Harvesting Heirloom Tomatoes and More

Welcome back.  My readers must think that I vanished from the Earth, as it's been almost two months since my last post.  Well the good new is that I'm still around, although the busy summer has definitely affected my blog posting!  Now, several vacations later, my blog has returned!

After a fairly dry Spring and a very dry June, Mother Nature has definitely responded in July and August. Here in central NY State, we received just shy of 9 inches of rain in July, and over 6 inches in August.   So the rain over the last 6 weeks has definitely made up for the lack of snow last winter and the dry Spring and early Summer.  This rainfall. however. has been limited to a 5 or 6 county area in Central NY, while much of the State remains in drought conditions of varying degree.

Now for some garden updates:

Tomatoes:

Even though the tomato plants again suffered from the early blight, as you can see, I am getting a great harvest thus far.  For more information on the varieties I planted, refer to my featured post on the right hand margin of this post.

Heirloom Tomatoes and Sweet Bell Peppers

Heirlooms on the Vine

Colorful Heirlooms

Sweet Peppers:

This has been a great year for sweet peppers, perhaps the best I have ever had.  I've had very good luck in the past with hot peppers (and again this year), bur for some reason the bell peppers don't usually produce all that well.  This summer's hot temperatures and ample rainfall provided optimum conditions it seems.

Abundant Peppers

Bell Peppers on the Vine

Potatoes:

Overall it was a good year for potatoes, especially in regard to a new variety of fingerlings that I tried this year, the La Ratte fingerling.

As I have stated in previous posts, I try each year to mix in a few new varieties of veggies along with my tired and true ones.  Sometimes the results are good, sometime not.  But it is a part of the gardening process,

For more information on the La Ratte fingerling and the other potato varieties I planted, refer to my post on June 10, 2016.

La Ratte Fingerling

Fantastic Fingerling Yield

Potato Digging Helpers

Yukon Gold and Burbank Russett

Finally, some photos of the great blue heron that frequents our pond.  I took these this morning as the fog was still settled in the valley.  I don't remember ever seeing this huge bird sitting in a tree, but we noticed it has been lately.  They look so prehistoric.

Until next time.