Harvest Monday - October 17, 2016

The big addition to the tally this week was the squash.  I had actually harvested them the week before but didn't have time to clean them up and include them in last Monday's tally.

Coming in first place was, not surprisingly, the butternut squash - 12 squash were harvested from 2 plants:

Butternut Squash

I think this is almost twice as much as I harvested last year so I am more than thrilled!

About half of the squash were not fully ripe, but they had all started to change colour, indicating that they had reached their full size.  I placed all of the unripe squash on a sofa table that I have in front of a south facing window in the family room.  They will stay there for a few weeks until they are fully ripe.  Last year I used the same method of ripening up the butternuts and it worked out really well.

Squash ripening station

All of the ripe butternuts still need to cure for a few weeks in a warm spot, but they don't need direct sunlight, so those were placed in front of the fireplace.  I call it "fall décor" :)

I also harvested a few other varieties of winter squash (all from the straw bales).  None of these were overly successful in that I harvested 1 or 2 squash from each (and zero from at least one variety) and all of them were not ripe either:

Miben squash - these are huge!

I've placed a large butternut next to them to provide perspective.

When it comes to the bale squash, the only one that I'm 100% sure of in terms of identity is the Miben, pictured above.  I've had to make educated guesses for the others as I have not grown any of them before and all of the vines were tangled together:

Thai Rai Kaw Tok (bottom left) & Jing Orange

There was one squash that I harvested only yesterday as it was hiding underneath a bunch of leaves.  I have NO idea what it is as it doesn't look like any of the ones that I grew (based on the seed packet & online photos, anyhow):

Sort of looks like the Jing Orange, but it's a strange shape.

You can see in the photo that it does look like it's starting to turn a yellowish colour.  I've place it by the window together with the other squash and we'll see what happens.

Although I'm not concerned about the butternut squash ripening, when it comes to the other varieties I'm not as confident since they are all new to me varieties.  I've included them in the tally, but if some end up not being edible, I'll adjust my numbers accordingly at that time.

I finally harvested the 4 pots with sweet potatoes:

One sweet potato tub before being tipped

The harvest was decidedly underwhelming - just under 6 lbs. of potatoes (2.6 kg) from 4 pots.  Now, had this harvest been from one pot, I would have been thrilled, but not from four 10 gallon (35L) tubs/bags.

I kept the harvest from the green tubs and black grow bags separate and there was quite a difference between the two:

Sweet Potatoes

Harvest from green tubs (left) and black grow bags (right)

The grow bags produced fewer larger potatoes while the green tub potatoes were more numerous but smaller.  Overall, the total yield from the grow bags was about 14% greater than the tubs which is not a huge difference.  We love sweet potatoes and I have a few more ideas to try so I'm not ready to give up on them quite yet.

I was also disappointed at the volunteer potatoes I harvested:

Harvest from volunteer potatoes

That's it - 3 large potatoes plus a couple of tiddlers.  I was thinking I would harvest at least 3 or 4 times that amount based on the lush foliage in the bed earlier in the season.  Oh well, any little bit helps considering the lackluster performance of the official potato bed this year.

The late sown dry beans - Arikara and Calypso - were harvested.  None of the pods are dry yet but they did appear to be fully mature and the plants were definitely on the decline.  The pods are now drying out on newspaper in the basement.

Arikara (left) & Calypso (right)

We've now had 3 frosty mornings and a few more beds have been cleared & cleaned up for the winter.  Surprisingly, one of the tomato beds is still not that bad and I'm harvesting any tomatoes that are just starting to change colour on a regular basis.

Tomatoes and eggplant

We are now in one of our fall warm spells, with daytime highs in the high teens/20's (65-77F) so it looks like I may be able to continue picking for at least another week or so.  I did, however, decide to pull up the eggplants and all of the remaining fruits were harvested.

I also cleared out the pepper bed.  If there were only one or two full sized peppers on the plant, I harvested them, even if they were still green (we don't mind green peppers, especially in cooked preparations).  There were, however, several plants that had a lot of peppers that were just starting to ripen up.  For those, I decided to try something a bit different - pull the plants up, roots and all, and hang them upside down in the garage.  I do see some of the peppers colouring up, but I'll have a better idea as to whether or not this will work by the end of the week.

The broccoli is still pumping out the side shoots:

Broccoli

I pulled several rows of carrots including all of the Amsterdam Maxi.  These were a disappointment in that they were tiny compared to the other varieties:

Amsterdam Maxi

I didn't crop out the edge of the bed to give a bit of perspective on how small these were.

I also harvested about half of the Starburst Mix and many of these were the complete opposite of the Amsterdam in that they were monsters:

Starburst Blend - some were 2" across the top!

When it comes to size and uniformity, I would have to say that the Mokums are the best, so far:

Mokum
Not too big, not too small....just right :)

Each of these varieties taste really good, although I've not done a side by side comparison to check out subtle differences.  I'm growing 6 varieties in total so I'll have to remember to do that once I pull the rest of the bed.

I've finally hit the 500 lb. mark (what is it about that number that's so appealing in terms of a goal?) and it looks like I may even make it to 600 lbs. as there are still over half a bed of carrots to harvest as well as the garlic & onions to tally.

My harvest totals this week were:

Broccoli - 306 grams (0.67 lbs)
Carrots - 2,780 grams (6.13 lbs)
Eggplant - 596 grams (1.31 lbs)
Sweet Peppers - 346 grams (0.76 lbs)
Hot Peppers - 540 grams (1.19 lbs)
Potatoes - 710 grams (1.57 lbs)
Winter Squash - 26,067 grams (57.47 lbs)
Sweet Potatoes - 2,611 grams (5.76 lbs)
Tomatoes - 2,172 grams (4.79 lbs)
Raspberries - 28 grams (0.06 lbs)

Total for Week – 36,156 grams (79.71 lbs)

Total to Date – 257.67 kg (568.06 lbs)

To see what everyone else has been harvesting over the past week, head on over to Our Happy Acres where Dave is our host for Harvest Mondays.