Edibles - '09 - Part 4

Looks like lots of good produce coming in, gang!! That's what we love to see!

Victor - those berries you picked today made my mouth water! I'm not sure what your tomato's problem is!

Willie - what a beautiful basket of veggies! Lovely presentation!

Celeste - my goodness!! That's some haul you have there! Whoohooo!!

I did my third pick of green beans today. In one of my youngest beds I must have gotten too close to some of the small plants with my roundup. I just pulled those out and planted some more in their place. I also planted 3 more rows of Providers. We'll see if they have time to reach harvest.

Cukes are coming in slowly. Got a nice big one today and one I probably picked too soon. The vines look great and are still flowering, so we'll see. Also got a nice onion, so those are coming in as well. I'm heading out there to remove the lower branches of my tomatoes. I may not have blight after all......At least if I do, it isn't spreading upward on the plants.

The beans are so pretty! I might have to try those just to look at!

Carrie - they're even better when you taste them! You can't beat fresh!!! We had them tonight for dinner and they were wonderful! So sweet.

looking good Pixie... my watermelon is only a few inches STILL... guess that won't work this year

Here are purple pole beans, waiting to go to Mom's house.

Here's the bunch of veggies I got from my neighbors

Cucs

Look at the size of this one!

Yeah baby!

Gotta love my neighbors!!!!

nice neighbors Jen!

I was at my sister's house yesterday and she lost all her tomato and potato plants to blight. She has a big garden. How will it effect the soil for next year?

such a shame... good question

deb as long as she has removed every bit of the plant it should be ok - if she is not concerned about being organic i suggest that spray from ortho - it has done wonders here and on my hollyhocks. here is what i wrote about it a while back thanks to Dayne's research:)

"here is the stuff i use on t-plants and any plant that gets a fungus disease - ortho garden disease control - the key ingredient is chlorothalonil @ 29.7% - there is another product called draconil i believe which did not work here and only had 7% chlorothalonil"

Thanks Bill, someone told her not to plant her garden in the same place next year, and that wouldn't be the easiest thing to move a veggie garden.

i would rotate the tomatoes to another spot in the garden - i rotate every year from side to side.

One of those info sites said Late Blight requires a LIVE organism on which to overwinter - could be a in a GH, could be in your compost, could be in seed potatoes or weeds, I guess, but it allegedly doesn't live in soil.

All nightshade family members are supposed to be rotated each year anyway.

Oh, I didn't know. (I only grow in containers.) Did you find out if yours WAS blight, Victor?

Not yet.

I try to rotate, but garden is small. & tomatoes need a lot of sun---but I'm afraid to plant them now in the same soil.

Thanks everyone, I will let her know.

I have the same problem - I only plant veggies in two large raised beds.

I can't be certain, but I might have read that here, up north, the blight spores do not survive the winter??? I seem to remember reading that, but not sure .... I will look for info again.

Here's a shot of what was for dinner tonight.

I have never made this recipe before today. It came out really well.

http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,188,136166-239205,00.html

Zucchini Casserole (of course, fresh zucchini from the garden)

It has a crust made from zucchini, with mozz., sharp, and parm. cheeses, herbs and a couple eggs.

The topping could be anything, but this recipe made it rather lasagna-like.

I am thinking maybe change up the cheeses, use feta and spinach, or something.

Yes, I read that too.

Wow - looks yummy, Will!

you should have invited us!! looks great!

It does look good, Willie! Our paper had a report from UCONN today that said farmers should be OK next year as the blight cannot withstand freezing temps----we'll see!

Looks yummy I'll need to try that one.

here is a pic of the garden

and from the other side

It's beautiful and, so tidy!

Everything looks great there, Bill! Very tidy!

Picked my first sweet pepper today

Tollies Sweet Red Pepper

All the pepper plants are loaded .....

I think the bone meal every month was helpful.

Those peppers are beauties! I rarely have mine turn red, & when they do, they're rotted inside----I do have 1 that turned yellow---Bananarama---but I haven't picked it yet.

Mine barely flowered. No bone meal, though.

Thanks!

The 1st of every month I poured a generous stripe of bone meal down the center, between the two rows of Tollies. Every pepper got a good cup or so, scratched into the soil around the base.

Even the Piccante Calabrese (aka Satan's Kiss) are loaded and flowering madly.

The grape vines are all simply loaded!

There are concord grapes (left) from a vineyard that grew for Welch's for years and one very old champagne grape (right) that has been growing there probably 45-50 years.

Wow - look at those grapes!

Allen Brother Farm - 30 minuets from me in Saxton River Vermont, that is a producer of tomatoe's etc. Got Late Blight and is wiped out on their tomatoes. They are getting their tomatoes from else where - hauling them in in other words. I am just grinning from ear to ear.