Harvest Monday

August 3, 2015

I spent the week harvesting onionstomatoes (We’re freezing about 3 gallons/week.)

beans (and cucumbers) a few raspberries and strawberries a few cantaloupe summer and winter squash (I have more plants growing that will hopefully yield more later but the plants that produced these were done.) and potatoes.I spent a couple of days harvesting potatoes. I let them dry on the mulch for a day, inside for two days, and then wrapped them in newspaper and put them in the cool basement in a milk crate.

Last year, I alternated a layer of potatoes and newspaper. However, last fall, I wrapped my sweet potatoes in newspaper (individually) and they kept for over 6 months. I thought I would try it for garden potatoes.

One thing I found interesting: When I harvested the potatoes, they were smooth and beautiful. I laid them out to cure for three days. As I wrapped them up, certain varieties were wrinkly. They looked like potatoes look after a few months in the basement. There is no way we could eat all of them now so I still wrapped them and put them in the basement anyway but I am curious to see what will happen. Part of me wonders if it is just various types don’t cure/store well because the Yukon Gold were not wrinkly after curing.

I need to figure out what varieties I want to order for next year. The Yukon Gold did not wrinkle when they cured but they also rotted in the ground more than I would like. The Red Adirondack (an impulse buy) produced wonderfully; however, they were the ones that wrinkled when curing. I will just have to make sure we eat those fresh and store another variety. Red Norlunds, which are very popular in my area, rotted worse than any other variety. Part of me wonders if it was just where they were planted (a new section, with not as much sun)…I may give them another year but I haven’t decided yet. I need to find a few good storage potatotes. Anyone in a fairly rainy zone 7b have suggestions?

Another interesting potato observance is that although the vast majority of the plants died completely back, there is a section that is still going strong. I wonder if this is the unknown storage potatoes I bought at the feed store. I can’t remember exactly where I planted certain varieties. We’ll see when they do die back. (all of the mulch in the pic above was potato plants) This week, we went ahead and stripped the corn stalks (with no edible corn) this week. The beans that were climbing up the corn stalks were picked and are drying in the kitchen. The beans that were not climbing were left to (hopefully) dry, even though they are not climbing up anything anymore.(beans left in a canopy of sunflowers) What are you harvesting? Check out what other gardeners are up to at Daphne’s Dandelions today!

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Harvest Monday

July 20, 2015

This week, we harvested the last of our spring carrots and the first of our summer beans PotatoesTomatoes (and a handful of strawberries) They all ripened indoors and were promptly eaten or frozen for marinara sauce in the winter. We have to ripen them indoors partially because they split from our wet July, partially because our groundhog(s) love them so much).

Cucumbers (enough for fresh eating and then LOTS of overripe ones (on purpose) for the chickens)

Spaghetti Squash(the groundhog was showing interest so I decided to go ahead and harvest it)

and…we harvested FIVE watermelon this week! (and one butternut squash) or should I say, the groundhog(s) harvested them. Grrrrrr. The chickens got what was left of the unripe melons. What a waste! We made cages for the melons and winter squash we have left. (sorry, no pictures) Hopefully, this will work. We’ll see. I loathe those stinkin’ critters! If I owned a gun… and breathe. I’m sure you empathize – when you spend time growing something beautiful like butternut squash or moon and stars watermelon, you want to EAT the fruit of your labor! 😛

Anyway, we ate one of my favorite meals this week with our produce: Pasta Primavera (onion, tomatoes, zucchini, carrots, yellow squash, patty pan squash), zucchini quiche, and mashed potatoes (potatoes). Mmmmmmmmmmmm. This meal barely beats out my other favorite – bean burgers – with the same sides along with steamed green beans and a salad (just don’t have the energy to make ALL the sides 🙂 )

Since the whole garden is weeded (yay!), we spent the week tying up raspberries and volunteer tomatoes, making cages for the melons, and weeding the brick path. We will finish that up this week – then it’s on to the newly mulched area. We added a new area to the garden this winter but bit off more than we could chew and it shows! The bermuda grass is coming through everywhere. So, this week, when we finish weeding the brick area and the perennial bed beside the brick path, we’ll start tackling the bermuda grass. Pull, cover with newspaper, cover with mulch, repeat. THEN stay.on.top.of.it. I did that last year in the section we added last August and it worked.

What are you harvesting? What are your relentless critters and how do you take care of them? Check out what other gardeners are up to at Daphne’s Dandelions.

