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 🙂

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Harvest Monday

August 19, 2013

I harvested some bush beans at the beginning of this week after ripping out the plants. I was also able to harvest my first yellow squash! Very exciting after the other three plants I planted rotted (all 5 zucchini plants rotted).

These beans from the spent plants were steam-blanched, frozen on a tray, and then put into a freezer bag. I am harvesting Roma tomatoes and a few what I call ‘regular’ tomatoes as they ripen. However, because of our incessant rain this year, they are really starting to split and the ants are trying to get to them before I can. So I am having to bring some in before they ripen on the vine.

(‘Regular’ tomato (sorry, I can’t remember the variety), Roma, and two ‘Jellybean’ tomatoes)

I harvested some more pole beans from my daughter’s garden (about $2.50 worth) and squash from my garden later in the week.

More bush beans and tomatoes.

Do you notice the tomato that looks different? Two (maybe three?) years ago, Daphne from Daphne’s Dandelions asked if anyone wanted some seeds. I said I would so she sent me some Amish Paste tomatoes, Cherokee Purple tomatoes, and a couple varieties of lettuce.

I have had issues growing tomatoes in the past and this year, with all of the transplanting, even after everything came up, I was unsure what varieties survived. Apparently, one of her Cherokee Purple tomato plants survived! So excited! Thank you Daphne! All of our tomatoes are splitting from the rain but it looks really pretty on the bottom 🙂

(husband’s hand, not mine 😉 )

FUTURE HARVESTS:

I am STILL waiting on our cantaloupes.

I see peas on the horizon!

And we will finally be eating greens from our garden again soon! It has been three months since we’ve eating spinach, two months since we’ve eaten lettuce from the garden, and one month since we’ve eaten kale from the garden. I am buying some from the store but it just doesn’t taste as good

(Spinach at the top, Carrots in the middle, Lettuce at the bottom)

I did harvest a handful of baby lettuce leaves but they were not very tasty. I know they will taste better as the temperature cools though so I am still looking forward to tasty lettuce!

And, of course, another harvest I am waiting for is…eggs. I have Orpingtons and Australorps. Both are supposed to be great layers but they also do not start laying until 23-26 (or 28) weeks. Mine are 24 weeks. I am trying to be patient 🙂

I am linking with Daphne’s Dandelions for Harvest Monday. Check out what everyone else is harvesting!

Harvest Monday

August 12, 2013

Where has this week gone? We are still eating off of previous weeks’ harvests of green beans so I haven’t harvested any this week. I picked the last corn (that wasn’t stolen by the raccoons) this week, pulled all of the stalks, and started planting beans in those beds (snaps and peas) to replenish some nitrogen. The chickens enjoy tearing apart the stalks. I also am continuing to harvest more tomatoes as they ripen on the vine.

I am looking forward to harvesting some yellow squash (late planting – earlier plantings all died) this week and some cantaloupe.

I think the cucumber vine is just too shaded by the pole beans. I have a second planting…we’ll see if we have warm enough weather to get some more cucumbers from this planting.

One thing we are NOT harvesting is…eggs 😦 We ordered our chicks with a friend (she got 10, we got 20). She is getting approximately 2/day. We are still getting nothing Our chickens are 23 weeks old today. They get plenty of water, plenty of grass & bugs, food (not a ton because we want them to forage but enough…), plenty of room to roam, and are not stressed out. I am getting very impatient. I was not happy when I had to put eggs on the grocery store this week. Maybe next week…

(chillin’ in the tractor…rooster cleaning himself)

I planted spinach, lettuce, kale, carrots, peas, and snaps last week. I also ordered more carrots, cabbage, spinach and peas to plant next week. It may be too late to plant some of these but you never know with crazy North Carolina weather. I’ll plant a few and see what happens!

I also took a wet area of the garden (previously covered by plastic & mulch), ripped up the plastic, covered it with vegetable and chicken compost (after cleaning the coop), and covered it back up with mulch. This will be our potato patch in the spring. Paul Gautschi said potatoes like moisture (he plants by a pond) so we think this is our best bet (even though it is shaded until almost noon – still, that’s 6-8hrs in the spring & summer).

Check out what everyone else is harvesting this week at Daphne’s Dandelions!

Harvest Monday

July 22, 2013

Still getting snaps, potatoes (plants are still looking gorgeous), and blueberries from the garden 🙂 Blueberries are finishing up. There are only a few bushes left with blueberries ripening.

The raspberries officially succumbed to the intense amount of rain we have had this year. I am hoping they will perk back up in the spring and we will be pleasantly surprised. We’ll see.

We’re patiently waiting on the cucumbers, corn, cantaloupe, and tomatoes. Our summer has been unusually cool for North Carolina!

Some exciting news: I have a pepper changing color! I have never had success growing peppers in the past and very little success growing tomatoes. This year, I started peppers in my greenhouses and was very pleased with the results. Still, we only had one pepper.from all of those plants. I figured one was better than none and I see that as a success 🙂

As this one started to change colors, however, we noticed many more were starting to form as well! So exciting 🙂

I am always asking for help regarding one thing or another so today’s question is about the chickens: they are 20 weeks today! yay! so, we are expecting eggs any day now. All of a sudden, one or two are getting out of the run. They have not gotten out in months and now, it is a common occurrence.

I know when cats are about to have their kittens, they’ll go off and hide to have them but I didn’t think chickens were that way. I know they want privacy to lay eggs but we have nesting boxes in a dark part of the coop with lots of hay; not to mention the run is almost fully shaded with lots of great spots to lay…I wonder why they are trying to escape all of a sudden.

Anyone been there/done that? Any ideas? I am itching for some eggs!!! Maybe next week, I’ll be able to include some in my ‘Harvest Monday‘ post 🙂 Check out what everyone else is harvesting this week!

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! 🙂