Show Us Your Harvests!

Today's harvest basket is full of White Wonder and Lemon cukes! What am I going to do with all of them?!?

Steph,
The ones in the basket looks like Korean melons!! They very sweet and very pricey. How do they taste like-- meaning if they are cukes? Had you planted them before?The gray ones is new to me. Belle

Very nice! I have not had much luck with Lemon cukes. They have never made it to the fruit setting stage for me. Is there a trick or special soil condition for growing them?

The ones in the basket are lemon cucumbers. There are also some White Wonders under the lemon cukes. They are tasty and crisp just like long (green) cukes. As for tips or tricks, I don't know. This is the first year I've grown them! LOL I just direct sowed them in the ground whenever my planting date was and let them go. The vines are massive and they've been so very productive!

Here's the inside of the lemon cuke.

They are cukes!! I was hoping they are Korean melon. You had been lucky with your garden. Mine produce is not even enough for me and DH. Belle

Do the lemon and white cukes taste similar to long green cukes? Did you know they would be massive and give them more space? My couple of cuke plants produced minimally at the beginning and have since croaked, although there is a new, volunteer, in with some peppers.

Here is my harvest from last Wed. This week's will be considerably less, but I do have a bunch of green tomatoes on the vine and they are still needing to be newly tied to the support.

And here is an odd one. The 'arm' or 'horn' was more firm the day it was picked and then looked like this the next day.

They both taste like regular green cukes. The lemon cukes lack the chemical in them that makes them turn bitter, so they're crisp and crunchy with the great cucumber taste no matter how big they go. However, the skins will get tough on them, so you don't want to let them go too long.

I really didn't like the white cukes. The skins are tough, so you have to peel them, unless you're making pickles with them. I wasn't really impressed with them like I was with the Lemons, so I probably won't plant these again next year. I have heard some good things about the mini white, though, so I might plant some of those.

As for the vines, I had NO CLUE they would be so massive! This is only the 2nd year I've grown cucumbers, and last year's plants croaked fairly early on, so I really didn't know what to expect. I only started with 3 plants of each variety and I ended up with vines coming out my ears, not to mention these lemon and white cukes!

I think I will try the lemon cukes next go round with your excellent report Steph! I have such crappy luck with regular cukes I'm willing to give anything a try - lol... I still have until the end of the month to sow a fall crop of cukes. Maybe I'll get some seeds and give it a try. Maybe they will do better for me in the fall than the spring.

Guess what? It's raining here right now! I get so excited over a little shower - lol...

I'd go crazy for a little shower right now, too! At least we have cloud cover this morning so maybe we'll stay below 100º today.

We have been blessed the last few days. Saturday we got .8, Monday we got .4 and today .5. Sure makes the four tomatoes I sat out Saturday look good. The corn and soybean farmers aren't to happy though.

Jim, I briefly saw on the weather.com about flooding in part of LA?'

Kelly-don't you typically get those summer monsoons? We are humid here today and have seen thunderheads over the eastern mtns. Some of that 'monsoonal flow' affects us here, more to the east.

Went out to water bales at 10:30 and came in wet as a fish, and not from the hose. 3rd day in 100's, but considering we have had an unusually cool (80's) summer and my dad talking about heat index of 115 (amongst lots of other 100+ days) in Plano, TX, I guess it's not too much to complain about.

Hmm, had not thought of planting more cukes. I was thinking of trying some beets in my bales. I was reading where it is coming on time to plant garlic. Figured that would be a plant I could put in the ground, then read how much gophers love garlic, go figure.

QG,
I'm gonna try garlic and onions in 18-gallon Rubbermade tubs...

Here's KindleKat's eTub design using a smaller overturned basket like we use the colanders in the eBuckets! Simple and SWEET!

P.S. I reviewed her design and told her she didn't need to cut the hole in the middle for a wick. The soil packed around the overturned basket and in constant contact with the water in the reservoir underneath the basket becomes the wick!

KEWL!

This message was edited Aug 18, 2010 4:11 PM

It's not our part of Louisiana that's flooded. The rains are real spotted and vary from a couple of inchs to a couple of tenths. Some areas not to far from me haven't had a rain since May.

I did some exotic chile pepper container gardening (Bhut Jolokia, Takanotsume, Datil, Hot Paper Lantern, Jamaican Hot Chocolate Habanero, Red Caribbean Habanero, Jalapeno (NuMex Jalmundo), and Fatalii) this year. By starting from seed indoors in February, I definitely see the benefits of the early jump. This is the first year I have ever tried starting from seed, and trust me: The extra work you do in February and March definitely pays off come July and August!!! The picture is what I have harvested the last two days (and no, they're not moldy, they're frozen!) Pictured are Datils, NuMex Jalmundos, Takanotsumes, Hot Paper Lanterns, Red Caribbean Habaneros, Fataliis, a multi-color pickled pepper jar, and a Bhut Jolokia at the bottom.

