The harvest here this year has been unbelievable. Now, the cherries and blueberries didn’t do real well, but the other fruits and veggies are coming on strong. Because of that, we’ve decided to break down and get another freezer. This one is a chest freezer that will be dedicated to meat and fish. Right now, our upright is packed so tight I can’t get in the blackberries I froze the other day. While I’m waiting for them to deliver the new freezer, I thought I’d share a bit of the harvest we have here at Happy Acres.
If you’d like a detail accounting of our complete harvest, visit my hubby’s blog post.
I’ve been harvesting the blueberries since June 1 after the asparagus quit. So far I’ve harvested 8 pounds as opposed to 16 pounds last year. However, harvesting is not yet done. One of our new variety, Chandler, has huge berries.
My favorite is Elizabeth which has medium size berries and for it’s first year of production has done real well. Lots still to pick but waiting for them to turn.
Then the blackberries are crazy. Hubby does most of the harvesting of them while I freeze them and then try to find a place in the freezer! So far he’s harvested 35 pounds.
Here are some of them in the kitchen freezer waiting to be bagged and moved the the basement freezer.
I just finished making another batch of blackberry leather. Other goodies I make out of our blackberries include jello, syrup, popsicles, and cobbler.
I dried and packaged our first bunch of small tomatoes. We use alot of different ones specifically for drying. The ones I dried for these bags included Sungold, Supersweet 100, Jaune Flamme, Black Cherry, Juliet, and Mountain Magic. Sungold are my favorite for eating.
While making a pizza the other day, I used the last bag from last year’s harvest. This was the first year we made it through to the next season’s harvest.
We can’t forget squash and zucchini. If everyone grew a couple squash plants we could end world hunger. Well, that may be a little extreme, but we do get a lot of veggies from these plants. We’ve been trying to think of all the ways to eat it. We’ve grilled it, made fritters, added it to the soup mix for this winter, and put in frittatas and bread. I added it to a pita pizza I made for lunch several days ago. Yum!
If you’re not into vegetable gardening, let me show you a couple pictures from the slope garden. This garden has been a challenge, but I think it’s finally taken hold.
Looks like the guys are here with the freezer. Time to go reorganize.
yummy!! I wish our berries would give us a good crop. I can’t wait for some warmer weather and for everything to start growing again.
Oh, your harvest looks so good! I know you’ll laugh, the other day someone was saying her dream kitchen has something I don’t even remember granite something or other and I was like seriously, my dream kitchen has A Walk In Freezer AND a walk in pantry. How exciting to get that second freezer! Thanks for sharing the varieties of fruit you grow, we will be making beds for blackberries and blueberries this fall. We also put up the first of the sun drieds this weeks and are starting to have enough slicers to share, we will never have enough cherry tomatoes though, i have three prolific plants and one hasn’t even made it in the door yet, the kids could eat their weight in them.
Mandy, I had to laugh at the granite something or other. We have a pantry (a closet they converted, but not walkin – that would be great!) I was so excited to get a second freezer who cares about the cheap countertop!! Different strokes for different folks. Hope baby comes this weekend, but if not, my thoughts and prayers will be with you Monday.
Wow have you been busy! Sounds like you in the kitchen for the summer. Beautiful photos of your harvest! We just have green beans and tomatoes.
I love your blog, to bad I can’t find where to sign up for email updates. I have a hard time keeping up with blogs that don’t email.
Laura, I know what you mean. I’m the same way. You can receive my blog by email. On the top of the right side of the blog click on where it says Subscribe to Bloom Bake & Create by Email. Just enter your email address. You will get an email for you to confirm your subscription and then your set. Thanks for asking and dropping by. Lynda
Connie, Yes, it gets real busy around here. Hubby does a lot of the prep and freezing too. Thanks for dropping by. Lynda
I’m so jealous of your gardening and harvest and freezer capacities 😀 The berries and tomatoes look so yummy!