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.

End of August Accounting

It’s been a good gardening season. Things have gone so well, in fact, that we plugged in the extra freezer in the basement to keep the surplus produce. 

One evening's produce gathering

 The zucchini and yellow squash produced very well. That shouldn’t be a surprise. The over-abundance of zucchini has become a well-worn cliché but we haven’t really had much luck with summer squash over the last couple of years. Last year the yellow squash did not produce at all and we only got a few zucchinis. This year, so far, we’ve picked 14 yellow squash and 21 zucchinis.

Squash plants in early July

Yellow squash and zucchini

 A couple weeks ago I realized the squash had a pretty bad infestation of squash vine borers. The poor plants looked terrible but they were and are still producing fruit.

Squash vine borer damage

We have eaten a lot of squash so far and given some away but we had way more than could be eaten fresh. So, into the freezer they went. I diced up the squashes, blanched them in boiling water for 3 minutes, dunked them in ice water, drained them, and then spread them out on towel-lined cookie sheets. After giving the squash pieces some time to dry, I removed the towels and put the sheets in the freezer. The next day, I broke up the pieces of frozen squash with a wooden spoon and put them in quart size zipper-top freezer bags. There are now six full bags in the freezer and a half dozen squash still in the fridge.

Frozen zucchini ready to be bagged

I made a double batch of zucchini muffins for the freezer too.

The green beans are not doing as well as they did last year but I’ve still manage to put away a quart size freezer bag full of them. The chard, on the other hand, has been doing very well since I managed to head off the leaf borers. I’ve put three full quart bags away in the freezer so far.

So much lovely, leafy goodness!

The cucumbers have also been very productive. They are sneaky, however. I’ll look at a cucumber and decide it’s slightly on the small size and decide to wait a day or two before picking it. A day or two later, it’s gotten huge! Fortunately, these cucumbers, no matter what the size, make great pickles. I will admit that I’m a lazy pickler. I’m a fan of making small batches whenever it is convenient. I don’t want to heat up the house with the canner or risk getting limp pickles if I screw up the process. So, I make freezer pickles. They are so simple and are delicious. So far this season we’ve picked 37 cucumbers and made 11 ½-pint jars of dill pickles, 7 of sweet pickles, and 5 of bread and butter pickles. I’ll probably be making some more this week as the collection of cucumbers in the fridge are starting to add up again.

Cool as a cucumber and ready to be pickles

Six 1/2-pink jars of dill freezer pickles

We’ve done a little fridge pickling as well. The beets and watermelon radishes are doing fairly well this year. We didn’t plant that many of either. The radishes are great on sandwiches but we worried we wouldn’t go through them quickly enough in their raw form. The solution was fridge pickles. Since we were doing the radishes, I figured we could pickle a few beets as well. We picked just enough for two ½-pint jars of radishes and one of beets. The radishes are crunch and taste good but I will say that they leave a definite funk in the air.

Just a few beets and radishes

Quick fridge pickled beets and radishes

We did do one bit of unplanned preserving as well. Early on when we first moved into this house, my husband built a trellis for wild grapes that were growing behind the garage. Last year, they didn’t do much but this year they produced enough that I thought I’d see if I could make a little jelly. Well, it did turn out to be a little jelly – just a ½-pint jar and a smaller jelly jar – but it turned out really tasty. The tartness of the wild grapes is really wonderful; not at all like the standard store-bought grape jelly. I only had one cup of juice so it took a little mathing to get the pectin measurement right but I’m calling this experiment a success.

Lots of grapevines on the trellis

Bunches of wild grapes

Draining the juice from the cooked grapes

Mmm...jelly!

Taking Stock on the First Day of Summer

Summer is officially here and the garden is doing quite well. At the moment, I am sort of between crops. Last weekend I harvested the first round of pak choi. There were several dozen perfect heads though I did wait a little longer than I should. Some were starting to set flower buds. I left several of the smaller heads to grow a little longer. I definitely waited a little too long for those. A little rain and some high temperatures and they bolted. I decided to leave a couple in the ground and let them flower. I want to see if I can collect and save the seeds. There are still several dozen pak choi from the second round of planting. I’ll have to really keep an eye on them so I don’t miss them at their peak.

Pak choi harvest

Oops! Waited a little too long.

Maybe I can collect some seed.

The arugula has also started to bolt. That’s not too surprising. It was around this time last year that I ended up pulling the plants because they were flowering. I’m debating planting another round but the heat really makes for some peppery greens and I don’t see the heat going away anytime soon.

Bolting arugula

The rainbow chard is going strong. I’ve been harvesting it a little at a time when it is small and we’ve been eating it in salads. The season has been much dryer than last year (which is actually good as last year's wet weather caused a fungus on my chard) so, with any luck, it should keep doing well for quite a while.

So many pretty colors!

With everything else, it’s a waiting game. Everything I planted is making a decent show of it. The corn is several inches tall and the runner beans are starting to reach for the trellis. The cucumbers, cantaloupe, and four types of squash (if you include pumpkins) are all looking healthy and happy. And I’m happy to see new blossoms on the tomato and pepper plants. I just need patience and continued good luck, and I should be busy with produce in no time.

Tomato blossoms

Almost pepper blossoms

The biggest challenge this year has been dealing with the squirrels. Last year, I don’t remember seeing any squirrels at all until in the fall when a new batch of young ones took up residence in the maple tree in front of our house. This year, we’re practically tripping over them. There are chipmunks too and no matter what we try, they are still digging in the garden and eating most of the strawberries. We’ve only been quick enough to get maybe two dozen berries before the little rodents have snatched them up. We’ve tried netting over the berries, cayenne pepper over everything, Critter Ridder around the perimeter, live traps, and, yes, rat traps (we went for the nuclear option). Nothing seems to slow them down.

We were quick enough to get about
two dozen berries before the squirrels.

Stupid squirrels! There are no nuts hidden in
the garden. Those are beets and your insistent
digging is threatening their very existence!

All of the other wildlife has stayed respectfully out of the garden. The rabbits are happy in the clover and the deer seem to just enjoy lying nearby. I did have a doe sniffing around the front flower beds just the other day while I was eating my breakfast. I will have to investigate some natural repellents. I would rather not have my hostas and lilies chomped off like they were last year.

Bunny luxuriating in the clover outside the garden.

Button buck just chilling next to the garden

Morning visitor in the front yard

Got anything good for breakfast?