Wow!! What do you do with all those hot peppers??? Belle

Most of them I'm going to make vinegar sauce out of. Other than that, they're either getting frozen for cooking with later, dried for powder, given away, or stuffed with a nice, gluttonous cheese and bacon filling :)

The stuffed sounds good. Can you share the recipe? Thank you. Belle

Sure! I tend to eyeball, but the basic recipe I use is as follows:

15 Fresh Jalapenos (I prefer Hot Paper Lantern Habaneros)
8 oz. softened cream cheese
1 tbsp. garlic powder
1 tbsp. onion powder
8-10 strips fully cooked and chopped bacon
1 cup milk
1 cup flour
2 eggs
2 cups italian bread crumbs (well mixed with 2 tbsp flour)

Cut a slit vertically in jalapenos, and pinch on the top and bottom to open. Scrape out seeds and membrane with a teaspoon or baby spoon. Blanch cleaned peppers in scalding (not quite boiling) water for 2 minutes.

Thoroughly mix cream cheese, garlic powder, onion powder, and bacon. Fill peppers with this mixture using a piping bag for cake icing.

Thoroughly mix milk, flour, and eggs. Dip filled peppers in this mixture, and then roll them in the bread crumb/flour mixture. Deep fry in oil at about 350-375f until golden brown.

I forgot to mention: be sure to flour whatever surface you lay them on after breading to prevent the batter mixture from coming off, and if you freeze them, sifting a light amount of flour on both sides helps keep the batter on before they freeze.

Simply amazing!

Great recipe!

And, you should enter that picture in the photo competition this year!

Linda

I thank you for the recipe. I will try it. belle

Great haul! Congrats on your pepper success!

Thanks! Oh, and when is the photo competition, and how do I enter?

In a couple of months they'll announce that it's time to submit entries.

WW - OMG, beautiful harvest, but do you still have any bumps left on your tongue with all that HOT chile? I hope you use gloves while handling them. I did not use gloves one time while roasting and peeling hot chiles and realized my mistake when I put my contacts in and while bathing certain body parts.... In Spanish I have "Lengua del gato" Tongue of the cat, and do not tolerate HOT well. Love spicey, but not burning my mouth and insides. Wish I could get that kind of harvest with my Anaheim and Ancho chiles. I did start them inside, but they are not full or producing outside. Do you post in the Peppers Forum?

Beautiful looking peppers, WonderWeasel. My mouth waters just from looking at them. I LOVE hot peppers.

Thanks quiltygirl and quyen... and yes, my mouth is still recovering from the fatalii puree i cracked open tonight!

Today's harvest from my small plot. A lil' of this, a lil' of that...

I think my bush and pole beans are about done. I'll pull them up in a week or so.
I pulled up all of my Japanese mustard greens today and planted an assortment of colored cauliflower seeds. Peas and carrots were also sown. (Probably still too hot for carrots but...we'll see.)

Your eggplants are so good looking for moussaka. I have a good recipe for moussaka. The beet greens are also edible, steamed and dip in balsamic vnegar and soy. Yummm!!!

the bok choy is good for soups and stir fries. . Enjoy!!! Belle

I hope it's not to hot for carrots because I planted mine today. Also planted kohlrab, chinese cabbage and radishs and put out the onion sets I saved.

Jim, did you DS sow seeds or plant starts?

Mmmmmmmm..... Greek Moussaka..... (Homer Drool)

Yap, it is yummy !! Had you ever made it? I make it several times especially if eggplants are on clearance at the Asia store or if the farmers market has tons of it. Belle

We got our 3rd zuchini the other da We also got a 4th on which felt hollow and had a bad blemish on it. We had to throw it away.
Also the male zukini plant has half of the leaves wilted and the res OK. Why this if anyone knows?
What could have caused it

Several different varieties of chili peppers including serrano, hot chili, cayenne, jalapeno and annaheim. Of course we forgot to label them, so we just pick them and mix them....for our food bank.

For the food bank?!! Since I don't do hot, that sounds mean to me. But, guess those that do like hot can recognize the difference. I like the Anaheims though.

Quyen - those look yummy. I love beets, and will try to DS some as an experiment in my straw bales with compost added. I think they will do better with cooler weather. The 100+teens of last week even made the heat lovers wilt. Will try carrots again - have some fingerlings I had grown in window boxes early summer and they made it, but seeds in summer did not take the heat. Have some other winter veggies such as spinach, cabbage and peas I can plant. Thought to put the peas in the plastic horse trough (with punched holes) that I had the pole beans planted in, but the beans got all the pretty flowers and leaves and no beans before the leaves all started dying!

Jim - I just checked your Delhi page on weather.com and compared to ours and our usual daytime temps for Aug and Sept are not too dis-similar. We have cooler nights though and likely less humidity.

quiltygirl - I start direct sowing my beets mid-September. If the days and nights are hot they will not do well. By this time our nights are cooling off and I can start sowing fall/winter veggies.