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The garden produce is starting to come in!! Thankfully, for now, it’s a few things here and there and we’re able to stay on top of it. Canning Season is nearly here 😲!
So far, we’ve harvested:
- Several yellow and one green zucchini
- About a dozen, dozen and a half cucumbers many of which will be made into relish and we’ll be adding some to salads and making cucumber/tomato/onion salad
- Beets! We harvested ALL the beets earlier this week. We’re eating them baked and we did a batch of pickled beets (6 Widemounth Pints) that we’ll try in a couple of weeks once they’ve had time to pickle.
- A couple of onions that we used in last night’s cucumber/tomato/onion salad
- About 10 carrots. They’re MASSIVE THIS YEAR. We’re planning on eating a few of them roasted or in salads and then using our meat slicer to slice them and freeze ’em for later.
- A small bowlful of various tomatoes…We have several green tomatoes on the vine but just a handful that have ripened. Many of these will be eaten as a side or in pasta sauce. The bulk of the harvest will be crushed or turned into sauce or juice or salsa.
- Oh, I can’t forget about the peas we harvested earlier this year. We froze about 4 cups using our vacuum sealer and saved some for seed.
In other gardening news:
A while back we had some pretty heavy rain causing our corn to bend over making us think that we lost most of the crop. BUT it’s perked up really well and we’re even starting to get little bean flowers on the stalks, so we’ll have green beans here soon! We tried planting The Three Sisters. Corn, Pole Beans, and Bush Beans. As the beans grow they vine on the corn and the bush bean grows at the base preventing weeds. Our squash (or as we like to call them–squishes), are thriving as well in another bed. There are several Acorn squash and spaghetti squash ripening on the vines and several pumpkins including a couple of Big Moons. They can get to be 200 or more pounds! In addition to the zucchini that we’ve already gathered and several others that are ripening.
Sunflowers are some of my favorite flowers and they are doing SO well.
I love that we have a variety of colors too. A lot of them are dark orange/red which is a nice difference from the usual yellow ones.
The really nice thing about this year’s garden is that God has provided–in more ways than one. We’ve had rain at least once a week since we planted everything. Meaning that we haven’t had to pull the hose out to water! The harvest is coming in slow and steady preventing us from feeling like we are behind and with everyone’s busy schedule we all can help preserve it!
We’ve been busy this Summer–busier than normal for July (one of my cousins got married and another graduated high school)! But like I’ve said before it’s a good kind of busy. Visiting with family, making memories, and just being present. Despite the busyness and travel, we’ve even been able to take time to rest. We’re busy, not rushed and that is something that I am very thankful for!
And you know what makes me really happy? We’re in the last week of July. School supplies are hitting the shelves (one of my weaknesses) and PUMPKIN SPICE is starting to arrive! 😁
September 1st thru about January 4th is my FAVORITE TIME OF THE YEAR!
And it’s almost here! Mom and Dad went shopping last night and bought some Pumpkin Spice caramel. That’s just the beginning of all things Pumpkin around here. I foresee a trip to Hobby Lobby in the near future to browse their Fall decorations and dream a little in their Christmas decorations!
I’m looking forward to the cooler weather, fires in the fireplace, warm soup, long sleeves, and boots among many other festive activities! In the meantime though, I’m trying to make the most of each day. Seeing the good, and counting the many blessings that this warmer weather brings (including extra time to cut firewood…).
Until next time,
Bailey Sue
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