Tallying the Harvest

When I was a little girl, my family didn't celebrate Halloween; but most years, we participated in some sort of harvest party--either through school or church.  In keeping with that tradition, I'm celebrating harvest today!

All during this past summer, I kept a tally of foods that we harvested from our garden or bought locally to preserve.  It is incredible to me how much bounty can come forth from a relatively small piece of ground.  When I stop to think about it, I'm floored by the "miracle" of tiny seeds going into dirt and turning into delicious foods for us to eat!  Isn't it amazing?!  :)

Before I get to the list, however, here are some pictures from this past year's growing season.

 Jeff spent many an evening working in the garden, and he often had some help (or sometimes, just some companionship as he worked)...  :)

 Jeff picking peas...

 Josiah picking potato bugs...

 He was a great help with this...he would pick some bugs, put them in some water in a little bucket, then take them up to the chickens and dump them over the fence for the chickens to eat...the chickens thought it was a great treat...  :)

 We had a bumper crop of cilantro...most of it coming from "volunteer" plants...some even came up intertwined with a tomato plant!  Perfect for salsa...  ;-)

We got a couple of bushels of peaches from a nearby orchard (but not our usual orchard--unfortunately, that one didn't have a good crop of peaches because of a late frost)...

...and Tobin helped to lay them out on the air hockey table so they could ripen.

OK, now the list.  And, just a note, I tried to be quite thorough in my record-keeping, but I am certain I forgot to write some things down along the way.  My numbers are more than likely off a little (on the low side), especially for Jeff's salsa and the hot peppers he canned and some things like that.

Back in the spring, Jeff took advantage of the abundant cilantro and green onions in our garden, and he bagged up quite a few bags of both of those items.  I don't have any idea how many though, but it was a lot.  He'll use those for salsa.

From our garden, we ate fresh:  onions, lettuce, broccoli, peas, cabbage, basil, oregano, peppers (jalapeno, cherry, bell, habañero, and other kinds that I'm not sure of the name), tomatoes, green beans, cucumbers, zucchini, potatoes, tomatoes, watermelon (which were actually really good! some years they don't seem to have much flavor at all), corn, cantaloupe.

In addition, we gave away:  lettuce, cucumbers, zucchini, bell peppers (many of those peppers went into the chili that was sold at the Mennonite relief sale; my dad was the main person who chopped those) :), jalapenos and other spicy peppers.

One day, we even sold some hot peppers.  Our neighbor, who runs a produce stand, had a lady stop there in search of some hot peppers.  Having none, my neighbor called me and asked if we had any extras.  I said sure, and she sent the lady over who then proceeded to gather up some and hand me a few dollars for them. Goodness!  As far as I was concerned she could just have them!  (It's far easier for me to give away hot peppers than it is for Jeff to do so.)  ;-)  But I took the money and gave it to Jeff that evening.  :)

Here is what we preserved:

~ 9 pints of strawberry freezer jam (we bought the strawberries from a neighbor across the way) - I also made strawberry shortcake, a strawberry pie, and we ate some fresh - every year, we have to make a shortcake and a pie when we have strawberries!  :)

~ 36 pints of peas in the freezer - this was the first year we had a good crop of peas since we moved here, and I was delighted by this success  :)

~ 17 pints of sour cherries in the freezer (we bought the sour cherries) - I used some two days ago to make this delicious dessert  :)

~ 21 pints of blueberries (bought through a local fruit market and then frozen)

~ 33 quarts of green beans canned

~ 28 cups of chopped onions frozen - we haven't had good success the past few years in keeping our onions into the fall and winter; they always seem to begin to rot! - so we decided to chop and freeze them, which makes them so handy to pull out throughout the year to add to soups, casseroles, salsa, or other dishes

~ 18 quarts of dill beans canned

~ Jeff canned salsa: 52 quarts, 14 pints

~ Jeff canned jalapenos and other hot peppers: 30 quarts, 20 pints

~ Jeff canned cherry peppers: 5 pints, 2 quarts

~ 28 quarts of peaches (one jar broke in the canner - a first for me!)

~ 14 cups of bell peppers frozen

~ 7 quarts of diced tomatoes canned - of all the things we grew this year, the tomatoes were definitely the biggest disappointment: lots of pest problems, lots of rotten places that needed to be cut out before salvaging a small part of the tomato - I would have liked to can a lot more diced tomatoes or spaghetti sauce or other tomato products, but we just didn't have the tomatoes for it this year - oh well, 7 quarts is better than none  :)

~ 8 gallons of grape juice - not a huge harvest; but after the terrible storm we had the end of June, we were concerned that our vine wouldn't survive, so we were happy just to get this much from it!  :)

~ a bunch of zucchini frozen (forgot to write down how much) - we bought some zucchini from our neighbor at the end of the season, because after producing abundantly for a while, our plants suddenly keeled over and died on us :(  - I wanted to experiment with freezing some because, even though I know the texture will be different when it's thawed, I'm hoping that it will do fine in casseroles

~ creamed corn frozen: 5 pints - I would have done a lot more of this, but our major corn harvest was happening in September as we were preparing for our vacation (and then, of course, while we were gone on vacation), so I didn't get much done - hopefully next year I can do more of this, because homemade creamed corn is GOOD!

I believe that is all...unless I missed something...which is entirely possible.  :)

As I look back over this list, I am EXTREMELY grateful:  to Jeff for his hours of hard work in the garden, to my parents who helped with things like shelling peas and snapping beans, to my boys who (sometimes cheerfully...sometimes not) pitched in and helped with various tasks along the way, and most of all to God for making all of this grow!

Tonight I'm thanking God for the harvest...and looking forward to next year in the garden!  :)

Who loves a garden still his Eden keeps,

Perennial pleasure plants,

   and wholesome harvests reaps.

~ Bronson Alcott