Reaping a Gardener's Rewards

August is the best time in the garden. Everything is at it's peak and we eat from the garden everyday!

We've been enjoying our corn immensely. Ella is our resident corn shuck-er. We only have enough to eat fresh this year, not enough to freeze (which I will miss!) because of my uneven watering.

Everyone but Daddy loves beets.

One of our favorite meals is just cooking tons of garden veggies, and maybe some rice. The only additions I made to this meal were butter, salt, and pepper!

We are finally starting to harvest some tomatoes. That's what I get for planting so late, and I knew that but I'm still impatient! The carrots are about ready too.

We have had so much broccoli! I harvest it once or twice a week by the bowl full. It's definitely something I am doing again next year. 

I missed a week of harvesting when we were really busy (camping, cousins in town, end of summer bbqs, etc.) and when I finally got back out there I was overwhelmed! In one day we picked a watermelon, and cantaloupe, a bunch of beets, two bowls of beans, tons of green and aneheim peppers, a large bag of broccoli, two bags of kale (this is endless), loads of zucchini, and three butternut squash. I froze some kale and gave some peppers and zucchini away, but most of it we ate fresh!

Last Sunday I made a classic meal that is 100x better from sratch... burgers and fries! We don't buy grass-fed beef very often, so it's a real treat. We added tomatoes from the garden and baked fries from our own potatoes! It was delish.

It's About Time...

I need to do better tracking the garden progress! I always look back to previous years and wonder why I didn't take more pictures. It's helpful to look back and see how big things were and what to expect year to year.

I am tickled to say this is the best luck I've ever had with broccoli and spinach! Both are producing bumper crops. It about broke my heart to thin the broccoli, and it's still about twice as thick as it should be. I have been picking gallon ziplocs of spinach and washing and freezing them for smoothies. And I can't keep up!

The rainbow carrots, beets and two rows of bush beans are on their way.
 

My indoor planting of tomato seeds wasn't very fruitful, and I talked to a lady who just plants seeds in the ground in May, so I thought I'd try it! Tomatoes grow so fast anyway, what's a couple weeks head start? The left row is an indeterminate variety that I hope to stake, and the right row varies more, with two cherry tomatoes and a Roma I got from my neighbor, and a bush variety from seed. 

We planted three types of pumpkins this year, and I'm always amazed that the plant itself is an indicator of fruit size--small, medium, and large! The far mound is an heirloom carving variety, the middle a 200 pounder, and the close a 1000 pounder! We planted them outside the garden in a large flower bed area, and we'll let them just go wherever they want. Should be interesting to watch and see!

We put our giant sunflowers on the opposite side of the garden this, closer to the front of our house. It will be fun to see them more as we come and go. Behind them you can kind of see the zucchini mounds (I have 5 growing right now and I need to pull a few or I'll be kicking myself!) and a whole row of butternut squash.

The peas are flowering and turning to pods. We squealed with delight when we spotted all those sweet peas growing!

The kale is out of control, and I love it! We have used it in smoothies, salads, and today we made a batch of kale chips that got scarfed in a matter of minutes. Requests are in for more tomorrow.

At the top of this picture are the 6 red potato plants that are doing fabulously well! In the same row are four bell peppers and an Anaheim from Peggy. Down the middle of the picture is the melon row, with watermelons at the top and cantaloupes at the bottom. This is the best start to melons we've ever had, so we're excited!

Not everything is doing well, though. My cucumbers never came up from seed, and I almost gave up on the onions, but now I see about 7 or 8 that might make it. I'll need to separate them soon so they can start to bulb out, so we'll see how that goes.  
 

The corn experiment is on! I planted each row a week apart to extend our harvest. Hopefully it helps!

The view of the whole thing from the corn side. I'm pretty happy with it overall this year. Let the fun begin! As I've been writing this, I've realized just how much produce I'm going to have on my hands in a few months!

My favorite thing is when my kids stay nearby and help. Ella takes the most interest right now and knows what everything is and how it's doing. Tonight she caught a butterfly and a ladybug. Jake pulled some lettuce for me (so helpful) and they all gathered strawberries and helped me eat them. Yum!

Tall as a Beanstalk

 

The sunflowers are blooming, the sunflowers are blooming! I am just so excited!

We tried a different brand of seed this year, and they just keep growing and growing and growing. Last year's were shorter with bigger heads, but I kind of like this year's that remind me of Jack and the Beanstalk.

The cornstalks are also a source of excitement... the tassels are browning, so we tried a few for dinner. They weren't quite ready, but I didn't want to miss the window like I almost did last year!

We also ate our first broccoli grown ourselves... I am still trying to figure out the right timing. The head seemed too small a few days ago, but when I picked it, it was almost ready to flower. It tasted great, but I am learning by trial and error!

92 Ears of Corn

Yesterday was corn pickin' day.

It was high time to get it done. In fact, I almost missed the window due to ignorance. This is the first time I have grown corn, and I didn't know there is only a short window of about 10 days when the corn is perfect for picking!

On August 7th we picked our first six ears and it seemed a little immature so we waited a little longer. Then on August 17th we picked some and a few of them seemed almost chewy, which means they had dried out! The best rule of thumb I have found it to pick corn when the silk on top is still green and fresh, and not to wait too long after it turns brown.

So yesterday I rallied the troops and we went out to the garden and picked every ear we could find.... all 69 of them! Combined with earlier pickings our yield was a whopping 92 ears! This amazes me, not only because of the large quantity, but because Mike made a spreadsheet with yield calculations when we planned our garden, and we thought we'd get about 90 ears of corn. Pretty close, eh?

 

My little helping hands...

All loaded up!

I spent the afternoon shucking on the front porch, which was actually very enjoyable now that the temps are not quite so hot and I have pretty plants to look at.

After a four minute dip in boiling water (called blanching to destroy the enzymes before freezing), the cobs were ready for cutting.
 

I read about this awesome idea for cutting corn off the cob--use a bundt pan! It worked beautifully! I just used a sharp knife and spun the pan as I went. 

It seems crazy that 69 ears of corn only filled up 5 gallon bags, but it also filled up two large trash bags with husks and cobs!

I am excited to have fresh sweet corn for the winter and I'm already salivating over recipes like corn chowder and chicken barley chili (with corn). Luckily I saved a few cobs in the fridge to enjoy one last time for dinner... there's nothing like fresh corn on the cob!