Thankful for the harvest

 Various tomatoes and beans in the kitchen.

We're almost at the end of growing warm season vegetables and autumn is near. I'm happy to harvest what we have regardless of neglect in my garden. I hardly fertilized or pruned anything, failed to pull weeds, or take care of the garden properly because I've been a busy bee. Surprisingly, most of everything that started from seeds managed to survive the stress of moving. We traveled by car in 3 days at 900 miles with my garden when we left California. Veggies weren't prolific this year, they also grew slowly and some didn't even produce. Whatever happened to my cucumber, cantaloupes and okra? It's alright, I'll try again next season. Never give up!
     

I want more tomatoes… maybe they'll continue to ripen until the end of this month. Cherry tomatoes (Chadwick and Rainbow blend) did fabulous, most roma suffered blossom end rot, yuck! In the back of the basket were new tomatoes in my garden, they're organic heirloom called Speckled Roman, interesting in appearance and tasted wonderful. New organic varieties as well were San Marzano, Ace, Debarao, Legend, and yellow pear. I'll be sowing these seeds again in the future. I'm still waiting for green zebra, tangerine and pruden's purple tomatoes to ripen.

A closer look at Roman Speckled tomatoes.

A couple of Roman Speckled went to my homemade salsa along with roasted garlic, onions, mariachi and jalapeño peppers – scrumptious with a handful of cilantro, a little cumin, lime, and Lawry's® seasoning. I served the fresh salsa with fish tacos for dinner.

Honestly, I became impatient and had doubts about my new garden in Idaho. For instance, my tomatillo verde are pathetic – they're super tiny and a few plants failed to produce fruit. Several flowers in my garden died too. Furthermore, I experienced my first blossom end rot with roma tomatoes. After all, I was crazy busy to tend the garden. However, I should appreciate all the harvest and be grateful to God for our blessings of eating healthy from the garden. Each gardener experience trials and success. This is just my second year growing from seeds. I like to plant everything and that can get overwhelming. I have plenty to learn and as gardeners, we continue to learn. 

The cocozelle got enormous. My delicious organic heirloom won first place at our local fair! Out of all the squash I planted, the lovely cocozelle produced quite well.

I have no idea what happened to the patty pan squash but I harvested only one. I don't know the flavor so my husband and I will be trying it soon. I thought the yellow straightneck wouldn't produce any longer but we got another one. Yellow straightneck or crookneck didn't do great in my garden.

Russian Mammoth sunflower planted from seeds, it's almost 8 feet tall and beginning to bloom. I'm looking forward to seeing the full size of the flower. Sunflowers always cheer me up. 

What was successful in your garden and what didn't work this year? 
I wish you all a fantastic weekend!  

Veggie harvest and my winning heirloom squash

Here is the harvest from my garden recently. In the basket we have: zucchini, crookneck yellow squash, cocozelle (taste like zucchini but sweeter), eggplant, beans, various lettuce, tomatoes and peppers. I planted everything from seeds except peppers and one of the eggplant. However, I grew this round eggplant (photo in upper right) called 'Little Prince' from seed and they're so cute. My jalapeño and serrano were severely attacked by pests in late spring that I replaced them with nursery transplants. Peppers take long to germinate, they're a challenge.

Our harvest this time is not as great as last year. I recall making tons of salsa and pasta sauce last summer. Most of my tomatoes are not ripen yet and I'm waiting for other veggies like okra, potatoes, corn, cucumber and cantaloupe. The end of the growing season is near and our weather is getting a little cooler. The very wet spring we had and the late start, certainly affected the growth of my edibles. I also didn't pay attention to my garden that much since it has been hectic busy since we moved. I'm confident that next year, my garden will be more productive. 

I forgot to share this photo of heirloom carrots. They're tiny carrots perfect for snacking called 'Tonda di parigi.' This variety is very tender and sweet that next season, I'll be sure to plant more seeds.   

The highlight of August was my winning organic heirloom Italian squash called 'cocozelle' at the Western Idaho fair. My squash is in the middle with green stripes. I never won anything at a fair before … I got first place for the agriculture exhibit and I was surprised because I entered on a whim. We had a blast and I'll certainly be entering again next year. The fair ended last week but my husband and I are already looking forward to the next one!     

What are successful in your edible garden and what would you grow again? I wish you all a beautiful day and a fabulous week!