It's Here! The 3rd Annual Harvest Post!
You can do it!
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Although my harvest posts aren’t the most popular, many people enjoy them. I try to make sure my harvest posts are encouraging and motivating to counteract some of my more gloomy posts. Ha!
I say it every year (and often throughout the year as well): We *must*, must, MUST be growing some of our own food. If all you have is a patio, get a few pots and grow some herbs you use. If you are unfortunate to have been duped into an evil Home Owner’s Association that won’t let you grow anything but ornamentals, be creative! There are many ornamental plants that are edible, and the busybodies driving around the community won’t know they are edible anyway.
If you’ve never gardened before, my first advice is always: Don’t give up! Seeds and plants know what to do without much fuss from us. Granted, it’s a bit of work at times to care for our crops, but if we keep up with making sure plants have adequate sun, watering when necessary, and keeping weeds at a minimum, we can have successful crops of *something* every year.
I also advise that if you have the room, plant variety! Not everything will do well every year. Planting a variety of things you *know* you will eat insures you will have at least something every season.
Not everyone can do it, but I grow all of my vegetable from seed that I’ve either saved or purchased. Most seeds I plant are saved seeds. It saves tons of money!
Without further ado:
Green beans are one of the easiest things to grow. They don’t require extra nitrogen because they make their own! I planted 6 plants this year and this was one of several crops. You can freeze them, dry them, or can them. Most bean plants fend off pests well and are resilient to being choked out by weeds.
Bell peppers are fussy in my area. They didn’t used to be, so I’m not sure what has changed (climate?? haha). But, if you like bell peppers, they are relatively easy to grow. I had 4 plants this year and harvested at least 24 of these beauties before first frost a few weeks ago. Peppers can be preserved using most methods for any other vegetable. Drying, freezing, or canning. Peppers are easy to freeze because you don’t have to par boil them! Just remove stem and core and pop in the freezer. It’s that simple. (They will not be crisp when you thaw them, but with bell peppers, it actually saves a step because they are ready to stuff without pre-cooking!)
Tomatoes are pretty easy to grow. I got at least FIFTY pounds of these babies this year *from one plant*! The “Big Beef” variety aren’t the best tasting, but they are still good. They are great for slicing or making juice. Some of these you see in the basket weighed in at over a pound each.
Cabbage is a cool weather vegetable. It can be challenging in a lot of areas and it was challenging for me this year because it was a bit warmer than usual. I planted and harvested 4 of these this year. This is a “storage” variety and has a stronger taste than many. The upside is, I have kept this variety in my refrigerator for NINE months before they started to go bad. With cabbage, if some of the outer leaves start going bad, you can just pull them off and still eat the unblemished parts. It won’t taste rotten. Don’t be scared!
If I can learn to can, so can you! Here you see some dill sandwich slices, some dill spears, pizza sauce (from homegrown tomatoes), and dilled carrot sticks. When I can items like pickles, there’s always some brine left over. Don’t throw it out! If you have a vegetable you haven’t used yet, just can it with the leftover brine. That’s what I did with the carrots. I use Tattler reusable canning lids which saves a fortune on lids.
Cantaloupe is very challenging in my area because it requires a long growing season. These little softball sized gems were incredibly tasty. You can preserve cantaloupe by drying slices (which intensifies the flavor and it’s incredibly good as a snack) or canning peeled chunks or quarters (make sure it’s not too ripe if you can them). Cantaloupe tells you when it’s ready, unlike some other things in the squash family. They will literally just drop right off the vine when ready. Eat them immediately when they do.
I’m not a huge fan of carrots. I do eat them though, and they are one of my favorite “plant it and forget it” root vegetables. Most root vegetables (carrots, radish, turnip, potato) don’t require lots of care and are great for people who are really busy. Home grown carrots keep much longer than store bought.
I only grew 30 corn plants this year and only harvested about 30 ears. Disappointing. But it was the variety I grew which is called “Peaches and Cream”… it requires a different climate than what I have here and I wasn’t aware of that. The ears were beautiful though and those are next.
