Here at my farm we're picking lots of wonderful and nutritious produce from the garden.
Earlier this week, my head gardener Ryan McCallister harvested a bounty of vegetables - beans, artichokes, peppers, eggplants, carrots, onions, and more. And, we also picked nearly a bushel of peaches - that's almost 50-pounds of delicious, sweet fruits. A lot goes in to growing all these foods, including selecting the right plants, preparing the soil, watering, weeding, and staking if needed. Ryan and I check the beds every day. It's so rewarding to then see all that comes out of a well-tended garden - and there's still more to come.
Enjoy these photos.
After any harvest, the freshly picked fruits and vegetables are loaded up and brought to my flower room, where they can be washed if needed, then bagged and stored in the refrigerator. It makes me so happy to be able to share all of this produce with friends and family every summer.
Here’s the season’s first big bounty of cucumbers. Cucumbers, Cucumis sativus, are great for pickling – I try to find time for pickling every year. I like them best when they are about six to eight inches in length. These will be so sweet and juicy.
There are also a lot of beans. Beans grow best in full sun and moist soil. Bush beans are among the top 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.
Ryan picks a few handfuls of beans, but there are still so many growing on the vines. They can continually produce throughout the season with the proper care. In general, bush beans are ready in about 45 to 50 days if the weather is right.
There are two types of green beans. Pole beans grow on climbing vines and require trellising. Bush beans like these grow on bushes up to two feet and do not need support. Bean pods can be green, yellow, purple, or even speckled with red!
Next, Ryan checks the bell pepper bed. Peppers hold up great in the heat, and we’ve had a lot of warm days, so there should be some good, flavorful peppers.
Peppers always do well in my garden. Here’s one of many just picked.
Sweet bell peppers are popular in the garden – all grassy in flavor and crunchy in texture. I love making stuffed peppers – so easy and so delicious.
My crew loves hot peppers, and I grow many of them to share. Jalapeño peppers thrive in full sun and are ready to pick when they are firm, green, and about three inches long. This one looks ready.
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.
Artichoke harvest starts in late July or early August and continues well until frost.
It is good to pick eggplants when they are young and tender. Try to pick a little early, which will encourage the plant to grow more, and will help to extend the growing season.
I planted a lot of white, yellow and red onions. Ryan picked these, but there will be a bigger onion harvest soon.
Here are some of this year’s red onions.
We have such beautiful carrots this season. Most are familiar with the orange carrots, but they also come in red, yellow, white, and purple. I like to grow an assortment.
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.
And then it was a walk to the orchard. My orchard surrounds three sides of my pool. Most of the fruits are not yet ready to pick, but many of the peaches are ripe and sweet. And all the peach trees are filled with bright pink fruits.
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.
It’s always so much fun to harvest the “fruits of our labor.” I hope all your gardens are just as productive as mine.
After days of hot, humid weather with temperatures in the high 80s and 90s, we're finally getting a brief respite here at the farm - a noticeably cooler day in the 70s with a little less humidity.
My crew is always busy. Once a week, I create very detailed lists of all that needs to be done. Right now, the focus is on pruning the trees and boxwood shrubs, grooming the roses, weeding the garden beds, harvesting peaches and vegetables, mulching, and most importantly, watering.
Enjoy these photos.
It takes a lot of close monitoring to stay on top of our watering tasks this time of year. We’ve had sporadic showers and thunderstorms, but sometimes they’re just not enough to keep all the gardens well irrigated.
One of my favorite sources for watering is Gilmour, a Madison, Wisconsin-based company. I use several of their products at my New York farm and at Skylands, my home in Maine. Mornings are the best times to water – when water pressure is high, evaporation is low, and the soil can absorb the water before the sun heats up the ground.
I keep the sprinklers near the hoses, so they’re always readily available. And when not in use, they are neatly rolled up near the hose bib.
Among the many summer chores is mulching. Here is Chhiring mulching the tree pits under my majestic pin oak trees. The pin oak allée is the first allée guests see when entering my farm. These trees are tall and impressive.
And do you follow me on Instagram @MarthaStewart48? I’ve had such an excellent peach season – lately, I’ve been picking peaches every day. Here’s Enma picking more.
In no time – Enma and Andres pick trays and trays of sweet, delicious fruits.
Behind my greenhouse, I have a 68-foot by 30-foot rose bed that includes floribunda, hybrid tea, and shrub roses – all with gorgeous color, form, and fragrance. Matthew is pruning and grooming each bush. This time of year, I like to prune them lightly and selectively to shape the bushes and control any unwanted growth.
Not far, Phurba gets all his needed gear to prune the boxwood allée shrubs. It’s a huge task to prune all the boxwood. Phurba is my resident boxwood pruning expert. He has been with me for many years.
Here he is cutting and shaping one of the shrubs. One can see the newest growth. Phurba keeps the shears close to him with his hands midway down the handles. This allows the best control.
And occasionally he stops to sharpen the blades – it’s important to keep tools in their best condition to get the best results.
In the vegetable garden, Cesar helps to secure the growing tomato vines to the bamboo supports using jute twine.
Meanwhile, Ryan harvests some beans – it’s also a very good bush bean season.
