Sumer is here and we have been pulling in some of the bounty of the season!
Here is some of the broccoli harvest. I planted the Italian heirloom “calabrese” and a hybrid
variety that I saw at a friends garden. I know bad, but it is the only hybrid in the garden. Look at the size of the heads…as big as my hands! We have tried very hard to can everything, but broccoli is one of those that can only be canned if you pickle it. I’m not so sure about pickled broccoli, but we just got a small energy efficient freezer so it went there. The heirloom produces much smaller heads, but over a longer period of time. We also think it has a much better flavor and of course we can save seeds for next years harvest. OH, and our honey bees seem to love the yellow blossoms.
I really fertilized our “SeaScape” strawberries well this spring with dried blood and mulched them with pine needles. So I’m not surprised to see the bounty rolling in. Now it is time to
harvest the rhubarb for pies! Here you see on the right just how huge the stalks and leaves of rhubarb. I cut them into pieces for the freezer and once I have collected enough strawberries I will add the together making pie filling. This will be a first for me so any of you out there got a good recipe let me know. Interestingly, you cannot feed the leaves to the livestock because they contain high amounts of oxalic acid. However Theo discovered that we could boil the leaves, add a
little dish soap and we had a great aphid killer! So, I’m trying that….will let you know how it turns out. I’m also growing tobacco and pymetherum daisy for the same purpose. These are great organic insecticides, but you have to becarful not to spray till night so you will not impact your honey bees and beneficial insects.
We are also collecting lots of carrots and peas. The spinach, chard, arugula, cabbage and kale are just about finished for the season. I will plant some more warm weather spinach and kale for the chickens if I have the room. Boy, we could use a garden 10 times the size we have especially if we were to grow all our own crops for the animals!