Wonderful Bounty

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Avatar for JonicaBradley
3 years ago
Test carrots - I wanted to see how they are growing so I pulled up a few from here and there.

It started raining around 5:00 this morning and finally stopped around 10:00.

When the rain stopped I thought I'd go out to check the garden.

I pulled a zucchini. It's nice and big, so I'll take advantage of the cooler weather to make some fritters this evening.

Baby carrots. Pay attention to the round one at the top left. Something stunted it. I have the likely culprit.

I also wanted to see how the carrots are growing, so I pulled one up from each end of the row as well as a few in the middle.

The little round carrot at top left looks like it has been chewed on under ground. After I rinsed and trimmed the carrots, I found the likely culprit. Or, at least what it left behind.

This cacoon was attached to the tiny root of one of the carrots. It, or whatever was in it, is likely guilty of nibbling on the stoned carrot.

I'm not sure whether it is a cocoon or a carapace. All I know is it was firmly attached to the root of one of the carrots. These roots are tiny and very thin. Don't let the zoom of the photo fool you. I almost missed it!

I'm so glad I didn't eat it by accident!

I pinched some basil tops so the plant will spread across more ground.

In the left: basil leaves. Now you can really see how tiny those carrots are!

I'm not sure what I'll do with the herb. I'll wrap it in a damp paper towel and keep it in the refrigerator for now. Maybe I'll pick up some pine nuts and make pesto.

I harvested new growth leaves from the rainbow swiss chard plants.

Rainbow swiss chard

I'll be fixing it with the bacon bits I have cooking right now. Bacon makes everything better!

Bacon bits frying in my car iron skillet.

I know this rain will bring worms to all of my plants, but the tomatoes usually get hit the hardest. So I wait until they are just big enough to eat and pick them early.

Green tomatoes picked early.

I rinse them and look for bruises or worm and wasp holes.

There's a kind of wasp that burrows into plants, in our case usually the tomatoes, and lays it's eggs. When the egg hatches it eats the wasp inside the tomato.

It's kind of beautiful when you think of the sacrifice this mother makes for it's child. But it's really gross when you cut into a tomato and find the rotted carcass of a dead and eaten wasp.

Rinsing and really looking closely at each tomato is important.
I think this might be one of those wasp holes. This tomato gets thrown outside!

Once the tomatoes are rinsed and dried, I'll wrap them in news paper. I try to keep a few news papers on hand. Our local news paper only comes out once a week. And it is very thin.

Our local paper. It only comes out once per week.

Once I have the tomatoes tightly wrapped, I put them in a box and store them for a few weeks in a cool, dry, dark spot.

Newspaper wrapped tomatoes

After a few weeks, I'll start unwrapping them. They will be dark red, ripe, and delicious.

I hope it continues to rain. Or pastures really need it. Just 3 weeks of drought and heat wave can kill all the grass.

These next two photos are the same view twenty days apart.

Before: photo taken June 4, 2021
After: photo taken June 24, 2021

I'm so happy for the rain even if it does make the bugs more prolific and the garden a bit more work.

It's also giving me a very nice break from all the heat. The humidity is still much too high for my taste, but I guess you can't have rain without humidity, can you?

Lead image GIF: rain in my driveway

See you next time!

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Avatar for JonicaBradley
3 years ago

Comments

You must find great satisfaction in hauling all of these bounty! What a wonderful and productive garden you have there :) these days, I've been having a hard time growing anything edible because of pests, specifically mealybugs and red ants, not to mention those snails that come out at night and eat all those beautiful, young leaves... ah... i envy your garden💮

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3 years ago

mahilig ka pala mag gardening :) iba din kasi talaga ang saya kapag ngtatanim lalo pag makikita mo silang lumalago at namumunga :)

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3 years ago

A certified gardener. And seeing the grass 20 days apart without too much water in it is sooo poor... And that carrot is sooooo cute hehehe

Keep up the good gardening habits.. God Bless!

