Harvest Parade

I'm working on a rather meaty pair of posts about chest freezers. But they're not ready yet. So today I give you some pictures of the garden and what's getting harvested lately.

Here's half of my Moon & Stars watermelon crop. The vines got bullied by my pumpkin plants, and each surviving vine put out a measly one watermelon. It tasted good though. There's also a variety of this watermelon with a true purple skin.


They look like a normal watermelon inside though:


These are the first few potatoes I harvested. The Sangre potatoes are in the white basin, and those are All Blues in the black basket. They look even darker in this picture than they really are. I still have a lot of potato harvesting to do.


This is about half of my sugar pumpkin crop. I've already used up four of them and given away that many too. About four or five are still in the garden, acting as bait for all those squash bugs.


This is part of our herb patch. That's Purple Opal Basil on the left, Spicy Bush Basil in the middle, and Purple Ruffles Basil on the right. In back are some chives. And buried somewhere under those exuberant basils are thyme and oregano. The thyme and oregano will have the last laugh though; they're perennials. I really cannot recommend the bush basil, by the way. The taste is downright hostile.


A few of our kale plants that get treated with my homemade bug spray. This plant is known by many names: kale lacinato, cavolo nero, palm kale, and Tuscan kale. We just call it yummy. I made the mistake of interplanting some chard with the kale.


Here are a few gorgeous examples of the Cherokee Trail of Tears heirloom bean. These are soup beans, but don't they look pretty in this fresh state?


They look awfully nice when shelled too, I think. They're so glossy and shiny, they look as though they've been oiled. I've harvested most of the main set, and only have about 2 1/2 cups of dried beans to show for it. But now the vines are starting to put out a smaller second set.



Finally, because I can't resist showing some finished products, here's a serving of Moonblush cherry tomato pasta, with garden herbs and our own garlic and eggs.


Also my lunch of vegetarian futomaki. The only things in here I produced myself are some chives and the egg. The avocado, alas, is store bought. But the carrots are from a neighbor. The only problem with futomaki is that I can never resist having a second one. Then I'm too full to move for a while.