So here are a few (too many) pictures (and words) to document this past growing season. I thought I had more pictures of produce, but oh well., there still ends up being too many.
Tomatoes:
first one at a time, then to baskets, then to boxes. My biggest haul (other then picking all for
the freeze yesterday was 3 boxes worth plus the two baskets
what did I do with all of those? I gave some away, but then mostly they were made into weekly pasta sauce (food process the whole tomato then boil down by half, add spices and its sooo tasty.
In this second photo I needed to do all the tomatoes that were about to go bad before going on a trip, and I decided to seperate out some white tomatoes and some green ones and (the two smaller pots)I also canned, salsa and TOP sauce (if you are really nice I might share some relish
Of course the best thing to do with fresh garden tomatoes is to eat them fresh. Numerous sandwhiches were made delicious in this manner, as well as salads....
Next- Cabbages and peppers. From the earlier post you saw a big head of regular, green cabbage that I grew. I think I had a 3 or so green ones and 2 purples. I found a delicious recipe for pickled cabbages and peppers which was awesome as it used two of my garden produces this year.
These peppers aren't from my garden, but from a farm stand near my work (3 for a dollar! and they are much bigger and tastier and more variety then the super expensive store ones). I don't know why I didn't get any pictures of mine (both sweet and spicy) were really good this year.
I found out that if I use the purple cabbage it turns everything pink when processed. This isn't as apetizing and looses all the beautiful mix of colors.... but if I give you some you better not say anything. I stayed up one night till 2 am trying to get everything preserved and that makes me onry... I made 5-6 batches of this stuff with each batch a little different. It will be fun to try and see what tastes the best.
beans, peas, and cukes: Peas did well this summer and were all eaten fresh. Beans did ok but stopped producing fairly quickly (they need to be kept picked better). I didn't get any pictures of the dragon tongue beans which is sad because they looked so cool! I didn't end up preserving to many of my own so I bought some farmer stand ones (again supper cheap) to put up plenty of dilly beans (sorry no picture).
Cucumbers did well and I will plan my favorite varieties again (from Asia and Australia). Ended up eating all of them fresh or giving them away so didn't make any pickles with them.
Also a picture of a kohlrabi. I like them but they haven't done super well and I think I'll use the space for something different next year.
My zuchinni on the other hand
were very prolific. I gave a bunch away and made some zuchinni pickles which were nice and crispy, but I got the brine wrong and they were way too sour :( oh well thats what next year is for!
I found out that lima beans are better from the garden but they are a pain! First you have to pop them them out of the pods, then boil for 5 minutes then de-hull them. All that work for a tiny bowlfull! Won't plant them again, even though they were more desease resistent then some of the other bean varieties.
I got tons of grapes. YAY! and they are super, super tasty. So sweet its like candy. Was able to share lots of these, the rest I froze and I'm waiting for my new steam juicer to come in so I can juice them.
Beets did ok this year, not as many as I anticipated, but there are still some out in the garden. By all reports they are supposed to be fine after a light frost...
Egg plants did better towards the end of the season, took awhile to get going, but got some fun ones. Liked the varieties I did this year (including white fingerlings) but only made my delicious eggplant o'brien once (another way to use up tomatoes too).
winter squash and melons. Only a couple of melons made it through, even though I had built them such cute teepees to grow on. For rude. It was a hard year for these products. I did get a number of winter squash but not enough to put up the huge numbers I need for squash mac and cheese. I'll need to buy some from the farmer's stand.
Lettuce: Did pretty good, learned I don't like arugula. Spicey mustardy. blah.
My carrots struggled to get up this year. Found out that the snails were eating all the babies as soon as they popped up so its a wonder I got any from my 3 plantings. I planted lots of different colors. These are a crazy looking called "snow white". I had to pick them before the frost as the green part was sticking out above the soil. They are huge!
I have posted earlier about my jam making exploits with the various berries I got this year. I really needed to do more with my berry patches this year, but didn't get
around to it which means next year won't be as good....
This is a picture of choke cherries and a tart mixed berry jam I put up.
have you ever noticed that I make big messes when I cook or preserve food.
I planted some for fun vegitables this year. Some were good, some not so much. A suprise was okra. Who knew that you could grow okra outside of the deep south? Well it was a successful experiment and I'll probably repeat it cause they are fun!
Turnips are icky. The end. well not really cause I tried to pickle some to see if they are edible this way.... will probably just sit in my food storage until I throw them out or the end of the world comes and I actually need to eat them... there are some still out in the garden, but they might remain there. speaking of icky I don't know why I plan swiss chard every year. Well I guess I do cause its pretty and grows well. Too bad its icky.
These are the sorghum canes I grew. Suprisingly enough they grew pretty well considering they weren't in an ideal spot. I really wanted to make syrup out of them but can't figure out a way to get the juice out! They are like sugar cane but a little smaller and less juicey with (to me) a better flavor.
I didn't actually plant this... but some amazing mushrooms grew this year. This one smelled really good and was HUGE but I didn't dare eat it..
Also not pictured:
Potatoes- red ones did great (although nothing like my nephew Zane's), yukon golds not so much.
Onions- used them throughout the year and would have a better harvest if I didn't try to crowd everything so close together- some got way overgrown by the zuchinni and didn't get very big. Others I didn't harvest soon enough and they started to grow again. Not good.
Brocoli: previous posts showed I grew some big heads but they get buggy and bitter and I don't pick them often enough, so I will try and refrain from planting next year (the little plants are so cute that I can't help myself and will buy them without thinking).
Tomatillos: come up as volunteers and always get lots
Spinach, Parsnips, Garlic- didn't do well this year
I was asked to present a little on preserving harvests through drying and freezing for a relief society thing. I ended up going way over board (I know shocking) and packed my car full of things to show.
learned lots. namely to stop going overboard. ok guess I didn't really learn that.
Finally, here are some pictures of my pots pretty well filled out. They got even bigger then this but I think there weren't enough flowers in them.
The end of garden 2011. Unless I take a picture of whats in my front room when I get back.
