Our First Harvest

We finally did our first harvest out of our new garden beds! I had been eagerly awaiting this day. By now, usually I have had a couple mini harvests. This growing season has been vastly different than any I have seen since beginning my gardening journeys. 

It has been an extremely wet Summer. With that, I have been battling a variety of different diseases in some of my beds. 

My tomato crop is suffering, even with daily treatment. I have almost lost 3 out of 6 plants and they are one of my most loved and used crops. The reality of that, hit hard. 

However, we are still getting a lot of other growth in abundance! To come… we have a beautiful variation of beets, carrots, potatoes, brussel sprouts, bell peppers and cucumbers!

We have also been pulling fresh rounds of lettuce and spinach to be eaten on demand. Nothing quite like a fresh garden salad right from your own yard!

Our First Harvest

Here are some snapshots of our first mini harvest with a lot more ahead! 

Peas

My girls had fun shelling the first round of peas to eat! We will have a large crop to come that will be frozen for fresher consumption throughout the winter months!

Zucchini 

Typically we are flooded with zucchini! I am giving it away to all that will take some. This year it has been a slow moving crop. Just this week I was able to harvest 6 good size zucchinis though. We use this crop in a lot of recipes but also I shred and freeze measured portions to pull and bake with throughout the cold months. One of my husbands absolute favorite treats is my Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread with Greek Yogurt!

 

Garlic

We took a big chance on garlic this year. We were super late to the party but decided to plant anyways. So our bulbs are really small but they will still give us some beautiful homegrown garlic for some of our recipes….and I use it A LOT! Big time garlic lovers in this house!

Now, we will plant another round to harvest in the Spring. That crop will be much larger and useful for us. 

 

Peppers

Our pepper bed is booming! We have several different colors of sweet bell peppers starting to change color but so far we have been able to enjoy a couple of rounds of Shishito Peppers and these ancho poblano peppers which I will utilize in salsa. 

 

Green Beans

Every year we have HUGE success with our green beans. They grow abundantly and are so, so sweet. As a matter of fact, dinner tonight will be accompanied by these beauties! I will also process a large batch of these into dinner size servings for our chest freezer so that we have grab and go packets for dinners ahead.

 

Tomatoes

Oh….a sore subject. Typically by this point in the season I would have flats filled to the brim with these gorgeous little pieces of gardens candy. I grew several different variations of tomatoes this year with the intentions for sauces, salsas and snacking. Unfortunately the way that our season has gone my crop has become almost completely diseased and we are harvesting what we can to enjoy before we lose them all completely.

 

Onions

Our incredible onion harvest!!! 52 onions to be exact! This is my first year growing onions in our beds and I could not be happier with the outcome. All of them were large and beautiful! They are on the last week of their drying process. Once we have that gorgeous papery skin we will store them appropriately and have them until next years crop!

 

 

So there you are. Our first small harvest! We have more time, growth and care ahead of us. Soil therapy as I like to call it. 

Stay tuned, as I will be sharing lots of wonderful tips and tricks on how I preserve my crops for colder months for the best use for my family with growing little ones. 

 

Happy Harvest my wonderful homesteading friends!

 

You Might Also Like…

• Harvesting and Roasting Fresh Sunflower Seeds
• Homemade Canned Cucumber Pepper Relish
• Fresh Roasted Tomato and Herb Sauce – Can or Freeze

 

Love, light and a little grace…

-Olivia