It’s harvest time y’all!
I’m a bit late on this update. These photos were taken about a month after my last garden post. I’ve been wanting to share with you how our first harvest went.
Our basil plants have been doing quite well. Out of all our plants they are the fastest growing herbs.
We were excited to prune them knowing it would help promote growth. I learned that cutting about 1/4 inch above a node (right above another set of leaves) is the best way to encourage the plant to continue producing.
We took home so much basil. You’ll see later on in this post exactly how much there was and what we decided to do with them.
Our pepper plants have flowers sprouting all over. I’m curious to see how well they grow in.
Sooooo we made a huge mistake by not staking our tomato plants at the beginning stage. They are already getting so heavy and we’re afraid to damage the roots and stems.
At this point we’re going to just let it be and see what happens 😬. We can always gently prop them up a bit later. You can see the flowers have come in so now we just wait to start seeing the tomatoes peeking in.
The parsley has come on strong as well. We have enough where we can harvest. This is another herb where pruning encourages more growth.
These are Mr. and Mrs. B’s plants. They have several that are doing well but I wanted to show you the tomatillo. It is a strange little plant. It feels so squishy and moveable 😄.
Mrs. B uses them to make some of her sauces including a verde salsa. Yum yum!
As you can see they have some really nice cucumbers coming in. The yellow ones in the back are a few that they missed while on vacation. Unfortunately they had to toss them into the compost bin.
Oh peaches 😋. Look how pretty it is. The kids have been waiting to pick some. Technically they don’t have to pick just yet because there were plenty that had just fallen…
Normally I’m all about washing everything first but being on Mr. and Mrs. B’s property the kids have followed what they do and that is to eat on the spot 😁. Mr. B and his daughter eat whatever their heart desires right from off the land lol.
The apples are looking great too! We’ll be having an apple picking and apple sauce making party with them soon. That’s going to be so much fun and tasty. I’ll be sure to share about that day with you 😉.
Time for cleaning!
As you can see we brought home a sink load of basil and a handful of parsley.
We had such an abundance that we were able to share with our family. With the rest…I’ll just show you.
First let’s talk about how pretty these plants are. I didn’t realize how big basil leaves were until actual growing them. I only buy dried basil at the grocery store.
When I purchase fresh parsley from the store they aren’t as thick and come smaller in size. I am very impressed and pleased with how these grew.
After cleaning the parsley I put them into a glass jar with water. I sat them in the fridge and have been watering and trimming them periodically to keep them strong and fresh. My boys have been going in there and picking them off the stem and eating them as is 😆. I love seeing them enjoy fresh healthy foods…especially the ones grown by our own hands.
I’ve been using the parsley to dress our pasta meals.
For the basil, I also arranged them into small glass jars with water and placed them on our counter. They should stay fresh for a few days until I’m ready to use them for pesto. I will also be making bruschetta for our lunch.
I realize I might not get to use all this basil before it starts to bruise and go bad. The other option we went for was to dehydrate them. I am always in need of dried herbs so this was the best solution.
I dried them for almost two days to be sure they were fully dry. Can’t be having no molding basil 🙅🏽♀️.
Here they are all nice and crisped.
We ended up with four of these jars and one is already used up.
We learned that keeping them whole after dehydrating them will keep the best flavor. You just simply crumble them as you need to use them in your recipes. It’s been nice having them ready at hand.
That’s it for this round of harvesting.
It’s been a much better experience with having the garden bed. I honestly can say I won’t plant again without having one. It’s easier managing the weeds and bugs when your plants are raised and not directly growing from the ground.m
We haven’t had to worry about any plant disease as well. It makes gardening more enjoyable when you have less troubles to deal with.
I’ll be back next time to check on our tomatoes and pepper plants. We’ll see if we’ll get to harvest again. 🍅🫑🍅🫑🍅🫑🍅🫑🍅🫑🍅🫑🍅🫑🍅🫑🍅
Introducing Our New Garden Venture
Peekaboo! We See You! Garden Update
