Monday, September 9, 2013

Harvest Monday, September 9th, 2013

The last of the corn was picked. We ate the corn in the bottom photo fresh, but the others I blanched and froze.

I had two fairly similar harvest baskets. The last one did have the first peas of the season. You can't see them as they are buried. Only five to start with. I'll have to strip the vines today as I'll be out of town for a while. I ate all the greens that I picked a week ago Sunday, but didn't pick any more for this week. I'd pick them for my daughter but she doesn't eat greens.

A couple of pounds of the Trail of Tears beans were weighed in. I have plenty more of those and the Mexican pintos drying. I don't weigh them in until they are totally dry though. I use the hammer test to see if they are dry enough. If they shatter when when hit with a hammer, they are dry enough to store and even to freeze without killing the bean. I store them in sealed canning jars, so drying them makes sure they don't mold.

This week saw some preserving of the crops. Some of those beans were blanched and frozen as I can't eat over two pounds in a week.

And some of the cucumbers were made into dill relish. In the past I made sweet relish, but I've gotten bored with it, so I've switched to dill now. I hope I like it. I made a quarter batch from the Ball book and I still got four half pints (one was in the fridge). I probably only use about two half pints in a year, so I'm guessing it will be too much.
  • Beans 4.57 lbs
  • Corn 8.48 lbs
  • Cucumbers 9.43 lbs
  • Peas 0.04 lbs
  • Weekly Tally 22.51 lbs
  • Yearly Tally 338.76 lbs, $574.49

Harvest Monday is a day to show off your harvests, how you are saving your harvest, or how you are using your harvest. If you have a harvest you want to show off, add your name and link to Mr Linky below.

28 comments:

  1. It must be sad to harvest the last of your corn. At least you were able to preserve some for later, but there is nothing like fresh corn. The jar of beans look so pretty.

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  2. Your Corn looks great, I have never grown it myself but was given some seeds in a swop recently so I plan on trying it myself.. And sorry my blog seems to have taken up two spaces on your linky thing. Not sure how that happened :(

    Lorraine

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  3. We have learned this year that we go through relish much slower than we thought we might. We made 12 quarter pints (those tiny little jars) thinking one a month would be perfect and I think we've gone through 3 or 4 over the past year. Perspective, ha?

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  4. Your corn looks so beautiful! I've never tried it due to space and sunlight constraints. Love how your dried beans look too!

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  5. Beautiful jar of Trail of Tears beans. Do you find your homegrown dried beans cook faster than the store bought ones?
    Jealous of your corns, wish I have the garden space to grow them.

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  6. Ooh, look at all your corn and beans, they look so lovely. The squirrels ate every last bit of my corn this year :( Total bummer.

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  7. Thanks for sharing how you "keep" your dried beans.

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  8. Love your hammer tip for testing the dryness of beans - really useful.

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  9. You are torturing me with that corn :) I always worry about my beans going mouldy - great tip!

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  10. Soo much corn! I wish I had the space to grow it. I picked some up from the farmers market on the weekend though and hoping to have it with tonights dinner!

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  11. Everything is looking great!! Our corn finished up this week as well, we will miss it fresh but we do have some in the freezer for later!!

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  12. I hear you on the dill relish. I made a full batch of it three or four years ago, and I still have a lot left. Husband eats a bit, but I don't care for it at all, so I mostly use it in tartar sauce.

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  13. I am also growing Trail of Tears beans this year. They are very prolific. I picked some for fresh eating and froze them for later use. I am also drying some as well. I actually learned about them from an earlier post of yours, so thank you!

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  14. The black beans are so pretty. I think I'm going to have to try those next year. The corn must have been just fabulous picked fresh from the garden, how sad to see it go.

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  15. Those green beans and corn look so delicious, I have had homegrown corn in years!

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  16. Oh, that corn! Lucky you. That is one thing I wish I had room to grow. The corn and beans look great too! I have not made any kind of relish in years but your dill relish does look good! I have not had a lot of extra cucumbers this year so have been mostly eating them and doing a little freezer dills. Nancy

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  17. That corn looks so yummy! Thanks for sharing how to test if beans are dried, mine went mouldy last year!

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  18. Sharon and the rest are right. That corn looks yummy. We planted late. Ours won't be ready for a couple more weeks. Enjoy!

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  19. Such bounty. I dream of having corn that looks half as good!

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  20. A beautiful time of year to be a gardener, when the weather's cooled down enough that we can cook and can again!

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  21. That black beans looks amazing, I wish I had enough space for beans and peas too...

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  22. Your corn looks so pretty- tender and sweet. Your cucumbers look like a good size for pickling too, I usually don't get them picked before they have reached gigantic proportions. I even cook them. I am getting mostly tomatoes now, they take so long then go crazy. Beans have been tapering off. I'm hoping to get peas from a late sowing.

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  23. How much space do you devote to beans to get that kind of harvest?

    I am blown away by your harvest — just this Monday. We are just getting back in the habit of growing our own food and are not harvesting much, yet.

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    Replies
    1. Typically I get .3 pounds of beans per square foot when I grow pole beans and .1 when I grow bush beans. The beans are still producing so I dont know what I'll get this year.

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