How to Grow Your Own Food – 10/16/2013 Garden Tally

This past week we harvested squash, potatoes, tomatoes and kale from our backyard garden. Things have totally slowed down because of the colder temperatures, but I don’t mind. I think it’s kind of nice because it give me more time to get a few projects crossed of my list both indoors and out.

Last week we set up the grow lights and the lettuce, basil and beets we planted are all up. I plan on growing the basil indoors, moving the lettuce to the greenhouse and the beets to a garden bed once the seedlings get a little bigger.

Gardening is cool no matter if you do it indoors or out.

~Mavis

Here is what I have harvested so far this year:

Basil – 1 pound 3 ounces

We’ve got basil growing under the grow lights. Hopefully by Christmas we’ll have a boatload of fresh basil. In the past we’ve enjoyed making fresh pesto and strawberry basil jam with it.

Beets – 133 pounds 12 ounces

We’ve still got plenty of beets in the garden and we just started some indoors as well.

Bok Choy – 7 pounds

We pulled up all the remaining bok choy a while back and tossed it to the chickens. I don’t think I’ll plant it again until next spring.

Broccoli – 13 ounces

Our broccoli plants are doing great and I’m looking forward to a late fall harvest. Girly Girl stole almost all my plants. We won’t have a huge harvest this year, but we should get atleast a few dinners and side dishes out of it.

Cabbage – 40 pounds 14 ounce

Still waiting to harvest our fall cabbage!

Carrots – 43 pounds 11 ounces

I didn’t pull up any carrots this past week but we’ve still got quite a few in the ground.

Chives – 2 pound 5 ounces

We regular chives and garlic chives growing right now.

Cucumbers 9 pound 6 ounces

Our cucumbers are done for the season. I guess this means I’ll be buying hothouse cucumbers at Costco until next summer.

Egg Count – 2,197

This past week we collected 58 eggs. Happy chickens make happy eggs.

Garlic 9 pounds 2 ounces

We planted our garlic a few weeks ago and it should be ready sometime in July of 2014. 🙂

Garlic Scapes 11 ounces

We use them to make Garlic Scape Pesto.

Green Beans 17 pounds 11 ounces

Our green beans are officially done for the year. Now if I want some fresh green beans I’ll have to get them from the grocery store. Booo!

Kale – 42 pounds 14 ounces

I grow it along side the chicken coop for the chickens.

Kohlrabi 5 pounds 10 ounces

Lettuce – 37 pounds 3 ounces

We currently have lettuce growing in the greenhouse and just started some under grow lights for a winter harvest.

Microgreens 5 ounces

I need to jump back on the microgreen train. It’s been awhile since I’ve grown some bean sprouts.

Mint 13 oz

I made some blueberry mint jam this summer and also harvested some mint for tea.

Oregano – 1 pound 12 ounces

I been using fresh oregano for my heirloom tomato sauce.

Onion – 37 pounds 8 ounces

While I was cleaning out the garden boxes over the weekend I found a few more onions growing beneath the tomato plants. We might have a few more out in the raspberry patch yet to harvest but I’m not sure.

Pears 47 pounds 7 ounces

Pear butter is AWESOME!

Peas – 42 pounds 9 ounces

We’ve got peas growing in the greenhouse and in a garden box. Hopefully we’ll get some fresh peas soon.

Potatoes – 319 pounds

How to Harvest and Store Potatoes for Winter.

Last week while I was clearing the pumpkin patch I also dug up a few of the potatoes we planted beneath the pumpkin mounds. So far I’ve only dug up about 19 pounds, but there’s more to be dug up.

My original plan was to dig them all up at once, but now I’m thinking I may just wait until just before the first frost. We’ll see.

Radish – 22 pounds 2 ounces

Planting seeds today!

Raspberries – 21 pounds 7 ounces

Raspberry season is officially over in our backyard. 🙁

Rhubarb – 39 pounds 9 ounces

Sage – 14 ounces

We are using sage as we need it.

Squash 230 pounds 10 ounces

Last week I got started on clearing the pumpkin patch. After all was said and done we ended up with an additional 122+ pounds of pumpkins. Not bad, but not great in my opinion. My pumpkin crop totally failed this year due to poor crop rotation and I didn’t end up with any giant ones. I’ve learned my lesson though so hopefully next year I’ll be able to grow more.

Spinach – 15 ounces

I planted more in the greenhouse for a winter harvest.

Sprouts –2 pounds 15 ounces

Here are instructions for growing your own sprouts.

Strawberries 23 pounds 14 ounces

Strawberry season is over for the year.

Besides eating them fresh we made strawberry kiwi jam, strawberry freezer jam, strawberry pie, and homemade strawberry shortcake.

Swiss Chard 52 pounds 4 ounces

Our backyard chickens love it and it’s great for trading.

Tomatoes 234 pounds 15 ounces

We picked 5 Green Zebra and a handful of Sun Gold tomatoes this past week from the greenhouse. The greenhouse tomatoes days are totally numbered, but we’ll take what we can get. 😉

Wheatgrass – 7 ounces

Zucchini – 72 pounds 13 ounces

I harvested our last zucchini over the weekend. This was not a good zucchini year for us, which is really odd because they grow like crazy around here.

Total Food Harvested in 2013: 1454 pounds 13 ounces

Total Eggs Collected in 2013: 2,197

If you are new to gardening or just want to learn more about organic gardening, my #1 favorite garden book is The Gardener’s A-Z Guide to Growing Organic Food By Tanya L.K. Denckla.