Harvest Time Has Begun

The weather has heated up considerably and the garden loves it! Harvest season has begun in earnest now. After a steady stream of asparagus early on and enough rhubarb to make a pie and a cake, there is now a wonderful variety of things to pick and enjoy.

My Garden! Glad I didn't neglect it this year.

The first big harvest of the season was Swiss chard. Suddenly, we had so much of it that I thought I might have to start freezing some right away. We were able to use it all fresh, though, in the form of chard and mushroom galette with goat cheese; pasta with vegan sausage, chard, and beans; a lovely chard and tahini dip that went well with tortilla chips and was equally nice mixed into spaghetti; and a Swiss chard frittata. It’s ready to pick again but I think I’ll let it stand another day or two as there are so many other tasty vegetables that need more immediate attention.

A few pounds of rainbow chard

The zucchini is now coming in fast and furious. At first, I didn’t know if I would get any. It was quite a saga, really. I planted the seeds in one of the beds where we had spread last season’s compost. Well, the compost had various squash seeds that decided to sprout on their own while the ones that I had planted were taking their sweet time. So, as insurance, I purchased a zucchini plant off a rolling rack outside the grocery store. As soon as I planted it, my seeds decided to grow like crazy. By that time, I didn’t have the heart to thin them as heavily as I should have so I ended up with six plants in the 4’ x 11’ bed. The plants seem to being doing well despite the close quarters and I’ve picked eight zucchinis so far.

So, that's a full bed of zucchini!

The cucumbers are coming on strong as well. There’s nothing like a fresh cucumber straight out of the garden with just a little sprinkle of salt. The purple green beans are starting to bean, though it is far from overwhelming. I’ve almost picked enough for a serving.  

Yesterday evening's harvest

I spent this morning harvesting and processing herbs. Three years ago, I went to the Mother Earth News Fair in Burlington, Vermont. This year, with covid-19 going on, they decided to have a virtual fair. I bought a ticket and have been enjoying dozens of videos on a whole range of topics from fermenting to beekeeping to breadmaking. So, this weekend, I decided to try out a couple of the things I learned.

Herbs!

I started by setting up our solar dehydrator. (Here’s a post from four years agoabout the fun, useful tool.) I put sprigs of wild bee balm on the bottom screen to dry for tea. On the top screen went dill, thyme, and just a little bit of lavender.

Loaded dehydrator

Within just about four hours on this lovely, sunny, hot day, the dill and thyme were completely dry and ready to be bottled. The bee balm and lavender needed just a smidge more time. I’ll probably do more batches of herbs as the summer goes on.

Jars of freshly-dried thyme and dill

The fresh basil that I picked got chopped up and went into a bowl with a pound of rhubarb that I had frozen last year and ¾ cups of sugar. This is the base for a rhubarb-basil shrub. I’ll mix in some vinegar after it has set for 24 hours, let it sit again for three more hours, and then combine it with some gin and lemon juice for cocktails tomorrow evening.

Rhubarb-basil shrub in the making

Finally, I made my first ever tincture. I found out that California Poppy could help with sleep and I just happened to have some growing in my un-Shaker garden. My husband and I tried it fresh as tea. There were all sorts of warning online about how bitter the tea was, but I thought it was quite nice. He said he slept really well after a cuppa and it gave me vivid dreams. Fun. One of the Fair workshops was on tincture making so I thought, why not try it with the California Poppy. I put 3.5 ounces of chopped up plant plus 7 ounces of 100 proof vodka into a jar. After about a month, I’ll see what we got.

A tincture to-be

I’m very glad that I pulled myself together this year and am actively working with my garden. I’m not sure if the rabbits who found a home in last year’s garden would agree, but that’s their problem.