2010 Harvest and Preserving Totals

In honor of the beginning of spring, I'm finally taking down the 2010 sidebars. The beginning of 2011's lists is just around the corner...

Around 160 lbs of produce (not including corn or eggs). It doesn't quite match last year because my squash plants just didn't produce this year and a few squash and pumpkins tend to pad a total. :)

Beeswax - 50g

• Beets - 13 lb. 14 oz.
• Bingo Beans, dried - 2 lb.
• Blueberries - 6 lb.
• Carrots - 2 lb. 4 oz.
• Celery - 1 oz.
• Cherries - 5 1/2 oz.
• Corn - 20 ears
• Edamame Pods - 5 lb. 5 oz.
• Eggs - many!
• Garlic cloves - 4 3/8 oz.
• Green Beans - 11 oz.
• Kale - 2 lb.
• Lettuce - 8 lb.
• Onion, red - 5 oz.
• Onion, yellow - 1 lb. 15 oz.
• Parsnips - 3 lb. 12 oz.
• Peas, shelled - 5 lb. 14 1/2 oz.
• Potatoes - 6 lb. 15 oz.
• Radish Seedpods - 3 lb.
• Radishes - 6 oz.
• Rhubarb - 1 lb. 2 3/8 oz.
• Snow Peas - 2 lb. 12 oz.
• Spinach - 2 lb. 11 3/4 oz.
• Strawberries - 68 lb.
• Tomatoes - 5 lb. 13 oz.
• Yellow Squash - 3 lb. 12 oz.
• Zucchini - 12 lb. 6 oz.

Apple Cider, 22 oz. bottles - 45

• Apricot puree, canned - 13 pts.
• Apricots, dried - 2 lb.
• Apricots, frozen - 1 gal.
• Bingo Beans, dried - 2 lb.
• Blueberries, frozen - 3 gal.
• Cherries, dried - 15 1/2 oz.
• Cherry Pie Filling, canned - 4 qt.
• Cherry Wine
• Chicken Stock, canned - 4 qt.
• Chicken Stock, frozen - 5 qt.
• Edamame, frozen - 1 1/2 gal.
• Kale, frozen - 1 lb.
• Marinara, canned - 7 qt.
• Marinara, frozen - 2 qt.
• Peaches, canned - 47 qts.
• Peaches, frozen - 4 quarts
• Peas, shelled, frozen - 3/4 gal.
• Pickled Beets, canned - 4 pt.
• Radish pods, frozen - 1/2 gal.
• Rhubarb, frozen - 1 lb. 14 oz.
• Snow Peas, frozen - 12 oz.
• Spinach, frozen - 28 oz.
• Strawberries, frozen whole - 8 gal
• Tomatoes, diced, frozen - 4 1/4 qt
• Zucchini, shredded, frozen - 45 oz.

Zucchini-fest

When we returned from Colorado our harvest included a very large zucchini.

Zucchini Parmesan turns out to be really scrumptious.

Zucchini Pancakes were surprisingly fantastic. We had them with plain yogurt on top. Next time, we're thinking of smothering them in mushroom gravy. They reminded Q of egg foo young. The last half pound or so of zucchini is getting shredded and frozen so we can have these again this winter.

Zucchini cookie dough has been frozen and we're baking cookies every other night or so a half dozen at a time. This recipe is really really good - flavorful and not too sweet. It's the perfect "biscuit" for our evening tea.

Root Vegetables

After school on Thursday we came home and started in on some yard work. The basil was going to seed so that got cut off, tied into bundles and hung to dry. We're packing the carrots, parsnips and beets in some straw and trying to keep them for a while. The edamame got blanched and frozen. I'm so excited about having that in the freezer ready for a quick before dinner snack this winter - 5 pounds!

Just as we were getting ready to go in, we decided to check on the potato crop. This was the first year we've grown them and a huge number got torn out before they even started growing when the back trees got taken out. We just put the cut sections on the ground and then piled mulch on top of them. They were incredibly fun to harvest - brush away mulch and there are the potatoes! We didn't get a huge harvest this year but I'm really excited to grow them next year now.

We put up 80 pounds of peaches and made marinara with 35 pounds of tomatoes this weekend. Posts will follow in the next couple of days.

Summer Harvest

It stands to reason that the first zucchini would be ready right as we're getting ready to leave. I'll have to do some quick baking or freezing - or just throw it in my carry-on!

I was surprised to see that the first pods of Bingo beans were totally dry and ready for harvest. They're very orderly - most ripe at the bottom, least ripe at the top. They seem to have come out beautifully and the plants are loaded. I hope we like their flavor. Of course, it would be pretty easy to disguise the flavor in soup anyway. Dry beans are sure an easy way to grow some protein in your garden.

Garden Update

An onion that had been planted last fall. It ended up being 1 lb. 1 oz. when it was ready for chopping.

I'm curious if the Bingo Bean pods will keep the red color or turn brown as they dry. The young pods are green with only a faint tinge of the red to come.

Most of the tomatoes are still green but we got two small ripe ones today. They were very good.

Survivor Carrot

You may remember the saga of this year's carrot bed. I planted it twice. The first time all of the tiny seedlings disappeared. The second time there were 4 survivors. I planted Envy soybeans around them and left them to their fate. They did surprisingly well, even if there are only 4 of them. This guy is 5 oz. He will get eaten this weekend. More garden pictures soon. It's going a little crazy.

