Harvest Monday

October 20, 2014

Today is the date of our first frost (zone 7b) and apparently this winter is supposed to be a doosey. However, we are still in the 40s at night (70s during the day) and I, for one, am THANKFUL! 🙂

Because of this, we are still able to harvest peas, tomatoes, peppers, and a few raspberries.Other than fresh eating, the peas are frozen for later use. We ran out of marinara/passata sauce this week so I made another batch with 2.5 bags of frozen tomatoes, picked earlier this summer.

Also, because we have not reached first frost, I have not had to:

• rip up the tomato patch including peppers, tomatoes, and marigolds
• harvest the rest of the sweet potatoes, which is good because I have NO CLUE where I am going to store all of those!
• cover any of my lettuces, spinach, or root crops that were planted late & will need protection
• cover my strawberry plants for the winter

And for all of this, I am thankful. I also see all of the work ahead of me and I am overwhelmed just thinking about it! I have spent the week getting out winter clothes for our family of eight. Not fun. Next week, I’m going to have to jump on my ‘prep the garden for the winter’ list.

The covered kale is really loving this cool weather. We have enjoyed many kale salads each night since not many of my spinach seeds sprouted and even less of my lettuce seeds. All is well. We love kale! 🙂 (From the garden: kale, green beans, sweet potatoes, peppers (in the bean burger). Also made at home – whole wheat bread)

Are you able to continue harvesting? Check out what other gardeners are up to at Daphne’s Dandelions for her weekly Harvest Monday!

fyi: these pics are NOT from Nieto Photography. I took the pics from my husband’s camera this week & asked him to send them to me so I could post. He is so incredibly busy this time of year, he forgot to take his tag off of it 🙂

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Harvest Monday

July 21, 2014

Sorry for the silence. I’ve been having blogging issues. They’re not fully fixed but hopefully they will be soon 🙂

We are getting more variety these days!

The blueberries have finally slowed down. Instead of getting 8 quarts of blueberries/day, last week we got 13 quarts for the whole week and this week only 8. Still plenty to feed us (along with strawberries) but none to freeze.

Next week, I think we’ll be able to harvest our first watermelon! 🙂 We have raspberry canes also but no berries. I wonder why. We’ve never had much luck with raspberries. Hopefully one year they will take off. I worry it is the climate. Is zone 7b too hot for raspberries? I realize we will have to buy fruit in the winter months but I would love to not buy fruit from the store during the summer months!

As you can see, we are getting zucchinis! We were able to harvest our first zucchini two weeks ago. It was very exciting since last year, I did not have any and already this year, squash bugs have killed two zucchini plants. Now, we are getting about 2/day and I am running out of ways to eat them 🙂

We are getting about two cucumbers and a handful of tomatoes daily. I planted a lot of colored bell peppers so though there are a lot on the plants, I am still waiting for them to ripen fully. We have harvested a few green ones while we wait on the rest. I am just finishing up the gallon freezer bag full of diced peppers from last summer. It worked out perfectly. Only problem — I can’t remember if I had two bags of peppers or only one…

We officially are not harvesting lettuce anymore. It all had to be ripped up. WAY too bitter from all the mid-90 degree days. I have some baby red romaine growing so we’ll see in a week or two how that tastes but until then, no lettuce. We can still (theoretically) have salads…with kale. There are only two problems:

1. With lettuce, we just have lettuce, no dressing. With kale, I have to marinate (more fore-thought)
2. The cabbage moths are out like CRAZY. My kale that looked so beautiful this past month are holey now 😦 I have to throw half of it to the chickens. So sad.

We are able to harvest beans once a week. I need to remember to plant beans in a row from now on. When they are in a block, they are much more difficult to harvest. I am also thinking about growing the purple variety just so I can harvest more easily (more easily visible)!Another thought on beans…I grew pole beans around my corn mainly for the purpose of annoying the raccoons. However, I am unable to harvest the vast majority and that is just a waste. So, I was thinking, maybe next year, I can plant my pinto & black beans around my corn…

1. It will climb the corn, taking care of the raccoon issue.
2. AND I won’t need to harvest them until I harvest the corn so I won’t be missing out on my bean harvest!

