Gardening is one of the Most Gratifying Tasks…
I have been spending my afternoons out in the garden harvesting the literal fruits of our labor. I have been harvesting basket upon basket of Mustard Greens, Kale, Radishes, Lettuce, and Rutabagas. And, I have to say it feels GREAT! When Chris and I first moved here the soil was so so. We don’t have a ton of acreage, and unfortunately our lot has SO many trees that we have very little actual gardening space. But, over the span of the last year we have finally seen all of our hard work in soil amendments blossom into actual
produce. The best part of all is that we spend NO money on those amendments.
As most anybody who is likely to read this knows we process meat. The way we do so, there is ALMOST nothing left. We usually keep EVERYTHING, if our customers don’t want certain items chances are WE will, or, short of us, our cats will. But, there is still a small amount of leftovers. And, we use IT too. We feed these items to our garden. And, it’s paying off big time for us. Other things we place in our garden to feed the soil include; the bones that we have leftover from bone broth, tea from making kombucha (sometimes there’s just a little extra), whey from cheese making, and virtually ANYTHING else we can think of that will revitalize our soil in both a superior manner and on the cheap. I figured we would get good results, but I must say I have lately been just blown away by our progress.
Another thing that we’ve recently begun doing that we have seen HUGE results from is planting by the moon cycles. It has lessened our pest problem to virtually zero. And, I would say, our harvest rate has been phenomenal for our small garden space. If you’re interested in finding good resources on planting by moon cycles here is a great website: Great Site for Moon Cycle Gardening. And, there are tons of books, but this is a really easy to use one that we like a lot: Llewellyn’s 2019 Moon Sign Book.
So, now the next thing to worry about is what to do with all these greens. We still have some available if anyone is interested. But, the next week or two will be the LAST weeks to get them… We have mustards and kale that are still available for purchase, the kale may be available longer than the mustards. As the mustards have begun to “bolt” (a term used to describe the way greens will shoot up with a long stem and begin to go to seed) I have been pulling them up and blanching them for freezing. Canning is also an option we may visit soon as we only have so much freezer space.
If you are unfamiliar with blanching and freezing the technique is simple, however, it can not be done for ALL vegetables as some vegetables shouldn’t even be frozen. Greens are good candidates as well as green beans, and peppers. I harvest a large basket full, rinse them well, chop them nicely and simply put them in a large pot. Add some water (basically enough to steam) and allow them to get hot. Once I see they are heating I place a lid on top and turn down the heat and allow them to steam/blanch for just as long as it takes them to wilt. Then I allow them to cool place them in labeled zip lock bags and put them in the freezer. That’s it. You can go ahead and season your greens if you’d like but generally, I prefer to do this when I take them out of the freezer for a meal.
My family generally eats greens daily. So, we probably won’t be saving as many as some people would in our position but, we are still growing more than we currently need. However, they will be a nice treat for next season when it’s getting too warm for greens (spring/summer). Although I MUST say I am very much looking forward to what’s coming this next season. Here is a list of all the things we will be growing: Okra, Yard Long Beans, Peppers, Sweet Potatoes, Cucumbers, and maybe a couple of other things. I don’t know about you all but I SURE DO LOVE cucumbers and okra, and my favorite thing EVER to do with either is pickling them via lacto fermentation (some of you know this b/c you LOVE our pickles too!)
Check our recipes because coming soon I will put up a few new greens recipes as I have been in greens heaven lately. Don’t forget we will be having goat’s milk again soon and more cheese options. Please consider supporting us as we continue to try to support YOUR health with our options and offerings.
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