Show Us Your Harvests!

I direct sowed all the things I planted the other day. The kohlrabi and chinese cabbage will have to be transplanted after it is up.

We have have the hottest summer on record for our area. We hit temps of 105 for several weeks. With our high humity, it ran the heat index higher than I've ever seen it. We are in the middle of a cool snap right now, with temps down to the low 90's.

Believe it or not but my jalapenos are starting to load up. The anahiem I pruned back are starting to bloom. If the bell peppers and egg plants will just start to bear, I'll be a happy boy.

Our harvest from 2 weeks ago (Gardena, CA/Zone 9-10) - spaghetti squash (one plant has provided over a dozen of these beauties so far), artichoke, zuchinni, green beans, ortega chili, hungarian wax pepper, and some wala wala onions
I just love this time of year!!

Yes, guiltygirl, we grow chili peppers for the Food Bank. Many of the people they serve are quite familiar with chili peppers and they told us they could use all that we could grow. We provide fresh produce from our Food Bank Community Garden. we always consult with the regional Food Bank (Second Harvest) as to what people will use.

Kudos to you Sawpalm (and I was kidding about the mean part-just don't do hot myself). The is an organization called (I believe) Plant a Row. They encourage home gardeners to plant an extra row of something to be able to donate to food pantries. They coordinate those donations in certain areas. We don't happen to have them here - but then I don't have the such plentiful crops. Our high schools here need to have 40 community service hours to graduate and when I was picking me daughter up I saw a couple yards with citrus trees laden with fruit. I had thought maybe a group of teens could help the owners pick the fruit and the extras they had could be donated. My follow through though was less than stellar. Maybe this year?

Thanks for your reply guilty girl. I know of the great work of Plant a Row for the Hungry. Ours is similar except it's the whole garden. We ahve about 2 acres under cultivation. A lot of what we produce goes to the Food Bank's program called Triad Community Kitchen which trains formerly unemployed people to become chefs and cooks. They prepare the food for the soup kitchen, meanwhile learning how to cook, flash freeze stews and soups, etc. They will use the chili peppers in their cooking but the peppers will also be used as part of the distribution to food pantries all over the state.

I hope you can do Plant a Row next year. I am sure there is a food pantry/bank that could use your help.

Today's colorful rain drenched harvest includes a watermelon, a cantaloupe, mini bell peppers, a red bell pepper, several jalapenos, 2 lemon cukes, 2 White Wonder cukes, and some zinnias.

That is one cute watermelon!!

That thing almost killed me! It's about as big as a basketball and heavy! It didn't help that I was hauling it in one-armed. LOL There are 2 others out there of significant size, and one teeny tiny baby that I found this evening.

Good job Stephanie. My harvest of yesterday is rather puny and not very attractive. Some pale, undersized tomatoes, a few peppers, 2 watermelon (one from a volunteer plant) - both heavy for their size, and a couple small eggplants. I see some baby watermelons too. Should be warm enough for them to mature. My watermeons and cantaloupes have TONS of vine, and some new flowers, but little production. I will feed them all this week, in the straw bales, as we have some cooler weather and they can work on producing again instead of just survival. Added compost to the sagging bales and am thinking of seeing if I can still get some winter veggies from them.

This is what I've pulled off the past two days: Datils, Fataliis, Red Caribbean habs, Jamaican Hot Chocolate habs, Hot Paper Lanterns, a few more Takanotsume, and a couple NuMex Jalmundo jalapenos.

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

I've made a LOT of hot sauce/vinegar puree out of em, now my dehydrator is working overtime so I can make some chile death powder :) I know this is for fruit/vegetable harvests, but I'm so excited it actually bloomed this year, I'm putting the picture here lol. MY FIRST PASSION FLOWER!!!!!!

Thanks Weasel! That is some flower. Never seen one before!

Linda

I was beginning to think I'd never see one, either! I've had the vine for 3 years now, and this is the first flower that's ever opened on it. I think it's going to be too late to get any passion fruit from it this year, though.