It seems like every day there is something to harvest. As soon as we pick the beans, wash them, snap them and can them, it’s time to repeat.
Looking at our beans, it’s hard to imagine that it took three separate plantings to get here, and the bunnies are still eating their share. But now the plants are large enough to produce an abundance for us as well as them.
I have to step over the cucumbers, which have grown at an alarming rate, to harvest some peppers. The cucumbers have grown so much that their vines are sprawling over their allotted space and into their neighboring plants. This makes it difficult to harvest the corn and peppers. But it’s a great problem to have. Some vines are over 20 feet long with hundreds of flowers. That’s when reality sinks in; after canning over 50 quarts of pickles, pickles n’ peppers and pickled peppers, I’m not sure I want to pick another cucumber. Ironically, I don’t think I’ve even had a fresh cucumber yet.
One our earlier years gardening, I decided to plant a lot of cucumbers — a few hundred feet to be exact. We harvested 15 bushels of cucumbers in a single picking. We had cucumbers in salad, cucumber salad, bread and butter pickles, dill pickles, etc. You name it, we made it. But it seemed every time we picked a cucumber off the vine, there was another one right behind it, which eventually made us sick of cucumbers.
Today, the only thing we seem to be sick of is going to the grocery store. I don’t go very often, but I went with my wife to get something. I couldn’t believe the prices. I don’t really eat a lot of junk food, or even fast food. We process our own chickens, cut them up and deep fry them ourselves. We then freeze them for future meals, which cuts down on the meal prep times. We do the same with fries and other things we can. This year, we’re going to try to freeze jalapeño poppers that we grew ourselves.
But as the prices around us continue to climb, we must find new and innovative ways to use what we have. We are constantly looking for ways that we can use and store cucumbers.
We recently harvested our own garlic and basil. We were able to make a huge batch of fresh pesto by mixing the garlic and basil with a little bit of salt and oil. We poured the mixture into silicone cupcake molds and froze it, so we can enjoy the fresh basil throughout the year.
Next, we made garlic puree and froze it in the same molds. Eventually, we’ll make an onion puree the same way and freeze it. Fresh onions and garlic last a long time, but not indefinitely. This saves us time when cooking and guarantees homegrown ingredients for the next year or more. It is a lot of work, but so is driving to the grocery store, loading the cart, unloading the cart, unloading the car and putting the groceries away.
I’m not sure that we’re spending less time with our food than anyone else, but for the first time, I think we’re actually saving money. What’s better than that?
My kids are learning to love food as much as me. They know the difference between forellenschluss lettuce and bibb lettuce and eat the ripest Costuloto Genovese tomatoes right in the garden.
