This week's harvest second try

Second post, things we are harvesting this week.

More vegetables

A few more, this spring has been fantastic.

I'm so happy for your great harvests calla!! I know your customers will be so thankful!

OMG! Where do we go to buy this stuff?

Way, way down in south Texas, just about in the Gulf. LOL

Too far, waaaaah. Looks yummy.

Beautiful colors and wonderful harvest.

Do you recall what the cucumber cultivar is in the first set of photos?

Second set of photos ~ miniature eggplants?

How is the new greenhouse working out?

Glad the photos finally went through and hope your sales are fantastic too.

Calla, do you also have fruit trees or do you just stick with veggies?

Nice. Very very nice. Good job cala.

Cucumber in first set of photos is Little Leaf, if fact I should probably tell what all the varieties are.

First set of photos: tomatoes are assorted but the large pink one is Tiffen Minnonite, peppers are King Arthur, cucumber Little Leaf, Majestic cauliflower and Belstar Broccoli
Second set: Eggplants are Rosa Bianca, Prosperosa and Lista de Gandia (not miniature), potatoes are Mountain Rose and Purple Majesty, cucumber Green Finger, squash is Profit and Segev zucchini, Bennings Green Tint scallop and Lioness yellow, the white onions I can't remember
Third set: Merlin and Touchstone Gold beets, bok choi, Scarlet Queen and purple top turnips, Rainbow and Purple Haze carrots, Blossom fingerlings, Purple Viking potatoes

Greenhouses are working well, they're more shade houses in the summer, but the sides cut the wind and my eggplants aren't scratched. Market was so-so today, hope tomorrow is better. The "buy at the farmer's market" culture is not here in the valley, our markets are young, the first one started in 2008. Diabetes, obesity and high blood pressure are extreme down here so the college of health plus some of the clinics are trying to get more people interested in vegetables.

Unfortunate that those residents haven't discovered the farmers markets. I would only wish such selection was available here.

Thanks for IDing the variety of vegetables. It is always nice to see the end results of the different cultivars. I'm growing Little Leaf again but so far I've been happier with Alibi. Your eggplants look really yummy!

If I lived on the Island or down in the Valley, I'd be a regular customer!

Stephanie, there must be somewhere local! Can we rent a Uhaul truck and go down and fill it up? There's obesity, high BP and diabetes up here too!

I have a friend who owns a condo on South Padre. I could get us room & board for cheap!!

woooow
What a fantastic harvest !

Congratulations on a great harvest! Love your photos, too. I hope business picks up soon to make all your hard work worthwhile.

Summer is our slow season, winding down to end of July when we go on vacation and start back up in September for the winter. I am still learning how to plant crops for the topsy-turvy seasons down here. Hopefully the greenhouse will help us have warm season crops when the winter Texans are here this winter!

Darned raccoons are eating my cantaloupes, they steal 3 or 4 every night. I can't put the electric fence up because we're still working on the greenhouses.

Are your winter market sales better or worse than this time of year?

How pretty, Calalily. Your photos are better then the photos on some seed packs.

Podster, winter sales are triple what they are in summer. That is what makes summer sales seem so bad. I really shouldn't complain, we are still the biggest vendor at the markets and still make decent money. In winter we have a line of people waiting before we even arrive and it takes about 30 minutes to sell all we could pick and pack in an 18 ft enclosed trailer. We run out of product before we run out of customers. In summer, it takes the whole two hour market and we usually don't sell completely out.

Thanks Cocoa.

Man these threads still make me hungry.

Calla, do you think it could be because people have their own gardens in the summer?

I'm guessing it's what we in Phoenix call 'snow birds'. Waiting.....tap tap tap.....to hear from calalily.

I suspect snowbirds is right. They are probably more affluent and more health conscious with age than most.

podster; I've been at it since about eight,I object.!

Only before we start at it ,if at all, I am from mesquite Tx. (lol) Go Figure.

WAit... what I'd say that you object to??? I didn't mean to step on toes. Oopsie

podster; I'M playing , that is about snowbirds. To us northerners those are finches that stay during winter.
Sounds a bit like jealousy , doesn;t it? (LOL)

I have a feeling that most become more health concious as age catches up them. That warm sun sure feels good to older bones where you are.

Whew! I didn't mean to offend. I grew up in the frozen tundra of MN and moved to AZ first. There we saw how the snowbird community was the economic backbone of the valley. Here in TX isn't much different. A lot of areas in the south are a bit impoverished and the tourist and snowbird community is a welcome boon. We luv our snowbirds and our birdies too. Kristi

Pod, I'd not thought of the snowbirds. Good point.

Calla's probably out working in her garden! LOL

Was working, trying to get weeds under control and figure out how to keep a raccoon out of the melons. Winter Texans=snowbirds.
Not a lot of local gardens, and the funny thing is, lots of our market customers have their own gardens. The main vegetables consumed by most of the locals are jalapenos and other hot peppers, tomatoes, onions, cabbage, potatoes, lettuce and avocados and mangoes for fruit.
We do better on the Island than any other market, more education, more diversity, more experience with food.

But even fresh peppers, tomatoes, onions, cabbage, potatoes, lettuce, avocados and mangoes are better than store-bought!

Happy Birthday Carrie!!

Besides and anyway, the idea of fresh from the garden makes one feel better of emotion, the mind and body thing?

Pod-If you offend anybody, I think the world would shake..U r so kind hearted Ive never seen a post by you that could ever be taken as offensive.

Cala-how do you get "cool" and "warm" veggies at the same time? I know you trick them into germinating but growing is a whole other issue.

Thank you, Mary!

One old trick is using ice after temperature is out of a seeds germination range,it causes variation that will get a finicky seed to germinate.
Of course under a Texas sun that is going last all of about ten minutes,only it would or could have some use sometimes

I have used that a few times when it has gotten to hot to germinate some plants.Even some warm sun loving plant seeds simply won't germinate after temps are stable and constant

YEAH, WELL WHOOPS, I kinda missed the point there some didn't I. It would interesting to know besides growing things in the shade how to do that.

It has to do with our watering system, where they are planted (the cauliflower and broccoli are closer to the water and receive some shade part of the day) and the variety. We use drip and overhead irrigation which gives evaporational cooling. It's getting too hot now, broccoli is faltering and cauliflower is getting a purple tint.
We do have greenhouses, but they have only shade cloth covering at the moment and are not heated, more for wind and sun protection for my peppers and eggplants. Cool season crops are outside, never in the greenhouse.
We grow tomatoes year round, but this has been a difficult year for them and I'm not sure why. We had very little rain last year, super hot summer but a freak frost in Nov, mild winter which should have been good and now super hot again.

Nice harvest!