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.

Garden Growth

This was actually a week ago now that I'm finally getting to these pictures. The green is exploding-- I swear everything grows so fast you could probably watch it. It would be interesting to take a photo from the same spot every day and see the changes.

Here's a little garden tour, left to right. 

The pumpkin patch is filling out. Unfortunately, it's also dwindling. I noticed a few leaves turning yellow last week and thought it was lack of water, but no, it's the dreaded squash bugs!!! I have since killed handfuls of the parent bugs, nymphs, and eggs, but I'm still losing the battle. I am so sad. Dang those ornery bugs! I had such high hopes for great big pumpkins this year, but we'll be lucky to get a few small ones.

The giant sunflowers are getting tall, passing up the garden posts they grow between. A few are setting flowers.

The butternut squash is spreading, but again, they have grown so much since I took this picture! I might have to pull out a grouping of zucchini to give them room, which I won't cry about because I have 8 medium zucchini on my counter right now and I already made bread and cookies with it!
 

The tomatoes are setting fruit, finally. I am a bit behind since I grew them from seed, but I'm proud they've turned out so well. A few days after this picture I thinned and staked the indeterminate variety on the right, and this is what it looks like now:

My neighbor taught me this technique, and I'm excited to see how it goes! We put in three metal stakes, and then ran metal wire between on both sides to make a trellis. I am pinching the side sprouts off as they develop, so each will only grow one long central stalk. As they get taller I will run more wire to trellis them. This way they won't be a matted jungle, and hopefully I can harvest them easier.
 

 

The greens beans are prolific and we are eating them about every other day.

Same with the broccoli. This variety was supposed to develop 6-8 inch heads, but the biggest I've seen was maybe 5 inches. We have enough plants though that harvesting even all the little side shoots has kept us eating broccoli a few times a week.

Sadly the carrots (left of the broccoli) have been picked too young by lots of children. About a third of the row is gone. It's so hard to explain to kids that if they just wait, things will get bigger and better! 

The spinach and lettuce are done, but I am already looking forward to replanting a fall crop. The kale is going strong and I've been harvesting bagfuls for freezing--and not made a dent!

The peppers and potatoes are doing well, although I don't know when to harvest the potatoes. I need to look that one up, since I've never grown them! The melons are going crazy and we've spotted about 5 mini watermelons!

The corn is a huge disappointment. I learned my lesson--don't underwater!! I have been trying to water the garden less this year because I naturally tend to overwater, but the corn is on the end of the drip system and gets less pressure anyway, and it is suffering! After our first year of corn being a bumper crop (hundreds of ears!) I am so sad with my lost crop. Hopefully the last few rows that weren't stressed yet will prosper and make up for it a little. Failure is so hard to swallow!

Lastly, here's a picture from the same spot I took one a month ago.. the change is amazing!

Garden to Table

The garden produce is on! We are loving the fresh food on our table!

My friend told me a yummy way to prepare broccoli, and I don't know why I hadn't thought of it before! I spread about a tbsp of coconut oil on top, and some S&P, then roasted it at 325 for about 30 minutes. Delish!

I tried it with beets too, and it was way better than boiling. In the past I have roasted beets whole with skins on, but it makes a mess to peel and cut when they're cooked. This time, I peeled and quartered them first, and they were ready to eat when they came out. Oh they were good.

The green beans are the family favorite right now. No complaints about these tender, buttery boys!

The zucchini is already out of hand! It had been awhile since I made zucchini bread, and no better time than the present. I have healthified my recipe, and in my humble opinion, it's tastier than ever! 

Healthy Zucchini Bread

1 cup succanat or coconut palm sugar
1/2 cup raw honey
1 cup coconut oil
3 eggs
2 cups grated zucchini
1 tbsp vanilla
3 cups whole wheat flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp cinnamon
1/2 package chocolate chips, optional

Cream sweeteners and oil. Add eggs, zucchini, and vanilla. Sift dry ingredients and add to wet. Bake at 325 for 1 hour. Makes 2 loaves.

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!

Freezing Green Beans

We have green beans coming out our ears.  After sharing them with lots of neighbors and eating them multiple times a week, I decided it was time to save some for later. Since I don't have a pressure canner, and prefer the freshest produce possible, freezing was the best option.

Obviously, the first step is to wash and trim your green beans. 

Then you need to blanch them in boiling water. Most sources say 3 minutes is enough to stop harmful enzymes that would alter them during the freezing process.

Next step is an ice bath to stop the cooking process and keep them nice and fresh. I then laid them out to dry on a towel.

Flash freezing on a cookie sheet helps the beans freeze separately instead of all stuck together.

Lastly, I put them in smaller portions and sealed them as tight as I could. This may seem like a lot of steps, but it's worth the fresh garden produce put away for another day!

Garden Update

It amazes me how fast the garden grows. It seems like all of a sudden everything is huge!

The Walla Walla onions are doing so well this year!

The tomatoes are getting close! I just cannot wait for the first one. A year is just the right length of time to get over being sick of them (when they are coming out your ears!) and ready to start over.

I am excited about the butternut squash! The leaves are so big and round and pretty.

The mammoth sunflowers are, well, mammoth! There are a few flowers developing.

Peppers are setting and getting big. We used our first jalapeno this week.

Pumpkins are developing! I started late, but they are getting going now.

Green beans are ready! Ella helped me pick our first bowlful for lunch on Saturday. They are delish with a little butter and salt.

We did out first cleaning project on Saturday too. The peas were done and turning brown, so I recruited my little guys to help pull them out.  The lettuce is done too, and starting to flower, but it's just so pretty I can't pull it yet!