Today Post::end of the season harvest

(click on the photo for vegetable names)

It was a good day for harvesting. Sunny and dry. No frost is in sight yet, but the days are getting so short and the warm weather crops aren’t growing any more. I spread everything out before packing it into bags.

I picked all my chiles, eggplants, squashes, onions and pumpkins. Many of the onions hadn’t bulbed, but they are nice “spring onions”. These beds are now ready to clear, compost and seed with cover crop.

I picked two heads of savoy cabbage and a small purple one.

The best were the pumpkins. Three big blue/gray Jarrahdale pumpkins and another Big Rock orange pumpkin (about 10 lbs). Several Baby Pam pumpkins. And a few squash: a last not-quite-ripe butternut, and a few summer squash.

I pulled lots of carrots, fat Oxhearts and long Boleros. I had been leaving a couple Oxhearts to see how big they wold get. One rotted inside, but the other is a big fat root that weighed 1 lb 1 oz!

I pulled one parsnip and one celeriac root. The celeriac is small (I have 4 more in the ground) but it smells incredibly good. The parsnip surprised me at how nice and big it was. The rest (about a dozen) will wait til after frost.

I pulled some winter radish, something new I tried this year. Its a mix of several varieties. Four fantastic Black Round Spanish radish! Several pink striped ones I’m not familiar with. I was amazed and look forward to these in martinis!

And lots of beets. Wonder if we’ll be able to eat all these. I grew three varieties this year, Chiogga, Lutz and White Detroit. I actually haven;t tried them yet. So many other vegetables round, that I’ve been popping these in the basement fridge. They’ll keep at least 3 months. I’m looking forward to a taste test. The White Detroit have been the most productive.

I dug a few potatoes, but it was getting dark, so I didn’t make much progress on this bed. Only half of the bed is dug so far.

I picked flowers while I was at it. Garish orange nasturtiums, big pink zinnias, an airy yellow weed from my squash bed, and lots of the deep purple pods and flowers of hyacinth beans.

At the last minute, I remembered my sweet potatoes. I’ve been so curious to see what was growing under ground on my first sweet potatoes I’ve ever grown. Jennifer gave me several slips this spring. And (so exciting!) two nice big tubers. A pale yellow-orange variety, long and thin. I’ll have to ask Jennifer the variety.

It was difficult to get the silly plastic wheelbarrow up to the car. Fortunately someone gave me a hand over the steep rocky area by the parking lot. Everything made it home.