SPRING HARVEST & WHAT WE DO WITH IT.

Romaine lettuce, spinach, fava beans, and sugar snap peas

 

We have been enjoying the flavors of spring in our diet recently.  It is so nice to begin to reap the benefit of the spring harvest.  Some crops, like snap peas, offer more immediate rewards as we eat them straight off the plant or pop them raw into salads and grain bowls.  Others, like fava beans, require more work to enjoy with shelling, blanching, icing, and shelling once again before consuming any but the tiniest of these gems!  They are all so worth it!

 

fava beans winding down

harvesting snap peas and lettuce, and fava beans (in the basket)

 

Lettuce and fava beans

first round of shelling as we prepare the beans for blanching.

We also finally got our sweet potato starts planted this week.  They did not sprout as successfully as in past years so we do not have as many to plant.  Fingers crossed they will take root and flourish providing us with a decent crop this winter.

 

sweet potato slips in whiskey barrels

After harvest we still have to process much of this produce before using it.  We are growing organically and do much pest control with natural sprays but still have have some aphids and such to rinse off the greens.  Fava beans need to be shelled and blanched and so on.

heading in with the harvest

 WHAT WE DO WITH IT........

 

home made pizzas with kale, onion, favas, garlic, and canned tomatoes  all from the garden

Salad greens and herbs from the garden

People always ask us what we do with all of our produce... The simple answer is we enjoy it all year round!  We love to cook and eat are thrilled to use home grown,  fresh in-season produce in our meals.  We also freeze, can, and dehydrate much of it for later use.  Finally, we make large batches of soups and chili to freeze for use throughout the year... and we still have enough to share with friends and family.  We are so grateful every day!

Jim planting flowers between ferns and fig

Coming attractions...... blackberries are beginning to ripen