Garden

A few of the pumpkins that grew this year. Marina Di Chioggia on the left is supposed to be an Italian heirloom variety that is good for gnocchi and ravioli. The seed catalog suggested it should be around 10 – 15 pounds. However, these were coming in about double that. On the other end of the counter are two rouge vif d’etampes. That is a French variety that is also supposed to be excellent for cooking.

A few more of the harvest decorating the entry. All of these varieties are supposed to be suitable for eating.

We got a sturdy storage rack at Costco to put in the garage for holding some of the harvest. In addition to lots of pumpkin varieties, there were several varieties of acorn squash which did well and there are onions and shallots in the trays.

The tomatoes finally started to get ripe. The current type had the desired tiny round berries, but the plant overwhelmed its neighbors. Possibly had the plants not all been grouped in the same bed, more light would have resulted in an earlier harvest. Still, the first batch was enough for a large pot of spaghetti sauce, and this patch provided enough for 7 quarts of sauce.

The melon patch has produced a lot of cantaloupes and several watermelons.

The Marina Di Chioggia pumpkin is supposed to be about 6 – 12 pounds. However what I found hiding under the leaves looks like it is going to be closer to 20. It also looks like there are at least 5 of them and a second batch is starting to grow.

This year’s Cinderella pumpkins are less lobed and more red than last year’s which were from another source. They are about the same size, so there will be more than enough to share.

These are the Sugar Pie pumpkins. The vines were hard hit by powdery mildew so it is not likely there will be a second growth spurt for this variety.

It was definitely time to harvest the carrot patch.

The tops of the potatoes were falling over. And when I went to dig out a few for dinner, the tops broke off easily. So it seemed that it must be time to harvest potatoes. It was probably a bit more we needed!

The garden has been producing lots of veggies. I have frozen lots of green beans already and am continually challenged to find ways to use the zucchini. This year I planted several types of melons and am pleasantly surprised that they are ripening in our cool coastal climate. This one, “Sweet ‘n Early” from Burpee’s, is small — perfect for our situation where there are only two of us to enjoy the harvest.

These are an assortment of the colors the Rainbow assortment of carrots produced. For the most part, there seems to be little difference in taste. And the purple one is typical orange when peeled. But they do add a bit of interesting color to the salads.

Another thing tried for the first time is celery. It is hard to appreciate how much larger than the trimmed ones in the grocery stores. They are on a 4 foot diameter table in the photo to provide a reference for size. And just for fun, I tried a red stemmed variety as well as the sort we always see in the store. Again, it adds a little extra color to the salads. But the outer stems have more pronounced ribs and a bit tougher.