A great day to pick some potatoes

I'm back from our lovely vacation, and the farm did quite a bit of growing while I was gone.  Mike had to do more serious tomato plant maintenance - the plants are so huge that they're cascading out of their cages, and so he's had to rig reinforcements of rope and extra metal stakes throughout the tomato beds.  He also picked a ton of tomato hornworms (he says 50-75, at least), and so is my forever hero.  The chickens love him for this, too.

Tomato hornworm munching on a green tomato.  Bastard.



Look how big they are!  The tomato plants are officially taller than me!

Tomato hornworm on branch

Today we decided that it was time to harvest the potatoes.  The plants were all on a spectrum from thoroughly dead to trying very hard to be alive but not doing a great job of it, so we thought it was time to pull them and see what we had.  I'm very happy to say that we've had a bountiful harvest.

We thought that one bed was all Yukon Gold potatoes, and the second bed was our mystery bed, but then we uncovered red potatoes in both beds, so who knows? 



Potatoes from the "mystery bed"



Red potatoes on the vine



Potatoes from the "Yukon Gold" bed.  Ooops.

We laid out the potatoes on the ground to let the dirt dry, and then we're going to take them down to the basement to cure.  I hope this is right - that's an awful lot of potatoes and I don't want to ruin them now!

Two of the zucchini plants are doing very well, but the third was brown and very sick looking this morning, so we pulled it, hoping that whatever it had won't spread to the other two plants.  The eggplants had a productive week while I was gone, so it looks like we're having eggplant this week along with potatoes. 

Hansel eggplant 8-21-2011

We still don't have many ripe tomatoes.  Most of the fruit that has turned red had blossom end rot, so the chickens have been enjoying the first tomato harvest.  We did get to have a few small heirloom tomatoes the other night, but sadly, they weren't that great.  Kind of mushy, and not a lot of flavor, so I was disapointed.  We have so many other kinds, though, and so many green tomatoes, that we should have better luck in the next few weeks.

The giant pumpkin plant is living up to its name, and has taken over it's plot in front of the run-in.  The vines are snaking dangerously close to the chickens, which I don't think will end well for the plant.  We have several pumpkins starting to grow, and I think we're supposed to decide soon which pumpkin we want to cultivate, and then cut off the rest.  I've been a bit negligent in my giant pumpkin reading, so I need to double check this before I make any rash pumpkin amputations. 

Giant pumpkin 8-21-2011

Largest giant pumpkin 8-21-2011

The squash plants in the squash field have also been very busy.  The sweet dumpling plants look like the most productive so far, as all three of those plants have set multiple fruits.  My spaghetti squash plant only has two squashes on it, but I hope it's working on sending out more.  And the rouge vif d'etampes pumpkin plants are the fastest growers.  One of the pumpkins looks like a real pumpkin already, although I think the color will deepen once it's mature.

My little Uncle David's Dakota Dessert squash is still trying to be a contender. The poor plant is tiny, and I can't see how it will possibly be able to set fruit at this point, but I appreciate the effort.

Sweet dumpling squash 8-21-2011

Spaghetti squash 8-21-2011

Rouge vif d'etampes pumpkin 8-21-2011

Uncle David's Dakota Dessert Squash 8-21-2011

In our last bit of farm maintenance for the day, we pulled the blossom end rot tomatoes and fed them to the girls, along with a few more hornworms that we found.  We have very, very happy chickens.  Mike also bought them an automatic door to their yard, which I think is a sign of affection.