This year I’m on a mission to grow 4,000 pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables in my suburban backyard. In 2012 I was able to grow 2,028 pounds, and in 2013 I’m going double or nothing. I have absolutely no idea if I’ll be able to achieve my goal. But, as with any adventure, half the fun is getting there. ~Mavis
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This has been a bit of a wacky week around our house. It took a few days for us to recover from our trip to St. Jude, then there was the dental surgery, so really, we only had about 2 or 3 days of gardening this past week.
Somehow we still managed to harvest a little over 145 pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables from the backyard garden {mostly beets, potatoes and tomatoes}. Luckily we have great neighbors to share our bounty with so it hasn’t been to overwhelming, but to be totally honest, our counter tops are still covered in vegetables, I guess things could be worse.
Hopefully in a few more days things will be back to normal around here and I’ll be canning and preserving like crazy again.
I hope your harvest is going well,
~Mavis
Here is what I have harvested so far this year:
Basil – 11 ounces
I LOVE making fresh pesto.
Beets – 74 pounds 5 ounces
We’ve been beet bombing the neighbors porches lately because we have so many beets. Hopefully it won’t backfire on us. 😉
Bok Choy – 4 oz
Check out this Asian Noodle Salad with Bok Choy I made. It’s pretty awesome.
Broccoli – 13 ounces
We didn’t get much broccoli this sprint but I did plant more in my fall garden. If you haven’t tried it yet, this recipe for Broccoli Cranberry and Almond Salad with Feta is delicious.
Cabbage – 40 pounds 14 ounce
We are done harvesting cabbage until fall. There are more heads planted alongside the greenhouse and I started more cabbage seeds for a winter harvest so we should be cook for a while.Here is my recipe for homemade sauerkraut.
Carrots – 3 ounces
I need to get out there and pick some carrots!
Chives – 1 pound 4 ounces
We are picking about an ounce a week to use in recipes.
Cucumbers 1 pound 6 ounces
So far we’ve harvested 1 giant green cucumber and a bunch of little lemon cucumbers. Cucumbers are another crop that was damaged pretty early on by the slugs.
Egg Count – 1,769
We haven’t done a great job of keeping track of the egg count lately but we did write down 52 eggs. I’m sure there we more but we’ve turned into a bunch of slackers around here.
Garlic 9 pounds 2 ounces
Our garlic has been harvested for this year. If you’ve yet to harvest yours, I have a quick post on How to Harvest Garlic.
Garlic Scapes 11 ounces
We used these to make Garlic Scape Pesto. Yumm!
Green Beans 9 pounds 9 ounces
We are still picking handfuls of green beans every other day.
Kale – 15 pounds 14 ounces
The kale tree. 😉 I wonder how tall it will grow?
Kohlrabi 5 pounds 10 ounces
Lettuce – 35 pounds 3 ounces
Lettuce is sprouting once again in the pallet garden. I’ll try and snap some pictures this week.
Microgreens 5 ounces
My favorite way to eat microgreens is with egg salad sandwiches.
Mint 10 oz
I made some blueberry mint jam and also harvested some mint for tea.
Oregano – 13 ounces
Onion – 8 pounds 1 ounces
We’ve been pulling up fresh onions from the garden as we need them. Note to self: Plant about 10 times more next year.
Pears 46 pounds 3 ounces
Would you believe we still have pears sitting on the counter? I can’t believe they haven’t all been gobbled up yet.
Peas – 42 pounds 9 ounces
Pole peas have been planted in the greenhouse and bush peas in the garden boxes.
Potatoes – 45 pounds 9 ounces
The Girl had a friend over for dinner the other night and they dug up and ate potatoes for dinner. That’s it. just potatoes. What a bunch of weirdos! 😉
Radish – 22 pounds 2 ounces
I’ll be planting more radishes this week.
Raspberries – 21 pounds 7 ounces
Raspberry season is officially over in our backyard. 🙁
Rhubarb – 31 pounds 7 ounces
So far this year we’ve made rhubarb vanilla jam, rhubarb walnut muffins, and strawberry rhubarb pies.
Sage – 14 ounces
Spinach – 15 ounces
I’ll be planting more in the fall.
Sprouts –2 pounds 15 ounces
I grew some sprouts this past week for my vegan neighbor Francisco. I really need to show him how to grow them himself.
Here are instructions for growing your own sprouts.
Strawberries 16 pounds 5 ounce
The strawberries are producing again. We have them growing in the pallet garden, in the greenhouse and alongside the house. So far we have made strawberry kiwi jam, strawberry freezer jam, strawberry pie, and homemade strawberry shortcake.
Swiss Chard 20 pounds 1 ounces
It’s almost pretty enough to eat! Luckily the chickens LOVE Swiss chard. 🙂
Tomatoes 40 pounds 12 ounces
I have a feeling they’ll be a fresh pot of tomato sauce on the stove top by the end of the day.
Wheatgrass – 7 ounces
Zucchini – 12 pounds 2 ounces
Yep, I have a feeling zucchini bread is in our future.