Sounds too simple…there must be an issue…but I can’t think of one yet. We’ll see how it works next year, if I can remember 😉

The last thing on the harvest tally this week is potatoes. I was just picking potatoes as we needed them but the red potatoes started looking…not smooth? I read somewhere that red potatoes are best eaten ‘new’ and if they are in the ground too long, they will become hollow. So I went ahead and pulled all of the red potatoes. I did it at dusk and when I was planting some kale seeds this week (very shallowly), I raked a potato up. I’m sure I missed some. I just hope it was not too many. The potatoes are in the basement, in a plastic milk crate, stacked and covered with newspaper. We are using these first. The other two types of potatoes we have are yukon gold and purple. What I want to do is leave them in the ground (until first frost) and use them as needed, rather than having to pull them all at once. Is that something I can do? Or do I need to pull them all as soon as the plants die back? I need some gardening advice (per usual)!

We also pulled our first corn but I can’t seem to find any pictures right now…

I’m trying to find a way to eat all of these veggies. I am fine with monotony — same veggies, cooked the same way, every night — but I’m afraid after a little while, my kids will say ENOUGH. So I am trying to find a variety of ways to cook them, healthily.

One night, we had steamed corn, potatoes, and green beans and zucchini tater tots. Another night we had the same thing, but this time with zucchini fritters (we like the tots better). Later in the week, we had pasta primavera, zucchini quiche, and steamed corn on the cob. It was SO beautiful! We used our zucchini, bell peppers, yellow squash, onions, carrots, cherry tomatoes, and eggs. It was a bit time consuming & I do have a 2mo who likes to be held A LOT. But I decided next time, if I have someone home to hold the cutie patootey, I’m also going to make kale salad and mashed potatoes. Other than cucumbers, that will take care of  ALL we have been harvesting from the garden 🙂 And fruit for dessert, of course…maybe some banana, blueberry, strawberry ‘ice cream’. Our favorite!

The sad news: no pictures. The camera wasn’t working and my husband was away with all of his cameras (wedding photographer). I WILL be making that supper many more times though so pictures will come eventually. Everyone but the 2yo loved it. He was just skeptical because he couldn’t tell what everything was. He loves cherry tomatoes but because I cut them up, it took a lot of convincing to get him to try them. Silly boy.

Can you tell I’m trying to be especially creative with zucchini? I have never had luck growing zucchini but this year, I have three plants that are producing wonderfully! They are in the old pea patch. Everything seems to do well in that area. It was prepped by the chickens last summer. I used 3 zucchini in our supper last night and we still have 7 on the counter! I know I could freeze it but I would rather use it fresh 🙂

The mama hen, with the 4 week old chick, has started laying again! Crazy. And I think our other chick (of the rooster/hen pair) may be laying…I don’t know how to tell without looking at her bottom though & that ain’t happenin’. Her comb is getting red though. She (and the rooster/her brother) are my daughter’s and she wants to get paid for the eggs so we do need to know when she starts laying…question is: is is worth it to isolate her to see?

Head on over to Daphne’s Dandelions to see what other gardeners around the world are harvesting! 🙂

Harvest Monday

June 23, 2014

This is the first week we have had a more varied harvest. I am certainly not complaining about our greens harvests. I love greens! I would prefer to have more weeks of greens…alas, in North Carolina, our springs are just too short. On to summer! 🙂

I am still harvesting lettuce. It is starting to be a bit bitter as we have been hitting mid-90s pretty regularly but I am still eating it because I love salads, I know how good it is for me (organic and what-not), and I don’t want it to go to waste!The strawberry…let me explain…We got strawberry plants from my parents for Christmas this year. They are everbearing plants. It is suggested to pinch off the flowers the first season so the plants can get established. We did this…for 2 months. I kept waiting for them to stop flowering (what with our high temperatures) but they never did…so I gave up. So we are getting a trickling of strawberries right now and I am hoping for a real harvest in the fall. (This was actually the first strawberry harvested. VERY juicy!) (another strawberry and a bowl-full of blueberries)(handful of strawberries)

Our blueberry bushes are coming along. As I said before, this past week was INSANEly busy so I did not have very much time to pick but it worked out as the blueberries still needed a bit more time to fully ripen.(about 2 quarts of blueberries…it’s picking up!)

