Show me your harvest!

Casey Cash
Casey Cash Posts: 21
edited June 2018 in Our Garden: Growing Food
lettuce, sweet peas, beets, rhubarb, strawberries, asparagus, scallions, radishes, and mulberries.

Wish I had photos.  That really is not on my mind when walking out to the garden to make a lunch.

We took from the garden sweet peas, beet greens, lettuce and strawberries into a nice salad.  Our home-made goat feta cheese in the mix as well.  The dressing was a mix of strawberries, goat's milk and other things the wife puts in to make a nice thick and creamy sauce to top the salad.  Yes, I should have taken a photo of that too. :)

Mostly, we do gluten-free pizza on the weekends with toppings from the garden.  The kids love asparagus diced on pizza.  Go figure that one out?  Likewise they love the rhubarb, mulberry, sorghum syrup too on GF waffles .   Bummer we can't grow sorghum very well up north.

Like Marjory says, grow 1/2 your groceries is like money in the bank.  We took that literally.  1/2 of what is on the table or in the food mix should come from what your work made.   Talk with family farm folks,  they do this at a minimum.

Example, We have not bought eggs or milk in over 10 years.  Those two staples add up on the grocery bill fast.

Love to hear from others on your topic as well.  Everyone needs to chime in to encourage others to press forward with food independence, else your food bill will own you and your income.

Comments

  • MikeF
    MikeF Posts: 35 ✭✭✭
    edited July 2018
    Lately our herbs have been growing out of control.  Yesterday I harvested a pile of oregano, basil, thyme, and pineapple sage.  Currently they are drying in my dehydrator for use this winter.  Hopefully we should get another herb harvest at the end of summer.



     

    These are some raspberries we harvested the other day:



     
  • bmaverick
    bmaverick Posts: 175 ✭✭✭
    edited July 2018
    OK, took a photo this time.  Beets! Enjoy!

  • MikeF
    MikeF Posts: 35 ✭✭✭
    edited July 2018
    Finally getting our first grapes.  ;-)

    This is my concord grape "tree".  Just to be difficult, I have this planted in a 30 gallon fabric pot and am training it like a bonsai tree.  It will be a few years before the "trunk" is thick enough to stand on its own.

     

    M



     

     

     
  • Cherlynn
    Cherlynn Posts: 169 ✭✭✭
    edited July 2018
    We are in a drought area this year and not allowed to water anything.  So here was my harvest today but you can't see the couple of yellow squash on the bottom.   If it hadn't been for my new garden area around a few of the trees I had planted I would of had nothing this year.  But the berms hold the water and give the plants something to pull from.  I am going to work on the old orchard area this fall and plan on planting my vining things there next year.  Totally pull everything out of the old garden.  Move the rhubarb and asparagus if they survived this drought.  My husband is dreaming of putting a swimming pool there so he will be very happy to see the old garden gone!  Still got grapes around the outside fence 100 X 100 feet.  Lots of concord grapes.  Really loaded this year.  Got a few apples and lots of pears but those are much smaller this year.  Should have great flavor though.
  • bmaverick
    bmaverick Posts: 175 ✭✭✭
    edited July 2018
    Cherlynn, You win some, you loose some.  In your case, you had to struggle all the way through.  Glad you didn't give up.  Your produce has very valuable seeds.  Why?  Because those are now hardy drought strength ones.

    Dannny from Deep South Homestead mentioned an interesting tid-bit of information.  With peas, the best ones that are harvested for seeds are the drought, all wrinkled up types.  Why?  Because those will be planted and give the sweetest tasting peas the next go around.  I tried it.  He is right on the money with his statement.

    Well, I just had a setback in carrots.  No drought mind you, but an invasive vine that grows the most beautiful blue/white large flowers I had ever seen.  It brought in the pollinators like crasy.  It got so bad, it took over my carrot patch in the garden.  The asparagus held it back for quite some time, but it finally got it's hold.

    Here is the carrot harvest.  Maybe next year I'll try a carrot grow planter like the radishes, but much deeper.


    As for the zucchini, green beans, asparagus, cucumbers, etc.  Those have been daily harvests.  What a savings vs. buying all this in the markets.


     
  • bmaverick
    bmaverick Posts: 175 ✭✭✭
    edited July 2018
    Mike, Great work on the concord grape tree.  Wish there was a LIKE button on these postings.  You got my "like" for sure.

    I'm going the other way, this new homestead location has a few mulberry trees.  I've saved a young one from the loggers that were clearing brush for our pastures.  After a few youtubes and then recently here with David-The-Good article, I've cut it to a stump, let it sit in a wheel-barrow for two weeks making sure it has a good balance of moisture in the soil before the loggers finished the area to transplant.  Good news, it's starting new shoots!  Even in 80F weather.   Our well puts out 50F water all summer.  Had to balance that cool water temps too and only water at sun set.  It's at the base of the flag.  Also, it's 65ft from the other two like it.  Hope to get a bunch of these kicked off over the next few years.  I'm in the most northern location where these could grow, zone 4/5.
  • bmaverick
    bmaverick Posts: 175 ✭✭✭
    edited August 2018
    OK, I'll post some more.  I was hoping to see some others here this month with a bumper crop. :)   This is a daily event!

  • Dominica
    Dominica Posts: 42
    edited September 2018
    Wow, all these pictures look great! Here are my peppers -- one of my favorite crops to grow. =)

    http://growhotpeppers.com/harvest.jpg

     
  • ines871
    ines871 Posts: 1,283 ✭✭✭✭✭

    obviously that was just a tiny part of 2015 garden. I got the idea to try to make a flower, lol

  • ines871
    ines871 Posts: 1,283 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited May 2019

    another partial harvest of 2015. Are you salivating yet? :)

  • ines871
    ines871 Posts: 1,283 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited May 2019

    in this (our usual) Salad, only mushrooms were bought, as was the dressing. - However various lettuces, cherry-tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, Bell-peppers, scallions, summer squash, parsley, etc... all came from the garden which God so richly blessed us with. Bon Appetit !

    Sharing these photos to encourage others to give it your all to grow evermore of your own foods, with the goal of "food Independence..."