Garden bounty

Harvest has begun at the Grovestead. The early season crops are prime for picking. Past prime, actually. Our cucumbers were actually too big so we had to cut out the middle before pickling. This is our first year pickling anything, and so far I’d say its going great. Becca has taken the lead, looking up recipes on the Internet and stocking up on supplies. I’m so proud of her willingness to try new things.

We went out to the garden after dinner one night this week and collected 2 gallons of sweet peas in about 20 minutes. This after  weeks of eating them fresh off the vine, and there are still plenty more to be picked. Some were pickled, some were shelled and frozen, plenty were kept for fresh eating. Fresh-picked peas are incredibly sweet.

For garden salads we find it easier to just uproot a whole head of lettuce rather than clipping off leaves. If we had been succession planting every two weeks, we’d have fresh lettuce like this all summer. As it stands, we’ve got about 12 or so heads left. The kale was hot pink, red, orange and neon yellow.

The wild blackberries have also started ripening. We have pockets of these throughout our property, and its a labor-intensive task to gather them, but there’s nothing better in the middle of January than wild blackberry jam.

It’s shaping up to be a busy month, with lots more veggies ripening soon. But it’s also a fun one (and tasty).