Radish Pods

When I read about eating radish pods over at Aunt Bee's Garden my radishes were just bolting. I used her post as an excuse to avoid work and just let them go to seed. I sauteed them with some butter, garlic, and salt (using my tried and true belief that anything is delicious if cooked in this way). They were very good. When I pick the more mature pods I need to trim off the pointy ends because they get a little too fibrous.

Harvest In Absentia

Q was kind enough to harvest the garden and blog about it with pictures! Go check it out!

Early July Garden

I'm in Sacramento now for training but here are some pictures I took on the Friday before I left.

Morning tea was after my run and some harvesting. Coop is an excellent book. I was reading parts aloud to Q and he decided that he has to read the whole thing to himself.


Here's the side bed. I need to pull out most of the calendula and lettuce and sidedress the corn when I get home. We've got some calendula drying. Apparently it's an excellent ingredient in a soothing cream after the dried flowers have been infused into oil. I found a recipe that calls for beeswax too so we could use lots of our own production.

Potatoes (need to be mulched)

The perennial forest

The peas are taller than me.

I built this new trellis for the Bingo beans.

The asparagus have finally done something. Currently, it looks like they're all alive.

From front to back:
Misono Green soy, black eyed peas (very small), fava beans, and the Bingos

The carrot bed that I replanted twice and refused to grow more than 4 carrot seedlings was replanted with Envy soy, which is doing much better. (I did leave the four carrots and planted around them. They're looking nice so far.)

The first tomatoes

Grapes

The whole yard

The harvest

Home Again

We finally got back to Eugene at 1:30a Monday morning. Poor Q had to be to work by 8. It's lovely being home. Yesterday I harvested 1 1/2 lbs. of blueberries, 1 1/2 lbs. of snow peas, the first 8 pods of shelling peas, and about 7 lbs. of strawberries. I need to do another strawberry picking today.
I didn't have time to post this before I left. Here's the beeswax after it was melted and strained. I still don't know what we're going to do with it but today I've got to make laundry soap (and wash many clothes) so this particular bit of experimentation will have to wait.

Hatchet Strawberry

Q called this berry a "hatchetberry" because of its large flat shape. The card it's next to up there is a standard business card. Q informs me that this big guy was officially a four bite strawberry.

Q went home after dropping me at the airport yesterday and picked 16 lb. 4 oz. of strawberries! Since I'm out of town he got stuck washing and freezing them all. That little picking brought us up to an even 50 lb. for the season so far. It looks like I only need 1 1/2 more gallons for the freezer. I'll have to double check our jam supply too.

Harvests of Various Kinds

Parsnip that overwintered, 6 lbs. of strawberries (after 5 lbs. picked earlier that day), and about 1 1/2 lb. spinach.

The bees had been building comb that was not in an acceptable place so we had to clean it out of the hive yesterday - our first "harvest" from them. There were a few bits with honey that we chewed up - yum! This is the comb that had not yet been used, 75 g. I'm going to attempt to melt and purify it soon and maybe make some lip balm. :)

First Cherries

Sorry the picture is out of focus - I was in a hurry so we could eat them. :)

More First Harvests

We got our first two cherries on Sunday. We probably won't get a lot more because the cherry tree is very big and the birds are very greedy.

Q noticed that the blueberries were starting to turn. We found two that had fully ripened. Shortly after this picture was taken, the two ripe ones were consumed.
More are right behind them.

Here's Saturday's strawberry harvest and the first few snow peas.

Corn's growing nicely.

The black-eyed peas seemed stalled and their seed leaves were looking tattered but they've finally put forth some true leaves.

First Bowl of Strawberries

We harvested 15 ounces all at once tonight and it looks like another pound is a day or two away! That is if a great flood doesn't wipe out the entire Willamette Valley before then!

First Strawberries!

Yum! Here are our first three strawberries. I've also got to eat radishes this weekend. The one above had gotten quite spicy.

I love the yellow irises next to the purple lupines.

With the stumps ground down the back yard looks so completely different. Q's going to reset a post this weekend and put the panels back.

First Harvest

Our first harvest of the season turned out to be a radish!

The lettuce is definitely ready to start having leaves stolen this week.

We planted lots of mixed wildflower seeds outside the kitchen window and they seem to be doing well. Hopefully we'll have lots of flowers to lure the bees to the end of the garden this summer.

We've got strawberries and blueberries getting quite big...

The peas need to have supports put in soon.

We've almost got full blooms on the lupines.

This is the grape that was just a stick. It's been fun watching the leaf buds appear and start to open in the last week or so. The other grapes are getting quite leafy.

The corn we planted last weekend is just coming up (foreground). I couldn't bear to take out the lettuce volunteers so the corn patch kind of goes around them for now.

I put green beans, black-eyed peas, edamame, and bingo bean seeds in today. The carrots got replanted because the first ones I planted didn't have any come up! Many of the squash, melon, pumpkin, and cucumbers seedlings I transplanted last weekend survived. I direct sowed seeds of each to replace the ones that didn't make it today. It's getting into the season where there are going to be more dry days than rainy days so I'm going to have to fix up the irrigation soon.
Ugh - my least favorite job. Thankfully, we don't have to do it more than once a season though.