The Amazing Harvest

The first thing we planted in the ground was lettuce. I have never been a fan of store bought lettuce. It does not matter the brand or if it is organic or not, I find the taste to be bitter. Lettuce has always been something I eat because I am supposed to, not because it was something I enjoyed. I resented lettuce. As a result, we only grew six varieties of lettuce in our spring garden. After eating them in the spring and early summer, I have to be honest, it was wonderful! I was finding myself reaching into the lettuce box and picking lettuce to snack on while I worked on an adjacent bed. I went from drenching my salad in dressing to eating lettuce out of a bowl like I would popcorn or chips. It was that good! There was a downside to the wonderful flavor. The lettuce did not last. No matter how plentiful the days harvest it was gone in next to no time.

Next in the ground were the carrots. The carrots were a blast. We planted four varieties and used cinderblocks to grow them in. If you have cinderblocks and want to grow carrots I can honestly say that the two work perfectly together. We had no problems with anything trying to eat our carrots and the carrots were weed free. Of everything we planted the carrots had the highest yield. The colors were amazing and the taste was delicious.

We planted more vegetables including potatoes, cabbage, broccoli, squash and melons and harvested an abundance of knowledge that we plan to use to sow next years crop.

Food Solutions

I am passionate about creating unique recipes and having healthy foods to eat and saving money. Due to our budget limitations I cannot afford to have local, fresh, organic produce year round.

My solution? Buy in bulk when the prices are low and the crops are abundant to preserve for when prices are sky high or the food is unavailable. I primarily dehydrate and freeze the food. I would like to learn how to can but for right now dehydrating and freezing more then serve the purpose.

While buying large quantities is a great solution it does not satisfy my desire to have a large variety of fruits and vegetables in our diet. Even now with more and more heirloom varieties being grown and sold at the markets and stores I still am left wondering where I can find more varieties. Every few years I get lucky and find purple carrots but generally I am limited to 3-4 carrots and then only if I buy everything in the store.

My solution? Learning to grow our own food. This past year I started gardening with a friend. I am happy to say that we had a successful harvest. The fruits of our labor were not all edible and a good portion of what we reaped was in knowledge rather then edibles but that was just fine with us. We now know what to do and, more importantly, what not to do next year.

The colors of our carrot harvest.