There’s more pruning down behind my chicken coops. Pasang is working on the row of hawthorns. I planted these in 2020 and they’ve done very well here. Hawthorns, Crataegus, commonly called hawthorn, quickthorn, thornapple, May-tree, whitethorn, or hawberry, is a genus of several hundred species of shrubs and trees in the family Rosaceae.
But beware, this tree is also known as cockspur thorn because it sports numerous long, sharp thorns along its trunk and horizontal branches. A grouping of these trees makes an excellent protective barrier or living fence.
Here’s Chhiring spreading compost around the Little Darling® Lilacs recently planted from the wholesale nursery Monrovia.
I am fortunate to be able to make such excellent compost here at my farm – weed free and so nutrient-rich.
It’s also important that the animals are well hydrated in this warm weather. Here’s Truman “TJ” Junior taking a refreshing drink under the shade of the giant pines.
Here’s Jimmy walking my Friesian, Geert, back to the stable for grooming and a meal.
Clive is waiting patiently for his dinner. Don’t worry, Clive, it’s coming soon.
Around the farm, much of the detritus from the gardens is hauled away using the dump trucks or these Polaris off-road vehicles, always so handy and durable. it’s never a dull moment here at my farm, but my hardworking crew is getting it all done!
Here in the Northeast, temperatures today are expected to hit the mid 80s - a little break following this week's humid heat wave.
Despite the uncomfortable summer weather, the growing vegetables at my farm are thriving. The artichokes, eggplants, peppers, onions, carrots, and beans, etc. are all doing so well. With a garden this large, it's important to check it every day and keep up with its care.
Here are the latest photos, enjoy.
My gardeners and I have been spending a lot of time in this large half-acre space. In order to have delicious, beautiful vegetables, it’s important to always check on what’s doing well and remove what is not and then replant when needed. This garden has been so productive and all the vegetables look fantastic.
My tomatoes are growing beautifully, and every single plant is well-supported.
I grow an abundance of tomatoes to share and to make all the delicious tomato sauce I enjoy through the year. It’s a good idea to grow a range of varieties, including at least one or two disease-resistant types.
I prefer to pick eggplants early when they are young and tender. Picking early will encourage the plant to grow more, and will help to extend the growing season. These eggplants will be harvested soon.
Sweet bell peppers are popular in the garden – all grassy in flavor and super-crunchy in texture. I love making stuffed peppers – so easy and so delicious. It won’t be long before I’ll have a bounty of green, red, and yellow peppers.
My crew loves hot peppers, and I grow many of them to share. If growing both sweet and hot peppers, be careful when picking – keep the hot ones separated from the sweet, so there is no surprise in the kitchen.
And look at my onions. I’ve picked a few already and they’re excellent this year. I plant a lot of white, yellow and red onions.
These red onions will be ready soon and can be harvested on a dry day. After picking, they’ll be placed in a warm, dry area where they can cure.
This bed was planted with bush beans. My head gardener, Ryan McCallister, always keeps track of when to plant our crops and we always plant in succession, meaning we plant seeds every few weeks, so there is always something ready to harvest.
All the cucumbers are growing in the center of the garden along the fence-trellis. Cucumbers require a long growing season, and most are ready for harvest in 50 to 70 days from planting. The fruits ripen at different times on the vine, but it is essential to pick them when they are ready. If they are left on the vine too long, they tend to taste bitter.
Nearby is my bed of basil – both green and purple. Basil, also called great basil, is a culinary herb of the family Lamiaceae. Basil is native to tropical regions from central Africa to Southeast Asia. It is a tender plant, and is used in many cuisines. Since basil grows in tropical climates, it grows well in hot weather, and this season, we’ve had lots of it.
Globe artichokes, Cynara scolymus, are popular in both Europe and the United States. Artichokes are actually the flower buds, which emerge from the center of the plants.
The tomatillo, also known as the Mexican husk tomato, is a plant of the nightshade family bearing small, spherical, and green fruit.
These are birds beak peppers – they need a little more time. Birds beak peppers, also known as Pimenta Biquinho, are small, round peppers with a tapered tip that resembles a bird’s beak. They originated in Brazil and are known for their tangy, fruity flavor and mild heat level. Birds beak peppers can be eaten raw or used as a garnish – I like to pickle them.
This is sage. Salvia officinalis – a perennial, evergreen subshrub, with woody stems, grayish leaves, and blue to purplish flowers. It is a member of the mint family Lamiaceae and native to the Mediterranean region. It is popular in fall and winter cooking and baking.
Ryan occasionally picks a vegetable to see how it is doing. Here’s one of my carrots – looks really good! Most are familiar with the orange carrots, but they also grow in red, yellow, white, and purple.
In another bed – young Swiss chard. 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.
And remember my asparagus bed? After picking the last of the season’s stalks, it’s important to allow the fern-like foliage to grow through the remainder of the season. The foliage makes carbohydrates and sugars that get stored in the plant’s roots and crowns to help generate next year’s crop.
Everyone always asks what I do with all the vegetables I grow. I share them with my family, but I also share the bounties with friends, colleagues, and my hardworking crew here at the farm. I also provide fruits, vegetables, and eggs for photography and video shoots. And, of course, all my birds get vegetables too.
Martha Pins
Martha Tweets
