What we've harvested so far

Well this year has been an excellent year, so far. However, not without some sweat off the brow.  I'm gonna keep this short and sweet, because we all know you just want to see the inspirational pic(k)s, the fruit of our labor, the reaping of our sow (?), alright enough of that. Up first..


Spinach

There was a ton of spinach, before we blanched it.  It shrinks considerably when cooked, so we'll definitely need to grow more.  At 8 lbs. of spinach we'll figure $12 total.


Peas

These are your standard sweet pea.  As you can see we have a few over-ripe ones in here, but we'll use 'em anyway.  These peas took 2 people a combined 5 hours of shucking.  Yikes that's a ton of work.  The flavor of some is great, most are only ok.  Notes for the future, pick sooner, before the pods start turning yellow.  Also, invest in a shucking machine, they are on Amazon for as low as $25.

We did end up with 6 quarts, it felt like 10 pounds.  So we'll figure about $20 worth of veggies.

Potatoes

What better staple for long storage than potatoes?  High in energy and, umm.. productive?  I'd say we got less than we could have.  I'm not sure if I should attribute that to the soil (which is mediocre), the seed spuds from Walmart, or some other factor I haven't yet thought of.  This is from 2lb. seed and doesn't really show everything I planted (I still have 20 plants in the ground).  All in all, we've got 30 lbs. so far.  We'll compare the yield of our last harvest, which looks to be better.

These are some delicious potatoes, a more earthy flavor and buttery in texture.  I'll say $2.99 for 5lbs. so $18 total.

Raspberries

You can tell a raspberry is ripe because it pulls away from the center and they practically fall off when pulled. These are a treat to harvest, especially around breakfast time.

We managed to a few pints of berries, some went straight in the freezer.  I expect as these plants develop we'll double or triple the production.  Since I love berries, that's not enough.  We've started another raspberry and I have plans for 3 more blackberry vines started next spring.  We also had a few blueberries, which are really challenging in Utah due to the alkaline soil.

Overall 8 pints, and at $2.99 a pt. that makes $24.00, and they taste good to boot!

Last but not least..

Garlic

We planted these last fall, and it's been a joy to watch them grow.  I loved harvesting, drying and cleaning the garlic because it makes everything smell so damn good, even though it lingers on the fingers.  After they hang for a couple weeks in a dry well ventilated area, garlic is relatively easy to prepare for storage.  Just wipe off the dirt, and when needed, peel back a layer of "skin" to reveal a fresh clean layer.

Just this morning I cleaned mine, first by cutting the tops off with clean pruners, it was better than coffee.  Trim the roots back (I just twisted them off).

I'll only store the unblemished bulbs.  Overall 21 bulbs, or 5 lbs. These are very nice gourmet garlic, so $25 total.

Other than that, we harvested a ton of strawberries, although I didn't count how much  We also already have 14 jars of pickles and I think the cucumbers will be the winner in overall productivity (again).  We've just started dabbling in fresh and dried herbs, using fresh dill & dried coriander with our pickles, and screwing up a batch of chamomile.  There's definitely more to come.