Sunday, August 5, 2012

Days 746 - 766 Peak Produce

Today I was out picking the daily produce and I was astounded that I picked more than 13 pounds of fruit and vegetables in one morning. Thus the title, "Peak Produce". I have to believe that early August has to be the peak of my garden here in Sonoma County. Surely cannot sustain 13 pounds of produce every day for very long.

A while ago somebody asked me how much time I spent on my garden. Honestly, there is some time that is used for planting seeds, starts and taking care of the weeding...but my answer to him was that most of my time was spent harvesting stuff. I try to do it all in the morning and I find that the plants respond better if I harvest when it is nice and cool as opposed to during the mid-day heat. Each morning I must spend a good 15 minutes gathering from the garden. Due to this blog, I do spend a little more time tallying up the totals each day and weighing stuff that I need to do so I can get a dollar figure. Fifteen minutes may not seem like a lot of time...and it is not a problem right now, but being a teacher, once school starts, the mornings are a bit more time-sensitive and I will have to get up a bit earlier just to keep up with the great stuff that is coming out!! Cannot complain too much though since I get to bring all of this fresh stuff to work with me for snacks!!

Did only three weeks this time since the amount we have been havesting is much greater (as opposed to the winter when we harvest one or two varieties of citrus).

A three-week summary if you do not want to read the details:
Lemons: 4 ($2.00)
Chard: 7 bunches ($14.00)
Strawberries: 2.5 baskets ($5.00)
Blueberries: 1.5 baskets ($3.00)
Peaches: 120 ($70.50)
Zucchini: 37 ($34.00)
Cucumber: 27 ($17.00)
Tomatoes: 24 ($27.00)
Cherry Tomato: 2 baskets ($4.00)
Pears: 37 ($32.50)
Asian Pears: 4 ($3.75)
Grapes: 1.75 lb ($3.50)

Year 3, Day 15
1) 1 tomato
2) 1 cucumber
3) 15 peaches
4) 1 basket blueberries

Year 3, Day 16
gone

Year 3, Day 17
1) 6 zucchini
2) 1 tomato

Year 3, Day 18
1) 2 zucchini
2) 5 peaches
3) 1 bunch chard
4) 1 tomato
5) 3 cucumbers

Year 3, Day 19
1) 27 peaches
2) 1 tomato
3) 2 zucchini
4) 1 bunch chard

Year 3, Day 20
1) 36 peaches
2) 2 cucumbers
3) 2 bunches chard

Year 3, Day 21
gone

Year 3, Day 22
1) 5 zucchini
2) 2 cucumbers
3) 1 tomato
4) 2 lemons

Year 3, Day 23
1) 2 lemons
2) 2 cucumbers
3) 3 zucchini

Year 3, Day 24
gone

Year 3, Day 25
1) 5 cucumbers
2) 2 zucchini
3) 2 tomatoes
4) 5 peaches
5) 3 pears
6) 1 basket cherry tomatoes

Year 3, Day 26
1) 2 tomatoes
2) 3 bunches chard

Year 3, Day 27
1) 4 tomatoes
2) 3 zucchini
3) 3 cucumber
4) 1/2 basket blueberries
5) 1 peach

Year 3, Day 28
1) 3 peaches
2) 1 basket strawberries
3) 5 pears
4) 2 zucchini
5) 1 asian pear

Year 3, Day 29
1) 1 cucumber
2) 1 peach
3) 6 pears
4) 1 zucchini

Year 3, Day 30
1) 1 1/4 lb grapes
2) 3 zucchini
3) 1 basket cherry tomatoes
4) 2 cucumbers
5) 6 pears
6) 3 peaches

Year 3, Day 31
gone

Year 3, Day 32
1) 3 tomatoes
2) 5 zucchini
3) 1 cucumber
4) 9 peaches

Year 3, Day 33
1) 9 peaches
2) 1/2 lb grapes

Year 3, Day 34
1) 7 peaches
2) 9 pears
3) 4 cucumbers
4) 5 tomatoes
5) 3 zucchini

Year 3, Day 35
1) 8 pears
2) 1 1/2 baskets strawberries
3) 3 tomatoes
4) 1 cucumber
5) 3 asian pears

Three-Week harvest: $216.25
Total Produce Harvested : $3640.50
Total Honey Harvested: $520.00
Expenses: $430.00