Harvest is coming
Mid July is a slow time in the garden* while things grow and not much is producing. But right on command at the start of August things start coming in. I have harvested all my garlic:
We have 40 or so blubs, but some are pretty small. It won't last a whole winter, but we'll get some from the CSA as well and it'll make a pretty good dent in garlic-purchasing for the year!
And the blackberries are going crazy. These are from the brambles we left in the back patio space**
That's 6 or 8 cups of berries almost as big as the ones at the store, but twice as sweet! And we picked berries for maybe 30 minutes?
And I've started freezing veggies for the winter too. A shopping bag FULL of broccoli - all the primary heads from my garden. And a smaller bag of green beans from the CSA. These freezer boxes hold more than you think. I thought I'd need 5 or 6 for all these veggies, and only used 4.
This is my first year with the boxes (in my kitchen anyway) they're from my mom's basement. They're the reusable alternative to freezing things in ziplock bags. They stack better too! Neil helped me with these, and it went So Much More Quickly. He chopped and put them in the steamer to blanch. I pulled them out (picked worms off the broccoli) and packed the freezer boxes. Usually we freeze on cookie trays, but I thought this way we'd get more in the same space. And I'm hoping that steam-blanching means the veggies aren't so wet they freeze into a solid mass. I guess I'll find out if I'm correct in November...
*Good thing to, since I wasn't home for several weekends in a row. I'm glad we did a major weed-and-mulch at the start of the month.
**there are actual patio stones out there. It doesn't seem to be slowing the brambles down At All.
This post is originally from BeckyinVT. Feel free to comment and follow here or there.
We have 40 or so blubs, but some are pretty small. It won't last a whole winter, but we'll get some from the CSA as well and it'll make a pretty good dent in garlic-purchasing for the year!
And the blackberries are going crazy. These are from the brambles we left in the back patio space**
That's 6 or 8 cups of berries almost as big as the ones at the store, but twice as sweet! And we picked berries for maybe 30 minutes?
And I've started freezing veggies for the winter too. A shopping bag FULL of broccoli - all the primary heads from my garden. And a smaller bag of green beans from the CSA. These freezer boxes hold more than you think. I thought I'd need 5 or 6 for all these veggies, and only used 4.
This is my first year with the boxes (in my kitchen anyway) they're from my mom's basement. They're the reusable alternative to freezing things in ziplock bags. They stack better too! Neil helped me with these, and it went So Much More Quickly. He chopped and put them in the steamer to blanch. I pulled them out (picked worms off the broccoli) and packed the freezer boxes. Usually we freeze on cookie trays, but I thought this way we'd get more in the same space. And I'm hoping that steam-blanching means the veggies aren't so wet they freeze into a solid mass. I guess I'll find out if I'm correct in November...
*Good thing to, since I wasn't home for several weekends in a row. I'm glad we did a major weed-and-mulch at the start of the month.
**there are actual patio stones out there. It doesn't seem to be slowing the brambles down At All.
This post is originally from BeckyinVT. Feel free to comment and follow here or there.