The Peaches and Cream variety of Sweet Corn requires a good 90 day growing season in my experience. I won’t grow it again here because that length of time can be very iffy. The ears are beautiful! The ear you see there is 10 inches long. I had some almost 1 foot long! Not as sweet as some other varieties though, and I averaged 1 ear per plant where other varieties I’ve grown provide an average of 2 per plant.
I grow a European variety of cucumber because they don’t get really long like some others can. They also don’t produce weird shaped fruit. These babies work perfectly in a pint canning jar. I typically only have to trim each end so there’s not as much waste as with other varieties. I had dozens and dozens of these this year. If you have a bumper crop, don’t forget that cucumer juice is surprisingly good, and good for you!
Garlic is another one of those things that tastes completely different than what you buy in the store. It’s not easy to grow for me. I’m getting there though!
I don’t care for okra as a side dish, but I love it pickled. Unfortunately, it’s hard to grow in my area because it needs a lot of heat and a long season. I didn’t get enough to pickle, but I’m going to try again next year using some methods I’ve used with other things to get a head start on the season.
Patty pan squash is easy to grow. It is a great alternative to zucchini. Zucchini can produce so quickly that it’s impossible to keep up with it. Not to mention, you can go out to your garden and find a 3 foot long zucchini almost over night. Patty pan doesn’t do that. I like the flavor better than zucchini as well. Unfortunately, this green tinged/white variety I grew has a tough skin. I prefer the yellow and green ones that I grew last year, which have a tender skin. Use Patty Pan exactly the same way you would zucchini.
My potato crop looks almost exactly the same as last year! I grew the same amount of plants (18) and got about 25 pounds of potatoes. Some of them are of a great size. Potatoes are sooooo easy to grow.
My “blue ribbon” crop this year was my red onions! I grew 24 of them from seeds I collected from last year. I had some that were the size of a softball. Red onions keep well, but they don’t last long at my house. Onions are easy to grow, but you do have to grow the right kind for your area to get good sized bulbs. If you are in the south be sure to grow the short day variety and in the north, grow long day varieties.
I didn’t know I was growing an opium poppy until a friend told me! Haha. We have to remember to keep bees and butterflies happy as well. They are so important to the success of our gardens.
I also grew other things I did not post here. Dill, multiple wildflowers, corriander (cilantro), sugar snap peas, and others. Like I say every year, space should not be an issue to get variety. My in ground bed (where the corn is) is about 10’ by 20’ and I have a raised bed that is 3’ wide by 27’ long.
There are monsters out there who want us eating garbage. That’s an absolute fact. Quality food is imperative if we are to be healthy. Even if we can’t get quality food all year, our bodies are super happy when we can help them out even once in awhile with the things they need to flourish.
Please feel free to share your harvest stories with us if you’d like.
It all looks yummy!
I wish I had someone (in person) who could give me direction. I have huge anxiety problems when I try something new, so I feel better with someone that knows what's going on directing me.
I always look forward to your harvest posts. This year was my first attempt at any kind of garden and I had a tiny bit of success and a bit more failure. I cannot believe how much I learned just by growing a few plants.
Firstly, you will never find in the store, the flavor you get from something you grow yourself. I think part of that flavor is the love and care you put into it.
Secondly, I figured some things out, like how loosening soil is important, especially in a place like Tennessee where the clay is so compacted. Spacing is important, and pruning. The thing I had the most luck with was jalapeños. and that was grown by accident. Those were seedlings and I got a surprise of about 30 very hot ones lol. Good for winter soups. This year, I will be doing container gardening in 4 foot long containers.
Lastly, gosh am I excited for next spring. I will using seeds this time, and I will find a way to keep those pesky armadillos and opossums from munching them. My few failures turned into more confidence to do better next year, adding in a few more varieties of plants. Can you tell I am excited lol