmed all the basil this evening for the Chef to do a pesto batch.

This corrientes cowpea stem is flat like a ribbon.

Side view of flat stem of cowpea. A mystery.

Last but definitely not least, the giant green-striped cushaw squash.

I’m not sure if Briar was concerned or unimpressed.

We got out the bathroom scale for this magnificent beast. The squash weighed 14.5 lbs. Last year’s big squash was barely 7 lbs.

August 10, 2022August 10, 2022

08/10/2022 giant cantaloupe

This Madhu ras cantaloupe melon is 827 g, almost twice to a third as big as previous melons!

August 6, 2022August 6, 2022

08/06/2022 tiny successes

The fall obedient plant has some tiny flowers.

One partridge pea has pods! This is important because it’s an annual. I have 2-3 individuals that were blooming at one time so hopefully the seeds make.

Did some tomato pruning and found a lot of tomatoes, one Madhu ras cantaloupe melon, and Paula got an okra.

August 4, 2022August 4, 2022

08/04/2022

Fall obedient plant is thinking about blooming! I think over the winter I’ll move it to closer to the bird bath to get more water.

One of the two leaf sennas has buds!!

The fluttermill primrose in the rock garden just keeps blooming!!

This “live forever” from Judy is budding.

I thought this was a plant hopper.

It’s insect poop. Technically this is called frass. 😏

This fuzzy plant came with some wild onions I got at Mom and Dad’s. I am hoping it might be snow on the prairie!

Paula said the mysterious pumpkin was ready.

While we were outside, we checked out the cushaw squash. Already longer than Paula’s arm to the elbow!!

Shackleton was neutral about the pumpkin.

Tuqu was interested in the pumpkin and smelled it carefully.

Shackleton was repelled by the fragrant Madhu ras cantaloupe. Tuqu tried to touch it.

Today’s two harvests plus the watermelon from the farm share.

July 31, 2022July 31, 2022

07/30/2022 pretty!

Good thing I’ve planted the borer resistant cushaw squash! It is a native moth and it sure is pretty.

A Madhu ras cantaloupe melon slipped its vine so we figured it was ready.

The only red yucca that’s sprouted from Judy’s seeds is doing good in its new spot. It has a third leaf now.

Briar found Shackleton. He was not as happy as she was about this.

The dog corner of the prairie

July 27, 2022July 27, 2022

07/27/2022

All the basil, five varieties. The Chef has committed to pesto tonight.

The green striped cushaw squash just gets noticeably bigger every day!

July 22, 2022July 22, 2022

07/22/2022 our first and only apple

We looked at the William’s pride apple tree today and the apple was missing!! Concern. We found it on the ground.

Sadly, the bottom half was rotted. I forgot that William’s pride is an early variety, so we should have picked sooner before it fell.

However, we cut off the bad part and the rest was quite delicious! A nice texture and magnificent smell!!

Gram was less impressed than we were.

July 22, 2022July 22, 2022

07/22/2022 new and complicated tomato

We realized we should think about when green vernissage tomatoes were ripe. They are supposed to have green flesh so this has turned out rather complicated. These ones are good. The green between the dark green stripes has a hint of yellow and translucency. They taste nice and the flesh isn’t mealy.

These ones are too soft. They are darker (I don’t think the picture shows well) and have some very soft spots. I tried one and it was bland with a mealy texture.

This tomato is too soft.

These green vernissage are all ripe except the very bright pale green one that has a thumbs down on it.

Bonus: Briar examines the topped up jar of bisbee gray cowpeas.