garden goods

This year's vegetable garden consisted of: corn, carrots, onions, potatoes, cucumbers, and radishes. We planted it all on the outskirts of the 1/4 acre pumpkin patch.

 

We ate the radishes this summer when they matured (which was so fast! I always forget to replant them to keep having crops all summer long).

 

We began eating the cucumbers in August. We had 5x the crop that we had last year, and couldn't stay on top of consuming them, and several ended up wilting. But they were SO big and SO delicious, and I loved them! I used to not like cukes when I was a kid, but changed my mind about them when we started growing them in our garden. Now when I eat our own cucumbers, I think they're so delicious. But I've discovered that the store-bought ones I get (before ours are mature enough to eat) don't taste good--they're more bitter and not as juicy and I don't like them. Growing cucumbers has truly proven to me that home-grown really is better than store-bought produce.

 

The last week of August, the boys helped dig up several items from the garden to enter in the fair. I laid out all the items on the deck, and grouped them together, and then they decided what they wanted to individually enter. The choices were 3 kinds of potatoes (red, yukon gold, russet), carrots, and cucumbers, and they all helped pick one pumpkin out of the patch to take as well.

 

Micah's pumpkin choice won 2 purple ribbons at the county fair, for which he was SO happy about!

 

The kids had never entered garden produce in the fair before, but were pleased with the experience. They entered pumpkins last year, and thought they would expand the number of entries this year. They were so happy with the premiums they received, and it ALMOST made all that weeding of the garden worth it! ;)

 

We planted two types of corn: sweet corn & Indian corn. We sell the Indian corn at the Pumpkin Patch, and eat the sweet corn. The Indian corn stalks (on the right) are always so much taller than the regular corn stalks (on the left)!

 

The corn was planted in two rows. 3/4 of the rows were sweet corn.

 

We ate it several times on the cob for dinner in August and September, and it was SO yummy! The boys wish we could have fresh corn on the cob all year long! Over Labor Day weekend, I worked on making freezer corn. I did 50 ears a corn a day for 3 days. The boys helped me shuck it each day out by the front door.

I got into a routine each day...I could boil 8 ears at a time in one pot (black or silver--both were being used), then I would put the blanched ears in cold water in the large chrome pot. Then I would let them dry on a towel on the counter before cutting the kernels off the cob onto the cutting board. Then I scooped up the kernels from the cutting board and put them in a 2-cup measuring cup. When the container was full of kernels, I poured them into freezer baggies. After I got the first round of ears boiled, I had multiple things going at once (boiling, cooling, drying, cutting), and each day it took me about an hour and half to get the 50 ears done.

150 ears of corn and 3 days later, I had 40 quart freezer bags full of corn! It's the most I've ever done! Last year I did 30 bags and we've used all but 5 of them, because I was cautious with them the last few months not wanting to run out. Now I know we will definitely have enough to make it through this coming year; I use them in casseroles and soups a lot! Even after all that, we still had corn left over on our stalks. So next year, I think I want to start making frozen corn on the cobs, too.

 

The onions were also planted in two rows; they were between the potatoes and carrots on the east side of the field. Obviously, as this photo proves, towards the end of the summer, we weren't too keen on weeding anymore! When the pumpkins become tall, it's difficult to wander down to the far end of the patch where the garden is to weed it!

I pulled the onions from the ground in 2 segments. This photo is of the first half of the onions that were pulled. I let them dry for 2 weeks outside before bringing them in and then pulled the 2nd half of the onions from the ground to repeat the process.

After they were dried, I cut their stems and peeled off the outer layers, then I put them in an old pair of nylons and hung them. I've never tried this before, but it totally makes sense--the nylons let them breathe, they are separated from each other, and as you need an onion, you just cut a knot from the bottom of the leggings!

 

The carrots were also planted in two rows. This is a photo of just one of the rows at the end of August. The deer had eaten the tips, and the weeds were crouching in on their space.

 

I pulled the carrots from the ground in 3 segments. We ate a lot of them fresh, dipping them in ranch sauce. This is just 1/3 of the carrots we grew this year:

I peeled, cut, and boiled the rest of the carrots and put them in 5 quart-size freezer bags to use in casseroles, soups, and pot pies in the coming year. I've never cooked this much carrots before, either, but I know I will use them in this capacity:

We planted 3 types of potatoes in two long rows--Yukon Gold, Russet, and Red. We started eating a lot of the red potatoes in August. We've dug up approximately 100 pounds so far, and we've dug 3 separate times. We've completely gotten one row done now, but we'll wait a little longer before starting to dig up the next row. This is a photo of the first dig...the potatoes all grew together so you can't see the two separate rows.

At the beginning of each of the long rows is the red potatoes. You can see Jonah (in the purple shirt) holding one here before putting it in the burlap bag:

The vines grew SO big this year! Josh is throwing out just one potato plant vine here:

This is almost at the end of the Reds before the Yukon Golds begin:

We mostly eat the potatoes when they're mashed or in soups, but I also eat them fried and I made French fries with them once. Neither Josh nor the boys really like baked potatoes, though. The Reds are my favorite, but they don't store well for long, so we try to eat them first before they go bad. I like the Yukon Gold, too. They have good flavor, but they disintegrate while boiling way more than the other kinds. And the Russets have the best shelf life, so they're the ones we store and use through the winter.

We were so blessed to have a great crop of produce in our garden this year! I enjoy being able to see the plants grow and develop through the summer, and then eating the food fresh in the early fall!