Chesnok Red Garlic Harvest

Not too much to report in the harvest department this week. I did harvest my "Chesnok Red" garlic plants this past week. I was worried about the bulb size becasue they looked so much smaller than the "Music" bulbs did when they were lifted. Well they are a lot smaller, but I think they are more "normal" garlic sized. My average bulb size was 2.6 oz. The smallest bulb was 1.8 oz and the largest came in at 3.4 oz. My total "Chesnok Red" this year was 2 lbs. 4.0 oz.

Music Garlic Harvest and the Last of the Sweet Peas

Yesterday I processed the "Music" garlic that I harvested back on Wednesday. Normally I like to have them cure for a week before I clean the bulbs and store them, but I am leaving on vacation soon and am in a bit of a time crunch.

I am so pleased with this harvest. This is my second year growing this variety. I first purchased my stock at the Common Ground Fair in Maine, in September of 2015. So this is my second year with "Music" and it really performed well. Pictured above, my biggest bulb weighing in at 7.5 oz.

I ended up harvested 17 bulbs. The average bulb size was 6.2 oz. The largest bulb was 7.5 oz. and the smallest came in at a healthy 5.0 oz. My total "Music" harvest for 2017 was 6 lbs. 9.8 oz. In comparison, the 2016 harvest was also 17 bulbs. But the average bulb size was 4.8 oz. and the total harvest was 5 lbs. 1.0 oz.

After cleaning the "Music" bulbs, I dug up my "Chesnook Red" garlic. I am not happy with this variety this year. I know that "Music" produces larger bulbs, but the "Chesnook Red" bulbs look really small. I will wait to process and weight them, but I think it might be time to order some new stock to plant this Fall.

"Wiltshire Ripple"

I also cut what are probably the last 2 sweet pea bouquets of the year. After a cooler May, a wet and cool June, and a cooler July, Summer decided to show up. These 90 degree days the last few days have taken a toll on the 2 sweet pea towers. But what a year they had. They absolutely thrived in the cooler weather. The "Wiltshire Ripple" produced more blooms than any sweet pea variety that I have ever grown. And the Royal Family" Mix did well too, after a tough start becasue of rabbit damage. Until next year.

The Garlic Patch In January

We had quite a rain storm roll through Tuesday night and with it came some high wind gusts. My one layer remay tunnel, which sits over the raised garlic bed, was torn loose from the earth staples that secured it to the ground. This morning, with blue skies overhead and sunshine on my back, I set about to re-secure the tunnel over the garlic bed once again. This project did allow me the chance to easily check on the garlic plants and see how their growth was progressing. Both varieties are doing well. All 15 "Chesnook Red', pictured above, and all 17 "Music" pictured below, are up. The "Chesnook Red" are a bit taller but this isn't surprising considering that they sprouted a week before the first "Music" bulb did. All in all, the garlic season is off to a good start!

Music Garlic is Up!

After a late start, it was great to see some of my "Music" garlic push through the soil in the last week. It is interesting to note, that although the "Music" and "Red Chesnook" garlic were planted at the same time, it has taken the "Music" garlic almost a week longer to sprout. I wonder if this is just a one-off this year, or a typical difference between the two varieties.

The First Garlic is Up

Walking past the kitchen garden today, a bit of green caught my eye. I walked over to my garlic raised bed and discovered small green shoots poking through the soil. Since I had just planted the garlic back on November 6th, I wasn't expecting to see anything quite yet. But I found 6 of the "Chesnook Red" cloves had sprouted. Interestingly enough, none of the "Music" are yet visible. I am hoping that they are just a touch slower and I will see some green in their section soon. The 2017 garlic season is officially off and growing!

Planting the Garlic

After some rain showers moved through the area yesterday, today's cloudy but dry weather sent me outside to get the garlic planted. I had promised myself I would find the time, somehow, to get the garlic planted on time this year. I am still a couple weeks later than I would have liked but so much earlier than last year's January 10th planting. I pulled out of storage the largest two bulbs of each variety. 

As the name implies, the "Chesnook Red" cloves are covered in such pretty layers of red papery skin.

The "Music" cloves were larger and covered in a soft purple skin. You can only imagine how pungent and "garlicky" my hands smelled after dividing the bulbs into individual cloves!

In the Kitchen Garden, I first built up a 20'+ long raised bed. Then I laid out the individual cloves on top of the bed, trying to fit in as many as I could while still allowing enough room for each new bulb to reach maximum size. Then it was time to get planting. After I dug each hole, I dropped in a tablespoon of bone meal and mixed it into the soil at the bottom. Then I set in each clove and covered it well. I ended up planting 17 "Music" cloves and 15 "Chesnook Red" cloves. I am hoping, since I was able to plant this year's garlic crop over 3 months earlier than last year, that the garlic plants will be happier and the bulbs will reach a larger final size than they did this year.

