Monday, August 27, 2012

late august harvests

 these days i'm mostly getting lots of tomatoes, squash, some peppers, eggplants, and ground cherries.



 the long red peppers are choriceros, a basque heirloom pepper brought here and grown for the last 50 years by a gentleman i met at a seed swap a couple years ago. the purple/green peppers are black hungarian, the eggplants are fairy tale and shoya long, and the squash are ronde de nice and yellow straightneck.

 the yellow-ish green tomatoes on the far right are lime green salad--when you cut them open they're brilliant emerald green inside. also pictured are ground cherries (in the dish), and an assortment of tomatoes: white currants, cream sausage, lemon drop, chocolate cherry, brown berry, gartenperle, tiny tim, and a mystery tomato i grew from OSU blue seed i saved last year. the mystery appears to be an accidental cross with a larger, striped tomato (in this picture they just look like generic medium-size red tomatoes, but the ones ripening now have some blue in them, and more pronounced stripes.) thankfully i planted one pure OSU blue plant from the original seed.

 casper eggplant, tomatoes and squash, including a couple "peter pan" squashes. i planted these extremely late so they're just now starting to pump out the fruit. when you let them age off the plant for a few days the coloring turns really cool, kinda green/yellow tie-dye.

 my first two japanese black trifele tomatoes (top right) and zapotec pleated tomatoes (bottom). i tried to grow both of these last year but they died as seedlings before transplant. the zapotec pleated at front/right weighs 3/4lb.

 snow white cherry tomato, with an outie belly button!

 mixed basil pot, with (clockwise from bottom right) opal, sweet, thai and dwarf greek basil. i discovered last year (or maybe the year before? i can't remember) that basil does really well planted in a container, planted late in the season, and grown in partial shade. some of that goes against traditional growing practices for basil, but that's what has worked by far the best for me here in boise.

 this is red and green holy basil, a.k.a. krishna tulsi, grown in a separate container. the stems turned a beautiful deep purple.

 the dozen-or-so volunteer tomatillo plants took over a huge portion of the garden bed. they're all loaded with fruit, but nothing ripe yet.


 nikki and i went blackberry picking yesterday. the berries were super sour, nothing like the ones i picked a couple weeks ago. luckily i picked just the right amount for a pie. it still turned out nice and tart, but not as unbearably mouth-puckering as the raw berries.

 the calendula in my front bed is in full bloom, and the bees are loving it.


9 comments:

Bee Girl said...

Everything looks absolutely divine! Your garden is producing wonderfully for you...Congrats!

Stoney Acres said...

What a super harvest. Thanks for sharing, I'm glad I found your site. I use to live near Twin Falls just a couple of hours south of you. I miss Idaho so it will be great to read your posts!!

Lisa said...

Such beautiful photos!

You're kind of killing me, because I'm allergic to the entire nightshade family

Mary Hysong said...

What a beautiful and varied harvest; especially love all those different kinds of tomatoes!

Lauren said...

Your harvest looks incredible! My garden has kind of fallen into shadow. Partially due to my own ineptitude and partially due to my feathered friends.

Do you have any other good tips for growing basil? Mine always ends up woody and weird!

Goneferalinidaho said...

Nice haul! The zapotec tomatoes are really pretty. I've started putting tomatoes in the dehydrator to make "sun" dried tomatoes for winter eating.

the Knottie Knitta said...

Yay spoons! Your groundcherries were yummy...I made a crumble with my berries...minimal sugar, nice and tart! I vote we go again Saturday before children come along and steal all the berries...

Emily said...

bee girl--thanks so much!

stoney acres--that's awesome, thanks for following my blog.

lisa and robb--how awful to be allergic to nightshades! sorry if my photos gave you anaphylactic eyeballs.

mary--thanks, i love the genetic variety of tomatoes. that's one of the reasons they're my favorite thing to grow.

lauren--i know what you mean, chickens are way more important than plants. the animals around here have taken lots of time away from my garden...which is reflected in the proliferation of weeds, and the fact that i haven't fertilized or added compost to any of my plants all season! they're so neglected, i barely even water.

as far as basil, what works in boise might not work so well where you live because the climates are so different--it's very hot and dry here, and chilly at night. a couple other strategies i use that might be more applicable to your region: i plant the seeds by spreading them evenly (approx. 1/2 inch apart) on top of moist potting soil, then dust about an eighth of an inch of dry compost on top and press/flatten very gently. i water from below by letting the container soak for a few hours (sometimes overnight) in a big water trough. i've gotten in the habit of almost never watering container plants from above, even when they get huge and difficult to lift. soaking means you lose less potting soil and nutrients, the plants get to take what they need before the water runs off, and there's less chance of fungal problems.

goneferal--that sounds lovely! i should pull out my dehydrator too.

spoon--as much as i want to join you in keeping those berries out of the hands of young humans, i'm thinking i might need to pass and let my arms and legs heal...the sourness of the berries made it kinda not worth the blood loss for me this time :(

Victoria Williams said...

Such great looking pictures of your harvest; you're getting some great veggies.