A Big Harvest from My New Vegetable Garden
If you have a vegetable garden, how is it doing this year? The new vegetable garden here at my Bedford, New York farm is amazing. I hope you saw my photos on my Instagram page @MarthaStewart48 showing some of our latest bounty.
Over the last week, my head gardener, Ryan McCallister, and my housekeepers, Enma Sandoval and Elvira Rojas, picked cucumbers, summer squash, artichokes, carrots, beans, Swiss chard, and so much more. They also picked nearly a bushel of peaches - that's almost 50-pounds of delicious, sweet fruits. Despite some very uncomfortable summer weather, the produce in the gardens is thriving.
Enjoy these photos.
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- Here at my farm, we’re all so pleased with the new vegetable garden. It’s been so productive and all the vegetables look fantastic. It’s important to check it every day – there’s always something ready to pick. It makes me so happy to be able to share all of this produce with friends and family every summer.
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- So many tomatoes are developing on the vines, but they’re not ready just yet. Most tomato plant varieties need between 50 and 90 days to mature. Planting can also be staggered to produce early, mid and late season tomato harvests.
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- And the onions are doing excellently also. We planted a lot of white, yellow and red onions. Onions are harvested later in the summer when the underground bulbs are mature and flavorful.
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- But so many other vegetables are ready to harvest right now. Look at the cucumbers! These are perfect, and what a bounty.
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- Cucumbers, Cucumis sativus, are great for pickling – I try to find time for pickling every year.
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- Ryan is using a double harvest bag from Johnny’s Selected Seeds. Originally designed for Canadian tree planters to carry heavy loads, it’s so popular to use for harvesting lots of vegetables. This is one of two bags that are each about 10-inches by 12-inches by 14-inches deep and the triple padding on the harness can be adjusted for maximum support.
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- Ryan starts to fill the bags with cucumbers. I like them best when they are at least six to eight inches in length. These will be so sweet and juicy.
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- There are also a lot of beans. Beans grow best in full sun and moist soil. Bush beans are second only to tomatoes as the most popular vegetables in home gardens. Bush beans are eaten when the seeds are small. They are also called string beans because of a fibrous string running the length of the pod.
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- Swiss chard always stands out in the garden, with its rich colorful stalks. Swiss chard is a leafy green vegetable often used in Mediterranean cooking. The leaf stalks are large and vary in color, usually white, yellow, or red. The leaf blade can be green or reddish in color. Harvest Swiss chard when the leaves are tender and big enough to eat.
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- The globe artichoke, Cynara scolymus, is actually a flower bud, which is eaten when tender. Buds are generally harvested once they reach full size, just before the bracts begin to spread open. When harvesting artichokes, cut off the bud along with about three inches of stem.
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- We picked lots of artichokes in just a few minutes. Artichoke harvest starts in late July or early August and continues well until frost. The container is Johnny’s harvest bucket – a kidney shaped hard bucket on an adjustable heavy duty wide strap for easy carrying.
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- Here’s the bucket filled to the top with garden fresh artichokes.
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- Here are our trug buckets of cucumbers. I think this is one of our biggest cucumber harvests yet!
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- All the freshly picked vegetables are loaded up and brought to my flower room, where they can be washed if needed, then bagged and stored in the refrigerator.
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- Here’s our bin of carrots. We have such beautiful carrots this season. Most are familiar with the orange carrots, but they also come in red, yellow, white, and purple.
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- And then it was a walk to the orchard. My orchard surrounds three sides of my pool. It’s filled with a variety of apple trees, plum trees, cherry trees, peach, pear, and quince trees. Most of the fruits are not yet ready to pick, but many of the peaches are ripe and sweet.
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- And all the peach trees are filled with bright pink fruits. Can you see them?
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- Here’s a closer look. This time every year, everyone around the farm eagerly awaits the first fruits.
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- If the peach is firm to the touch, it’s not ready. It’s ripe when there is some “give” as it is gently squeezed. Color is another great indicator of maturity. Peaches are ripe when the ground color of the fruit changes from green to completely yellow.
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- Here’s our first big bounty of fresh, organic peaches of the season – so sweet and delicious!
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- It’s always so much fun to harvest the “fruits of our labor.” Thanks Ryan, Enma, and Elvira! And be sure to look at my Instagram page @MarthaStewart48 to see more of what we harvested. I hope all your gardens are just as productive as mine.
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