Eating Through the Harvest
One of my favorite times of the day during these summer months is what I refer to as Dinner Pickin’ Time. It’s usually a bit past the hottest point in the day but I still don my sunhat. Sometimes I bring out a bowl and other times an apron is all you need for some salad fixings. Without fail I nearly always have a partner in picking.
We’ve been slowly moving into more harvesting and less planting and waiting. The garlic was pulled a couple of weeks ago and I’m realizing I will have to pace myself so that we have enough for seed this fall. Also, plant more garlic.
Salads have been plentiful which is just how we like it. A bit of greens, some onion or chives, and whatever bits and bobs I can find at Dinner Pickin’ Time usually make their way in.
These little radish pods have been a fun new garden item. The radish plant is grown for the pods instead of the roots. If you let them get big enough they have a very mild radish flavor and the fresh bite of a snap pea. I think we’ll be doing these again. But again, I must pace myself as Stewart wants to save seed.
Most days now we’re picking cowpeas and the most exciting of all – blackberries! We have a few bushes producing this year which equates to roughly a handful of berries per day which are carefully rationed to each member of the family. Of course, there has been lots of talk of needing to plant ten times as many blackberries next year. 
This was one of our favorite suppers recently. A plate of homemade and gifted ferments, a pot of homegrown green beans with a gifted squash thrown in, a (completely store-bought, organic) roasted chicken, and salad made of homegrown lettuce and gifted tomatoes.
Those gifted squash and tomatoes have been accompanied by plenty of tomatoes and zucchini from generous neighbors. We eat so many vegetables when they are fresh and available like this that having more than we can handle seems nearly impossible.
The giant zucchinis, however, were more than I could contend with (read: shove down the family’s gullets). So, we had zucchini for breakfast in the form of these zucchini oat flour pancakes.
Besides the gallon of fermented cucumber and zucchini pickles, I also threw a bunch of the green beasts into the dehydrator for soups and stews. Fermentation and dehydration are certainly my favorite forms of food preservation… that is besides just eating up the harvest as it comes.
Stewart and I have often talked of planting and planning in a way that feeds us year round with a little to tuck away for later. This mitigates against the huge glut of produce that must be preserved all at once as well as the other problem we have more often faced which is a complete lack of fresh food.
It seems every year we get a little closer to that goal which is still quite far away. And every year we realize that there is no such thing as growing too much.
Your harvest looks like a good effort to supply the family with lots of delicious food, if everyone loves the blackberries they may also like Mulberries , I don’t know if a mulberry tree would grow in your area, but they are a beautiful shade tree and provide heaps of lovely berries.
A friend has one near her chicken yard, good cool shade and constant clean up of fallen fruit ,there is also one on the Western side of the house to help keep the rooms cool and is a lovely shady, cool outdoor area under the branches.
Margo – Yes, we’re definitely interested in planting mulberries. They have been on our “to plant” list for sometime now and maybe next year they will come home with us. 🙂 Thanks so much for the comment and for reminding me of that!
Ahhh summer’s bounty is so much fun. Our father’s day dinner included a grass fed rump roast, steamed artichokes, fresh lettuce from the garden garnished with red ripe strawberries. It is always so fun to watch your young ones grow read what you are harvesting. In the Pacific Northwest I have not grown sweet potatoes, but yellow finns, yes. In the next week or so we will be harvesting squash, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries and the first of the tomatoes. The chickens helped themselves to90% of my beet, turnip, bean and carrot seeds, so I am planting again. This is my second year with bees and my are they busy. Oh the joys of the harvest!
Gogardengirl – That meal sounds just wonderful. What a different climate y’all have up there but with many benefits in some ways. I’d love to hear more about your beekeeping endeavors!
You’re awesome, Shannon. A real 3B woman–Brave, Beautiful (inside & out), and Brilliant. I love your blog and website, and I’ve fallen in love with you and your sweet family. May God continue to bless you abundantly just as you are a dedicated blessing to your family. Surely, my heart and tummy have been blessed by you. You’ve got one up on the Proverbs 31 woman because you’re sans servant girls. Just thought you should know as it can’t be said enough 😉
Kim – Golly, those are very kind things to say. I never know what to say to comments such as this except thank you and I wonder what you’d say if you had to live with me for a few days. Ha! That’s not to say that I don’t appreciate your generosity but I believe that if there are any blessings coming from this site then thank the Lord because they are all of Him.
Thanks so much for your comment, Kim.
In case you are looking for additional ways to use zucchini, a simple, yet very tasty recipe I have found is for zucchini cakes:
2 cups zucchini, grated
1/3 cup Bisquick (I’m sure you can substitute alternative flours, etc)
1/4 cup parmesan cheese, grated
2 eggs, beaten
Mix ingredients together, blending well. Fry zucchini cakes in hot skillet with vegetable oil (I use lard) by using two tbsp. batter for each cake. Brown on both sides. Makes approx. 12 zucchini cakes. It’s pretty yummy!
Susan,
Thanks for that recipe! Is that the same recipe that you brought over as an addition to our supper a few years ago? They were delicious!
Hi Shannon
Long time reader here from very far away.
I live on a small island in Denmark 😉
You said you dry your surplus of zuchinni- how much does it alter taste -and do you soak them before using during winter ?
Hello,
Thankfully we are blessed with an abundant amount of zuchinni and summer squash this year as well….I just recently got a dehydrater and was wondering how you dehydrate and store your squash. It looks like you cut them into chunks but I wondered how dry they actually got and how you store them. I don’t want to waste ours with not doing it correctly! Thanks so much for your wonderful blog!