Harvest Monday - The First Cuke & First Tomato Harvest

It is always fun when you get to harvest something for the first time. This past week I harvested the very first of my "Lemon" cucumbers, weighting 2.0 oz. A co-worker, who is a big fan of this variety, helped give me some guidelines to look for when this cuke reaches maturity. While they aren't the prettiest cucumbers on the planet, she proclaimed mine as delicious! Now I just want my 5 plants to set some more fruit. They got off to a great start, but have only set one new cuke in the past few weeks. I hit the plants with some organic liquid fertilizer this past week, so maybe that will help get them going once again.

The wild blackberries continue to ripen and the pace is increasing each week. This week I picked 4 lbs .8 oz and could have harvested double that. I need to get busy canning some jam. Until then, the harvest is destined to land on a bowl of vanilla ice cream each evening.

I am also excited to report I harvested my very first tomatoes of the year yesterday. Not surprisingly, it is a cherry variety; "Galina". I harvested 21 of them, with a total weight of 5.4 oz.

Yesterday I also harvested my row of "Music" garlic. The bulbs look great. They are heavy and big, which is kind of amazing, as late as I planted them. They will sit on my makeshift drying rack for a week before they get cleaned and weighed. I am quite sure they will come in with an average weight much heavier then my "Chesnook Red".

Garlic Scapes

And suddenly, the garlic plants are producing their wonderful scapes. So far both the "Russian Red' plants and the "Chesnook Red" plants have sent up their scapes. I haven't seen anything quite yet on the "Music" plants but I imagine that they aren't far behind. Last year my harvested scapes went into a garlic pesto. This year I am hoping to try a garlic scape salad dressing recipe. It will be time to harvest the first batch in the next week while they are still fairly thin and tender but have fully emerged.

The Garlic is Up!

Above, a new "Chesnook Red" garlic plant.

As I walked by the kitchen garden today, a bit of green caught my eye. Upon a closer review I discovered that much of my garlic has sprouted! I did a count; in the kitchen garden all 15 of my "Chesnook Red" are up and 2 of the 18 "Music" have sprouted. Across the patio, in the overflow garden, 3 of the 6 "Russian Red" garlic are up. Since I planted so very late this year, I am quite pleased to see anything coming up at all. I am also not too worried at this point with the low number of "Music" plants. The bulbs were quite dehydrated when I separated them into cloves for planting, so I expected it would take them some extra time to re-hydrate before growing. Fingers crossed in a week or two the rest of the "Music" will be pushing through the soil.

Below, a row of "Chesnook Red".

Garlic Planting - Finally!

Well, I finally found the time today, and the weather cooperated, so that I could plant my garlic. It seems like for the last two months, I either haven't had the time to plant, or if I had a free moment, it was either below freezing or pouring rain. I was a bit nervous about the state in which I would find my stored bulbs. But I was really pleased to discover that they were still fairly firm and heavy. The "Music" were the most dried out but it was completely my fault. Since I brought them back from Maine this Fall, they have lived in a sack on my dresser. Not exactly a cool, dark place. On the other hand, the "Russian Red" not only had good substance but they were actually sprouting.

A group of divided "Chesnook Red" cloves.

And 6 fat "Russian Red" cloves.

As you can see, this clove has started to sprout! It is more than ready to be planted. So, after dividing the bulbs into individual cloves, I went to work building a long raised bed in the Kitchen Garden. Then I laid out the cloves. I planted 18 "Music" and 15 "Chesnook Red" in this bed. I also planted 6 "Russian Red" cloves over in the overflow garden by the kitchen. It's almost 3 months later than I would liked to have planted these cloves and a full month later than I planted last year. But better late than never. It will be an interesting experiment to compare the final weights of this year's January planted garlic bulbs to previous year's October-December planted weights. 

More Garlic Totals on Harvest Monday

This past weekend I cleaned the "Red Russian" garlic bulbs that I had lifted a week ago and set out to cure. I was concerned then that they didn't feel as heavy in my hands as I remembered from past years. After weighting them I did discover that they are smaller this year than any of the other years that I have grown this variety. This year I harvested 9 plants. The total harvest was 3 lbs. 3.6 oz. The largest bulb weighed 8.4 oz , the smallest was 4.2 oz., and the average bulb weight was 5.7 oz. For comparison, in 2014 the average bulb size was 7.23 oz and in 2013 it was 6.77 oz. It would be easy to say the smaller size was a direct result of my late planting last year but the "Chesnook Red" garlic, also planted December 13th, was bigger this year than in past years. So maybe it was just an off year for "Red Russian".

My tomato plants, with the exception of the "Mexico" plant, are loaded with green fruit. I am finally starting to see some color in the lower trusses and was able to pick a just a few this week. Among my early "haul" was the first red ripe "Matina".

I also found 3 "Galina" hiding near the bottom of the plant. This is the third year that I have grown this yellow cherry. It has always produced well for me.

And I also picked the first 3 "Esterina". I didn't realize this was another yellow cherry or I probably would have chosen a different variety. Oh well, I guess my taste testers can compare the two this year and see if they have a favorite.