I took a picture of my son’s plate the other morning. I was so happy to see all home/local grown/made food on his plate! This is the goal for ALL meals 🙂(berries from our garden, egg from our chickens, strawberries from a local farm (raw jam made with strawberries and flaxseed in the food processor), homemade bread with wheat berries ground in our kitchen)

I was able to harvest some potatoes this week! Man! The difference in taste of store bought versus homegrown…I also harvested the first of the green beans (snaps)! 😀 These are one of few foods we ONLY eat in season (a few others are blueberries, strawberries, corn, and tomatoes) so the first ones are such a treat! 🙂(and later in the week, some more…)

Another meal to be proud of…(Our lettuce, beans, and potatoes…corn from a friend’s 2013 garden. We also had Sloppy Joes (made with chickpeas, pinto beans, tomato sauce, onion, and spices) on homemade bread but there was no room on the plate so it was added later 😉 )

And last, but certainly not least, was a grocery bag stuffed with kale. It was promptly juiced. (Mean Green Juice) YUM!One more ‘harvest’ to mention…Only one chick hatched. However, since all were duds for our last broody hen, I’ll take one. One is still a win for us 🙂

Will I be able to add a cucumber or our first tomato to the harvest tally next week?! We’ll see!

Check out what others are harvesting and what they are doing with their harvests over at Daphne’s Dandelions 🙂

Harvest Monday

July 1, 2013

Little by little, we’re harvesting more and more each week. This week, I harvested a LARGE bowl of blueberries (I can get one of these every 3 days or so). I froze this batch – it was a gallon bag full.

(I had two full pans like this. Once frozen, I slide them into a gallon freezer bag.)

I harvested lettuce every other day for meals.

I harvested green beans every other day for meals (as a side dish (steamed) and once in a veggie pot pie). I harvested carrots once for lunch (we are finishing up a large 2lb bag from the grocery store then we’ll be eating more carrots from the garden).

(we love being surprised by the sizes and shapes of each carrot we pull 🙂 )

I harvested some potatoes to put in a pasta salad (with potatoes, apples, raisins, chickpeas, garden peas, pasta & mayo) and to roast with bean burgers we’re having this week.

I am harvesting about 1/2 a week’s worth of kale. I stopped planting seeds when my winter plants bolted but the spring-planted kale is still going strong! Note to self – DON’T stop planting!!!

I stopped planting lettuce for about a month as well (stupid! stupid!). I started planting it again but we’ll have a lull in garden lettuce for a time, I think.

Another item I ‘harvested was an apple.

(I am assuming it was a/some bird(s)? What do you think?)

I am pleased with how much I have been able to harvest from the garden this year compared to last year and I am already planning for next year. Oh, and I just realized, I need to already start planting for the fall garden. It snuck up on me – I am not prepared! I’ll try to figure out what to plant and where it all goes this week or next 🙂

Are you already planting for the fall/winter? What are you planting? Are there parts of your garden you let rest? I’m trying how to figure out how to do that…

I’m linking to Daphne’s Dandelions for Harvest Monday today. Check it out! 🙂

Harvest Monday

June 24, 2013

I keep saying kale is done but it keeps producing! No complaining here! Because food is best fresh picked, however, I am still getting the hang of remembering to take pictures after I harvest and before I eat. This week, kale was picked and promptly used (juiced).

I picked lettuce, and handful of blueberries, and snaps (green beans) just about every day this week for supper. I remembered to take a picture one of those days 😉

I was weeding the other day and accidentally pulled a carrot.

(result of stripping the pea plants and pulling weeds)

We have never been able to grow carrots before but the seed was getting old so I just threw some in this year. Even though we have clay soil, the BTE method of gardening is supposed to condition/fertilize your soil every time it rains (which has been A LOT this year so far) so it was a good experiment. After I pulled one accidental carrot, I let the kids pull one each and we ate them for lunch the next day. Apparently I forgot to take a pic but this was the typical size – we were just thinning). I was nervous for taste but they tasted pretty good! Yay for the carrot experiment! The next day, my husband went out and bought some more carrot seed for me 🙂

We went away for the weekend and when we got back, we got a much larger blueberry harvest than normal. The interesting thing is, the blueberries are cracking this year. They are so large, they look like a bunch of grapes! The three things that are different this year than in years past is

1. There was no late spring frost to kill some of the berries so there are more on each bush.
2. I pruned the bushes HEAVILY this winter, which means all of their energy went into producing more berries.
3. It has rained A LOT more this winter and spring than normal.

I assume the cracking is from the rain. It does not affect taste at all – just a curious sight to see…

I am linking to Harvest Monday over at Daphne’s Dandelions. Check out what other people are harvesting – go be inspired 🙂