Summer Harvests are Beginning to Come Through

Now that summer is just about halfway done my crops for this season are starting to ripen. This includes tomatoes, cherry, Roma, and beefsteak along with eggplants, peppers, pumpkins, cantaloupes, watermelons, and more. I also transplanted all my broccoli in the garden in order to achieve a fall crop this year. I also plan on picking some pole beans in the very near future now that I am beginning to see some small beans forming on my plants.

This week I picked the first harvest of cherry tomatoes. These are the first of the season and now that they are beginning to ripen this means that my other tomatoes might start turning as well. I can’t wait to pick my beefsteak tomatoes and start eating them with various sandwiches. I also like using my Roma tomatoes for making sauce because of their thick flesh.

I also picked eight more cucumbers which are starting to get backed up and may begin to make relish out of them or even pickle them for the winter. I still have plenty of cucumbers growing on the vines and I will probably pick some more this coming week.

Melons are also starting to ripen including my cantaloupes which seem to be the first that I may harvest this season. Once the stems of these fruits fall off then I can start picking them and cutting them open to see how they taste. I can’t wait until they are fully ripe and ready for harvesting.

I am also starting to see eggplants beginning to grow as well. I wasn’t sure if these plants would have enough time to grow because they were planted a little bit late and they have a long mature time before they start to produce fruit. Now that I see them growing I am glad that I actually might have enough time to pick them before it gets too cold for them.

Pole beans are also on the way as well now that most of the vines are producing flowers and some of them actually have small beans. I would say within a couple of weeks I should start seeing large beans and begin picking them.

I also thought it was a good time to get my broccoli plants into the ground. They were planted a little bit later than normal, but as long as I can keep the caterpillars off them I think they should produce a decent harvest for the fall.