I also spent an hour or two Sunday afternoon picking the first round of wild blackberries. I didn't expect much, since we have had such an early, hot Summer here. The blackberries love a warm, wet Spring to help develop big berries and there hasn't been much rainfall at all this year. I ended up picking from the top of the driveway all the way down to the main road and back up the other side. While the berry size isn't very good I still managed to fill my plastic berry bucket and ended up with 3 lbs. 15.5 oz of blackberries. I washed them all and then saved half for fresh eating and froze the rest to use this Winter. 

Garlic Harvest

 

Yesterday morning I harvested my "Chesnook Red" Garlic. I was late planting my garlic and it didn't get it in the ground until December 13th of last year! I was really concerned that my late planting would effect the overall size of the garlic bulbs the next Summer.

Well it appears that I didn't need to worry. I planted 19 cloves back in December. One clove split so it produced two bulbs this year. I dug up what appear to be 20 nice size garlic bulbs. I have laid them out on my make-shift drying rack in the shop. After they have dried for a week I will clean the bulbs and get an official harvest weight. Until then, we won't have to worry about any vampires hanging around the shop!

Early July in the Kitchen Garden

Now that July has arrived, I have finally finished planting the Summer crops in the Kitchen Garden - I think. It has been so very hot the last two weeks, but for the most part, the plants have come through with flying colors.

I spent some time Sunday re-building my onion raised bed. My watering had eroded one side badly. The onion bulbs were getting quite exposed and most of the water was just running off the bed. So I built up the right side once again and leveled off the top. The onions are much more stable now and my watering is more effective and much less wasteful.

Here's a nice "Candy" onion. I should be able to start harvesting them in the next month.

And here is a "Cortland" yellow storage onion. I am hoping that they will start to size up now that they are receiving more water.

My garlic has done terrific since it was planted last Fall. With the hot weather, I think I am going to harvest the "Chesnook Red" plants this week. They are already half brown and fading fast.

The large "Russian Red" plants are still 2/3 green so I will wait another week or so until I dig them up to cure.

I pulled out the lettuce a few days ago and amended the raised bed in which it was planted. Then I set in two "Bush Delicata" plants. I didn't cover them with remay and I am paying the price. It looks like the finches have eaten out the growing tip on one of them already. Sigh. Now I need to decide what to do in its place.

My two little "Butternut" squash have finally settled in and are putting out some nice, green new leaves. This week's forecast calls for temperatures in the 80's, so that should be a little kinder to them as they get established.

My two "Howden" pumpkins are really taking off. One has already toppled over and is starting to crawl and the other isn't far behind.

The three "Snow Crown" cauliflower plants appear to be surviving this heat wave. All three have white crowns of various sizes.

I am a cauliflower rookie, so I need to read up on them a bit more and see when I should harvest the crown. While they aren't perfect, I am pretty pleased with my first attempt at growing this finicky vegetable.

Both of my pepper plants appear to be on the way to a great growing year. They certainly should be loving the  hot weather. Pictured above is my "Gypsy" Sweet Pepper.

I now have two nice size "Gypsy" Peppers maturing on the plant.

I am growing a "Padron" pepper plant for the first time. It too is doing really well and is covered with blooms and nice, new branching foliage.

This is the very first "Padron" pepper on the plant. It just started to grow a few days ago. Hopefully it is the first of many.

The mixed variety Morning Glory plants have almost reached the top of their tower and are starting to put on a really pretty display each morning. Once again, even with thinning, I have a good mix of pink and purple blooms.

I put the second tier of the towers on my last three tomato plants this past week. I did it in the nix of time. As you can see, two of them are already half way up the second tower.

The original three plants that I put in the garden have almost reached the top of the second tier and it's only early July! And my "Heavenly Blue" Morning Glory, planted in between the tomatoes, has reached the top of its support and is now scrambling over the tomato cages. So far, it hasn't yet bloomed.

A truss of "Mountain Magic".

The  young "Matthew" tomatoes definitely have a plum shape.

The "Esterina" is starting to set fruit.

"Galina" has always been a reliable producer for me and my co-workers love it.

Here are two green "Matina". All of my tomato plants have now set fruit except for my "Mexico" plant.

After I removed my empty Potato grow bag this past weekend, I planted two of the "Hale's Best Jumbo" Muskmelon that I started from seed. They look pretty small right now, but its still early Summer and the weather has been very melon friendly this year.

My three "Blacktail Mountain" watermelon plants are really starting to take off. All three plants developed their first runner this week, so their growth should really explode. I am trying to be vigilant and fertilize them every other day.

I certainly have just about every size of beet possible in my two rows of  "Golden" beets that I planted. You would never know that they were all started from seed at the same time. I do have some fairly large ones now, so I need to harvest a few this next week and give them a try.

The "Gold Coin" cipollini onions continue to look good. Since this is a new-to-me variety, I am not quite sure how they should be progressing. But since they don't grow up into a huge globe onion, I think they are right on track. Also growing under the remay tent, in the kitchen garden annex, is a row of "Cabernet" red onions. They aren't too happy with their cramped growing conditions and are still pretty small at this point in the season.