June 26, 2017

Harvest Monday, 6/26/17

Harvested June 19th: Marrow zucchini, Butta Zucchini, Sophia summer squash, Fat Cherry tomato, and Sungold cherry tomato.
Harvested June 20th: Fiorentino zucchini, Butta Zucchini, Sophia summer squash, Chocolate Cherry tomato, and Sungold cherry tomato.
Harvested June 21st: Butta zucchini, Fiorentino zucchini, Striato D'Italia zucchini, Zephyr summer squash, and Sophia summer squash.

Also Harvested June 21st: Taxi tomato, Black Prince tomatoes, Black Cherry tomato, Fat Cherry tomato, and Sungold cherry tomato.

Good news, shockingly enough I have large tomatoes ripening in June. I've grown Black Prince before so it's actually a shock that it's this early. Taxi is a new lemon yellow tomato. Both varieties set lots and lots of fruit although Taxi is a much smaller plant. With a couple tomatoes ripened, I picked up some lettuce, French bread, and sour dough bread which will incidentally go great with bacon and tomatoes.
Harvested June 22: Taxi tomato, Black Prince tomato, Black Cherry, Fat Cherry, and Sungold cherry tomato.
Harvested Saturday, June 24th: Fiorentino zucchini, Striato D'Italia zucchini, Marrow zucchini, Zephyr summer squash, and Sophia summer squash.

It rained heavily all day Friday which kept me out of the garden till Saturday evening and I was greeted by boat-like creatures of the zucchini variety. The bowl they're sitting in is actually massive.
Also harvested Saturday: Granny Cantrell's German Red, Black Brandywine, Paul Robeson, Black Prince, and Cosmonaut Volkov tomatoes. The pink tomato is the Granny Cantrell tomato.

I was really surprised to see all these tomatoes ripening after the rain, I don't think we have ever harvested large tomatoes in June. Even Pink Brandywine is showing color so we'll get to taste them in a day or two. The biggest tomato picked so far is a Black Brandywine weighing 1.138 pounds.
And our cherry tomato harvest for June 24th.

We've eaten a pile of BLT's with the Black Brandywine and Black Prince tomatoes. And then a zucchini and tomato medley, next on the list is zucchini bread. Black Brandywine has a very savory salty flavor with hardly any seeds, Black Prince is much more juicy with a bit of a tang. Even with all the rain they're still tasty tomatoes.

Both Butta zucchini plants have split open along their main stem. It's likely that the stems were weakened by squash vine borers and then a huge storm battered the plants till they split open. But even with the severe damage, the plants are still producing and we'll see if they can recover.

There's quite a few plants infected with what I now know for sure is Tomato Speck which also infects the stems and fruit of the plants. The infected plants got a hard trim and dosed with Seranade, I was forced to apply the Serenade even though it was forecasted to rain in the next day or two. The disease had already infected 8 plants total: two Taxi's, one Black Brandywine, two Ananas Noire, two Manyel, and one Pilcer Vesy. The bacterial disease presented first on the Manyel plants, making me suspect the disease is seedborne and then has spread by aphid vectors. Next year the seeds will be treated with a diluted bleach solution before planting.

Harvested:
18.08 pounds zucchini
7.214 pounds tomato
2.632 pounds summer squash
0.974 pound cherry tomato

Total harvest: 28.9 pounds (13.109 kg)

If you're curious about weight breakdown by variety, I have that listed under the 2017 Harvest Totals tab.

Please join us for Harvest Monday hosted by Dave from Our Happy Acres, a place for gardeners and vegetable enthusiasts.

18 comments:

Dave @ HappyAcres said...

Those ripe tomatoes are amazing! I'm still waiting on the first ripe cherry tomato here. I love those two-color Zephyr squash too.

Eight Gate Farm NH said...

Beautiful harvests, and such variety too. Oh gosh, there is a thing called Tomato Speck? What more tortures will the gardening gods inflict upon us?

gardenvariety-hoosier said...

Oh no, another tomato disease to worry about. Hope this clears up for you. The Russian tomatoes always fascinate me. A few years ago I grew Black Krim, unique flavor, and this year am growing Black Plum. You are probably about 200 miles south of me and am already getting tomatoes. It will be about two more weeks here. Great selection of squash.

Michelle said...

Whoa, 18 pounds of zucchini! And ripe tomatoes in June - just a fantasy here, it will never happen. Tomato Speck is a new one to me too. Good luck!

Sue Garrett said...

Our tomatoes are just starting to flower.

Lisa said...

Your zucchini is glorious! Such variety!

Phuong said...

Hi Dave,
I'm pretty shocked as well by the tomatoes. We're planning to can salsa this Friday on my day off, if all goes as planned. Zephyr (F1) is a firmer summer squash with a nice nutty flavor, although this year it's a bit milder after all the rain.

Phuong said...

Hi Will,
The Serenade I used to douse the plants really seemed to work. I haven't seen anymore instances of the disease and the infected plants seem to be growing again.

Phuong said...

Hi Mike,
The tomatoes are early for us by a few weeks, but lots of people in the area are saying they're getting tomatoes early. Must be the long spring weather we had this year.

Phuong said...

Hi Michelle,
Normally I'd be canning salsa at the end of July, but it looks like we'll be canning some almost a month early this year. This week's zucchini and squash harvest will be a lot less, especially because the two biggest plants have been damaged.

Phuong said...

Hi Sue,
You're tomato plants are big and healthy, hopefully they'll produce bountifully.

Phuong said...

Hi Lisa,
We've really been enjoying the zucchini and I can't wait to make some zucchini bread.

norma chang said...

Great tomatoes and squash harvest. No idea there is a tomato by the name "Fat Cherry", how much does one weigh?

Phuong said...

Hi Norma,
They're bigger than Sungold, but not huge or anything. One weighs 0.050 pounds or 0.8 oz., so less than an ounce. And they're fairly acidic like a real tomato.

Kathy said...

Your tomatoes look beautiful Phuong! They must be so tasty too

Phuong said...

Hi Kathy,
Tomatoes are wonderful and they're the main reason we garden. We mainly make salsa with them, and will actually be canning some tomorrow.

Susie said...

Mmmm ... bacon and tomato sandwiches. Nice.

Amazing harvest of zucchini so far!!

Phuong said...

Hi Susie,
I cooked up some of the yellow zucchini in butter with lots of Mural of Flavor herbs from Penzeys and it was delicious. The sweetness of the zucchini really came through cooked that way.