Fall, cooler weather, and new plants…
The pumpkins have started coming in! With all the gourds, pumpkins, mini pumpkins, and corn stalks, we are feeling all the fall vibes. I planted some giant spinach from the seeds I harvested from the plants that had gone to seed a couple of weeks ago and the spinach is now up! It will probably not grow this season in time to harvest since we are just about to freezing nights here, but having planted it in the fall, it will likely die back a bit and grow in the spring. I did that last season and we had fresh spinach super early in the year. It was great!
We did some fall clean up on the church garden beds and I am starting to have to cover the tender crops here and there at night to protect against frost. I have several bed sheets that have tears or don’t fit beds properly that I keep in my gardening supplies for that purpose. They work very well to cover the crops against a light frost and they are east to launder at the end of the season and store.
Harvest…
We had a few more ears of corn, lots of tomatoes, and we processed some big zucchini into 2 cup portions to freeze for one of my kids favorite “garden” treats – zucchini bread!
We have had a tummy bug here as well so the mint for mint tea has become a staple. It seems to soothe stomachache pretty well.
The garden tallies were great this time as my son picked two of his big pumpkins and they really added to the final weight numbers.
We still have several things left to harvest this year. And I have more spinach seed to separate and save from the plants I let go to seed, but here is what has been totaled so far.
Totals…
Total Home Garden so far this year:
~ 1 oz. cilantro
3 T. onion tops
1 6/8 oz. chives
~ 1 3/8 oz. chocolate mint (for tea)
1 3/8 oz. basil
1/8 oz. oregano
1 T. rosemary
1/8 oz. parsley
1/8 oz. sage
2 lbs. and 14 1/8 oz. mixed sugar and snap peas
9 lb. 3/8 oz. mixed tomato
2 7/8 oz. hot artledge pepper
1 oz. sweet banana pepper
2 1/4 oz. purple beans
2 1/4 oz. green beans
1 lb. 8 1/2 oz. zucchini
Total Home: ~14lb. 5 1/4 oz. produce
Total Community Garden Beds this year:
2 lb. 1 3/4 ounces mixed Russian Red Kale and Giant Spinach
1 lb. 7 5/8 oz. mixed radishes – Champion, French Breakfast, and Sparkler Tip
1 1/8 oz. tatsoi
7 oz. baby bok choy
6 lb. 5 1/4 oz. tomato
4 oz. tomatillo
2 3/4 oz. artledge hot pepper
8 lb. 3 1/4 oz. cucumbers
3 lb. 2 1/8 oz. peas (mixed snow and sugar snap)
9 1/2 oz. green beans
14 7/8 oz. yellow squash
21 lb. 1 1/8 oz. green zucchini squash
6 lb. 14 1/4 oz. gourds
8 lb. 14 oz. mini pumpkins
2 lb sweet corn
1 lb. 6 5/8 oz. beets
27 lb. 1 oz. pumpkins
5/8 oz. carrots
6 1/2 oz. patty pan squash
Total Community Garden: ~94 lb. 15 5/8 oz. produce
Total Foraged Food this year:
5 5/8 oz huckleberries!!!
Total Pounds Harvested: 109 lb. 4 and 7/8 oz. total (plus a few T. herbs, a bunch of peas we ate before weighing, half gallon bag of spinach to a friend, the huckleberries and a giant bunch of kale to another friend)
Costs:
No new costs in the last few weeks.
*I have an extensive collection of seeds from prior years, seeds I saved from my own garden, and seeds that I am able to obtain for free every year at events hosted in our community and our community seed library, so my seed costs are pretty low.
Total: $128.83 for the year. About $1.18 per pound of produce, figuring 109 lbs. as a rounded figure. I am hoping that in the next harvest weigh in it will drop down under $1.00 per pound. There are pumpkins, beets, and carrots still to harvest so there are some heavy hitters that will still be coming in.
Wrap up yourselves and your gardens and keep warm. The harvest will continue to come in and we will prepare for the winter season. Many blessings to you and yours!