Monday, September 5, 2016

Monday Harvest - It's Cantaloupe Time!


Happy Harvest Monday. This is an especially exciting Monday here because I was able to harvest my first ever cantaloupe. This year I started from seed 6 "Magnificenza" melons and they have been growing and setting melon all Summer. Although this one didn't exhibit the typical yellow rib color they are suppose to achieve when ripe, I picked it anyway. It slipped easily from the vine and my Dad pronounced it perfectly ripe and delicious. It weighted in at 2 lbs. 2.1 oz., a perfect single serving size.




I was also able to harvest 4 more "Lemon" cucumbers this weekend. I had been complaining that my plants weren't setting many cukes, but I have now harvested 12 and there are more to ripen in the next few weeks. This weeks bounty weighted in at 1 lbs. 8.2 oz.


Not surprisingly, my "Galina" yellow cherry tomato plant continues to pump out the fruit. It is my only plant this year not affected by blossom end rot, so it really is a superstar for me. This picking I gathered 167 tomatoes off of it, weighing in at 2 lbs. 6.2 oz.


A carton destined to make many co-workers happy tomorrow!


I really thought that all my other tomatoes had been ruined becasue of blossom end rot. But as I picked and discarded bad fruit today - and there was a lot of it! - I was pleasantly surprised to find a few that had dogged the bullet. I was able to glean 5 "Carmello" tomatoes, that weighted in at 9.4 oz.


Many of the other plants didn't fare as well, but I did get at least one good fruit off of them. From left to right; "Chef's Choice Orange" 3.0 oz., "Wapsipinicon Peach" 1.8 oz., and "Tang" 2.5 oz.


I was really happy as I dug deep in the "Black Krim" plant. The fruit are so dark that I hadn't noticed how many had ripened and very few of them had blossom end rot. So I was able to harvest 26 tomatoes that weighted a total of 2 lbs. 7.3 oz. All in all, considering my blossom end rot problem, I had a descent tomato harvest this week. It was much better than expected and gives me some hope for the next few weeks when the rest of the crop should ripen.

I have to end the post with a non-veggie harvest. I went down to flower garden tonight and picked a couple of bouquets. We are expecting some much needed rain tomorrow and I thought it would be good to do some picking before the rains arrived. On the left, a bouquet of "Crazy 4 Jessie" dahlias and on the right a small bouquet of "Persian Carpet" zinnias.

2 comments:

Dave @ HappyAcres said...

It's too bad about the BER, but that sure is a lot of those Black Krim tomatoes! Lovely cantaloupe too, I can imagine it was delicious.

Michelle said...

The Dahlia is so pretty! I have always killed Dahlias, flowers are just not not my forte. Galinas used to be a favorite of mine but the last few times I tried to grow it they didn't do very well. I suspect it was because it was a different strain because I got new seeds from a different source and the old source is no longer available so I'll stick with the Sweet Gold that I'm growing now. Black Krim sure looks like another winner for you.