Total Food Harvested in 2013: 569 pounds 2 ounces
Total Eggs Collected in 2013: 1,769
If you are new to gardening or just want to learn more on the topic of organic gardening, my #1 favorite book is The Gardener’s A-Z Guide to Growing Organic Food
Anndra says
how in the world do you keep animals out of your garden? Is that your garden in the picture on the home page? I wish I could just leave mine open like that….
Mavis Butterfield says
We have a 6 foot fence to keep the deer out. 🙂
Constance Wheeler says
Leeks !!! Do you have any leeks? One of my favorite veggies. They grow like bunch onions only get much bigger with time. I love to use them in place of onions in any recipe; cook slices of them in butter, then top off hashbrowns or mashed potatoes. Use in stews, soups. They are tasty like onions but milder.
Mavis Butterfield says
I have some leeks growing in one of the beds but I’m waiting until fall to harvest them. 🙂
Constance Wheeler says
Would it be possible to go over how you fixed up your wonderful back yard tor gardening? Did you take off all the grass first? Till it? Spray it with something? Then I know you covered it with .. landscape cloth??, then bark. How do you keep the grass/weeds from coming back up? I have some raised beds but the pumpkins keep me from mowing the grass around them. Please help !!! Thanks Mavis !!
Mavis Butterfield says
When we moved in our backyard was just dirt and the small patch of grass that you see know next to the pumpkin patch. We just installed gardens one at a time. 🙂
Lauren says
Holy cow, that garlic is BEAUTIFUL! I’m getting ready to plant garlic this fall, mind sharing what variety it is?
Also, I got that copy of Thy Hand Hath Provided cookbook the other day, and it is awesome! I want to make everything in it! Thank you again! 🙂
Lynn says
wow, you have done amazing..
maybe you have this info somewhere, but am wondering
a) how much square footage do you have “in garden”
b) is it mostly raised beds
c) did you put anything special in the dirt
d)roughly where do you live …I am thinking you must be lucky enough to live in a warm/long growing season sort of area?
thks
Shannon says
You MUST check out The Recipe Critic. She has a great site for recipes and has a chocolate zucchini bread that is TO.DIE.FOR.!!! My zucchini is are going gangbusters in my garden too, so I’m trying anyway to get them eaten (in addition to pawning them off on anyone I come across!)
butterfly weed says
Say Mavis, just a suggestion. How about just showing what you have harvested for the week, not update us on the entire year to date. It makes for a lot of scrolling and I am just too lazy 😉
MaryBeth says
I agree!
Katie C. says
I don’t intend to be rude, but I have to say that I disagree. I personally love seeing the Garden Tally adding up each week. It’s very inspiring and seeing the veggies/fruits that weren’t harvested that week reminds me of what I may want to grown next season.
Preppy Pink Crocodile says
I just made basil jelly this week and thought you might want to try it if you have another glut of basil. I don’t make/eat many jellies but I have to say this one is awesome and I plan to make a second batch this weekend. Maybe even with my purple basil this time.
recipe: http:// http://www.preppypinkcrocodile.com/2013/08/canning-recipe-basil-jelly.html
Preppy Pink Crocodile says
Hey Mavis- this always happens. I tried to leave you a comment with a link to a recipe on my blog for basil jam because I thought it was fun and different and something you might want to try. But as usual, it didn’t get approved. So I will leave the link out I guess but I really just wanted to tell you it’s a fun recipe. I’d never heard of it before and I know you too like making unusual things. So far I’ve tried it on chicken, turkey, in a tomato sandwich and with a little cream cheese over crackers. Mmm!
KK
Mavis Butterfield says
Believe it or not, I am not glued to the computer all day long so I only see comments when I check in. 🙂 Just approved your basil jam link, it looks delish by the way. Please stop worrying about your comments getting approved, I’m trying to keep up the best that I can and somedays I am simply on the computer more than others. Peace Out Girl Scout. 🙂
Renee says
The craziest thing happened this summer. My zucchini plants produced 1 zucchini. Who has ever heard of 1 zucchini? Then again all of my vegetable plants produced little vegetables. I put in raised beds, 10 inches tall. I made a soil mixture close as possible to Mel’s mix. We have had tons of rain this spring and summer here in central Alabama. Would that have something to do with it? The eggplants stopped growing once they became baseball size, got a handful of small tomatoes when they should have been Big Boys, all the yellow squash blossoms dropped off after they bloomed, and the green beans looked great but only got 6 green beans. Yes, I saw a lot of bees in the garden to pollinate so I don’t think that was an issue.
I put the Fall seeds in last week and things seem to be doing ok so far. Any tips for a Fall garden of kale, bok choy, beets, swiss chard, and oak leaf lettuce so I get enough to actually harvest?
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
oregon mom says
With all your beets and cabbage you can make borscht. I don’t have my own recipe I just use on off the internet. But borscht is tasty and it can be canned for fall or winter eating!!!