 

Harvest Monday

December 8, 2014

I was able to uncover the hoophouse this week. It never got in the low 30s at night and the daytime highs were in the 50s and 60s. It was a beautiful week. Next week is going to get colder so  I had to cover everything back up yesterday.

Not wanting to get out more covers and unable to keep the chickens away, I went ahead and pulled all of my baby carrots that were previously uncovered. Hopefully, I will have better luck growing carrots next year. I also harvested a bit of spinach.We ate this salad with baked beans. Also from the garden, we ate baked sweet potatoes, steamed green beans, and pecans.This may not look like a lot but this is my 3yo’s plate. Everyone else ate more 🙂 The vast majority of the pecans are eaten on the porch. Very few make it to a meal. And this is not all they eat — they always have seconds and fruit.

I baked my last spaghetti squash this week. It is the only one that has not molded in storage. It was rather large as well. I went ahead and saved some seeds. One less thing to buy for next year!

Also, note to self, grow MORE spaghetti squash! I was able to freeze enough bags for two more dinners but I would like to grow enough to last me through the winter.

We harvested kale this week for a yummy salad. We probably only have a few more weeks of kale harvests. I need to remember to grow more kale next year!

Some vegetables that we are NOT running out of: tomatoes, green beans, sweet potatoes, and green peppers. Pretty much everything else we need to grow more of but we are good to go (so far) with these vegetables 🙂

Check out what others are harvesting at Daphne’s Dandelions today.

Harvest Monday

October 13, 2014

We harvested peas, raspberries, peppers, tomatoes, and spinach this week. All of the peas were eaten in the garden. The peppers and tomatoes were eaten as part of lunch as soon as they were picked.

The only harvest picture I remembered to take was the night we only had a taste of raspberries and spinach. Keep in mind, if I were the only person eating, it would have been a nice little salad and dessert. Seeing how we have 5 kids to feed, everyone only got a smidgin that night 🙂 So this week, I’ll share how I am consuming the harvest and less about what is being picked.

Pot Pie, Brown Rice, Spinach and RaspberryFrom the garden:

• sweet potato
• green beans
• peas
• corn
• spinach
• raspberry

Another night we had a hodge-podge of ‘main dishes’ (anything from enchilada casserole to baked beans or sloppy joes — basically leftovers) along with green beans, sweet potatoes, and a spinach salad from the garden.

Pizza Night! Spinach, artichoke, cream cheese pizza; tomato, mushroom, pepper pizza, green beans, and spaghetti squash.I have always felt badly about pizza night b/c pizza is so unhealthy so I limit it to twice a month. I didn’t realize it until this week, however, that our pizza night meal, other than the cheese, is a very healthy meal!

From the garden:

• spaghetti squash
• green beans
• tomatoes (veggie pizza, pizza sauce, and marinara sauce on the spaghetti squash)
• green peppers (veggie pizza)
• kale (white veggie pizza)

The crust is just hard white wheat, yeast, and water. AND, when available from the garden, we also have a salad of some sort! I’m starting to feel better about pizza night 🙂 Yum!

I am linking up with Daphne’s Dandelions to see what others are harvesting from their gardens in October and I am hoping to harvest much more this week!

Using the Harvest

October 1, 2014

What have you been doing with all of that garden produce this summer? My desire is to eat it straight from the garden. I want to truly eat seasonally so I would prefer to not preserve most of our harvests.

However, we do not do that 100%. I freeze extra produce —

• peas
• green beans
• corn
• tomatoes (to use in soups or sauces later in the year)
• blueberries

Lately, I have been running out of room in the freezer so I made some marinara sauce.We store extra produce in the basement as well —

• potatoes
• sunflowers
• pumpkins
• spaghetti squash
• watermelons

We noticed some spaghetti squash was molding this week so I cut off the molded parts, cooked, and froze those. I saved the sunflowers for the winter for the chickens but I realized now is actually a good time to give them the sunflowers because they are moulting and need extra protein so I am throwing the heads out to them, little by little.

We are also eating the potatoes, little by little. We have about a month’s worth left; which works out perfectly, since that’s when the sweet potatoes will be ready to be harvested.

Of the watermelon that was harvested this year, some were given away but most were put in our basement. We are currently eating the last one and the kids are done. This is what eating seasonally looks like, folks. The first taste of whatever crop is wonderfully anticipated. By the time the crop is done, so are the eaters, typically. 🙂