As usual I have planted too many vegetables in too close of a proximity - I have some things I haven't planted before, namely "white eggplant" and need some input into when to pick them, I am totally unfamiliar with them.
I usually buy the things I am going to plant later rather than early, when they are discounted. This year I think I was probably too late & couldn't buy quite a bit of the variety that I wanted & was used to growing. Example, I cook quite a bit of the multi-colored eggplant, the small purple and white kind -- but I couldn't find any of those plants this year.
I have white eggplant growing as well as Japanese eggplant, and I am used to growing the multi-color and purple kind of "regular" variaties. I have these white eggplants in multitudes, anyone here have any experience with them? I have looked them up via google and have read various things "pick them when they are the size of a chicken egg" "pick them when they are the size of a goose egg" WTF??? Mine are already the size of a kids baseball I would have to say. Should I pick them now? They area REALLY round, I would say about the size of a baseball. I have absolutely NO experience with this kind of eggplant.
The other eggplants I have planted are of the Japanese variety, long, purple and slim. I actually only have ONE of them possibly ready to pick... it is about 7" long and slender, I haven't picked it yet.
Though I search my garden every day, it has become quite obvious to me that I have been not searching well enough. I just found some cucumbers today that are quite obviously beyond the picking time, they are like 16" long and have turned a yellow color. I will still slice part of them to see what they taste like, but I expect them to be just to be grown and too bitter to eat.
All of my tomato plants, all kinds, are producing nicely on a daily basis. I did this experiment this year with one of my tomato plants (cutting off the top) when I first planted it, to see if it would 'bush out' more.. total disaster... this plant has only yielded three tomato's, and no yellow flowers.. The "only" THREE tomatoes that this plant has yielded are HUGE though.
I have no idea what to do with the multitude of bananna peppers that are coming into fruitation - any ideas would be blessedly welcome. I don't even know when they should be picked. I have had a hard time this year buying the types of peppers that I use regularly. Mine are now the size of a small bananna and yellow, about six inches long "should they be picked" ???
Living where I live (upstate NY) of course I have apple trees -- the squirrels have been enjoying the premature crop I have noticed.
There is some kind of 'weird weather thing' or something going on here. I have lived on these two acres for quite some time. All of the acorns start dropping around the first week in October, for some 27 years , & they are now dropping as of last week (first week of August).
Where I live the weather I would have to say is quite a bit dryer than it has been in the past, for myself and my neighbors who depend on "well water" for our homes, it is kind of scary. Tonight I actually heard the sound of a "pounder driller" 1/8th of a mile down the road. When our water wells fail, we are F'D, excuse the language.
Where I live we have no access to town/city water as well as natural gas lines for our heating option during the cold weather months. Some of the more fancier homes on my once corn-field / farmland / type of street depend on propane fuel.
We have had several homes in the past few years "blown totally apart" with an almost 100% deaths of the persons in each of these homes fueled by propane. The most recent one pretty much absolutely horrific with small children and an infant involved.