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Hi,
This week hopefully will be the start of our watermelon harvest. We grow primarily Crimson Sweet melons, which average between 15 and 25 pounds, and Lantha, which are a dark green ice box type melon (small enough to fit in most fridges). We will be selling our Lantha as "Sugar Baby" melons because they really are a "Sugar Baby" hybrid. The main difference between the two melons is that Lantha is a bit larger and much better tasting! We also are growing this year an heirloom melon called Charleston Grey. This long, large watermelon, as I remember, used to be the primary watermelon variety grown in the south and shipped to northern states. We also have made a small test planting of a seedless melon called Imagination. It grew well-we will see how it tastes. In addition to watermelon we have planted muskemelon and we also hope to start picking them this week sometime.
By the way, I have written several articles, each of which have been printed in various magazines, about growing watermelon in the north. It apparently is a very popular subject. Annemarie thinks I should write another article on watermelon despite the fact she doesn't like to eat watermelon! Talking about articles, I have an article coming up real soon in BackHome on the science behind home canning and especially about pH, a short article in Make Magazine about the science behind burnt cookie bottoms and how to avoid this catastrophe, along with a major article, with many color photos, in Make Magazine on making a light stand so you can start plants in your basement. I recommend that you take a good look at both of these fine magazines and if you like what you see subscribe to them.
We are done picking our early peaches so now there is a short lull until the mid-season varieties like Raritan Rose, Redhaven, PF17 and others are ripe. Our Shiro (yellow) plums are now in abundance and are delicious eating. We also will be picking our Santa Rosa and Burbank plums in a week or so. We are picking our Melba apples and our Viking will be ready shortly and our red Starkrimson pears should be ready in less than two weeks.
While our large slicing tomatoes are starting to come in well, it will be roughly 10 days before we will be selling canning tomatoes by the ½ bushel. We still have good quantities of the delicious "Little Red" and SunSugar cherry tomatoes.
Our sweet corn harvest is continuing and in addition to our bi-color Mirai we now have white Sugar Pearl. However, I'm not sure if we will have any Sugar Pearly left by next weekend. However, we have made more plantings of white corn for a bit later in the season. We will be continuing our 3 dozen sweet corn for $10 special this week so this week might be a good week to can or freeze corn especially since the temps should be getting back closer to normal.
If you want pickling cucumbers, this might be the week to get them. While we hope they will last for another week, there are no guarantees. We are into our second patch of pickles/cukes. The third patch was planted late and might not make it.
For those who still are looking to can/freeze beans think about next week starting on August 14. We will be starting to pick our last large patch of beans toward the end of this week and they should peak next week. We do have a couple of small patches of beans after this.
Nashle,
Tom
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