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3 years ago

I hope it rains more often, the grounds really need it. Great harvest you have there. Are all organic? 👍

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3 years ago

Yes. For the most part we don't put chemical on anything. Every once in a while, like earlier this year, we do have to spray. But the USDA would consider us organic. They allow something like 17% chemical on the plants. I'll need to look that up again just to be sure.

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3 years ago

That's some healthy bounty! I'm so amazed that someone out here also does gardening, obviously enjoys it and is happy for the rain too :)

Ecstatic to learn about the newspaper technique. Just like you, ours are also prone to worms so we usually pick them green and put them on trays or small crates and let them ripe on their own. We'll try the newspaper next time :)

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3 years ago

It really works, the newspaper.

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3 years ago

Awesome! Will definitely use it. Thank you :)

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3 years ago

Wow you have huge lot! We also tried to plant seeds of red chili outside our window, it grows really well at first and its a happy feeling when you see your plants are growing. Unfortunately my stepmom stop taking care of it because the cats always eat the leaves. Sk we dont have ut anymore

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3 years ago

It's 30 acres.

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3 years ago

Thats huge enough to plant different kinds of vegetables

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3 years ago

30 acres is the entire property. We mostly use it as pasture for the sheep and goats, the occasional cow or pig. The garden itself is 20feet by 40feet.

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3 years ago

My tomato plants before had aphids all over its leaves. I removed the infected ones but the aphids kept on multiplying. Sadly my tomatoes died.

Now the annoying insects moved to my chilli. I've sprayed water with aloe vera in it to the infected leaves. Got the idea from a youtube video. It's quite effective. The aphids are gone.

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3 years ago

Sometimes some soapy water works, too.

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3 years ago

I like carrot juice and zucchini for vegetables. Zucchini has sweet taste if I am right for it. You are lucky to have this rain. And you enjoy it also.

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3 years ago

I just made zucchini fritters. I love my fresh carrots (with out the bug cocoon).

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3 years ago

You have nice farm indeed. Enjoy your life dear. Ma'am @JonicaBradelly I just completed my report about my clinic. And publish in BCH hub. I think you like and read it and allowed in that community if it deserved.thank you.

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3 years ago

Your farm is really a fantasy for me. I wish I have the strength for such work.

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3 years ago

This motivated me to rethink to my gardening hobby.. all i hope to get some time.. will do that soon.

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3 years ago

It's really relaxing to me to be out in the dirt among the plants.

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3 years ago

I love your harvest. Although small are the carrots must be tasty. In my pots I get neither carrots nor potatoes. But I do get basil and spinach. Here too the rain has started and my plants are thankful for it and so am I.

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3 years ago

What a clever bit with newspaper and tomatoes had not thought about that. That zucchini, absolutely delicious, hehe I agree with the bacon. I am so glad you some rain, the earth needs it. Happy eating and glad you are writing this awesome bounty story.

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3 years ago

I had to get busy to avoid writing the other story. All this is simply task avoidance!

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3 years ago

Aha ok, well glad you here, I hadn't seen you for a few days.

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3 years ago

You are really observant with the cocoon attached to carrot roots. All your tomatoes preservation is a huge lesson to me.

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3 years ago

Oh, never thought tomatoes and wrapping them in newspapers is performed. I once grew tomatoes before but someone stepped on my plant when it was about a knee height. After that, I attempted to plant some again but always fail to grow them.

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3 years ago

I'm sorry about your plant! The first time we tried to grow tomatoes we had over 100 chickens. They kept eating all the leaves off the plants. All we grew were tomato sticks. So, we put our garden in a cage to keep the chickens out.

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3 years ago

Wow! You are really a great farmer with all of these fruits. I don't think people planting these would go hunger because this is what they will hold onto when it's harvest time.

I had wanted to ask why wrapping those tomatoes in a paper until I read to the end and saw it's for the tomatoes to get riped on time. Great one

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3 years ago

This also works for peaches. Pick just before they are ripe, wrap them in news paper and put them somewhere cool and dark. My husband's grandmother used to keep newspaper wrapped peaches under her bed

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3 years ago