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| 4 gallons of fresh picked bell pepper |
This past Monday we found ourselves swimming in produce. Apparently after a couple weeks of some refreshing rain, our summer garden took a massive turn for the better! We had thought that everything was on the verge of dying and sadly we did lose our first big batch of green bean plants to the mini drought. Despite them prematurely dying we are grateful we were able to eat fresh from them several times, even if there was no canning like we had hoped. The corn also took a hit and instead of long, full ears of corn we only got a couple cobs from each stalk and they weren't the best we've ever had. But, that is the life of a homesteader and growing your own food; the outcome is all dependent on the Lord and what He sees fit to give.
It never fails no matter how well you plan your garden and stagger planting your crops; it's inevitable that at some point everything is going to hit in major quantities all at once. This is where you can quickly become overwhelmed!! NO worries, after years of experience I've got a list of steps to help you stay calm so you can quickly and efficiently conquer your awesome garden haul!!
This is what we were looking at Monday evening and I'm not going to lie, I was in a slight panic. But, thankfully I've been here before and after taking a quick assessment we began tackling what needed to be done to make the most of our blessed harvest.
On Monday we picked about 19 dozen EARS of corn. Most of which we left on the cob and put in the freezer. I'll be posting soon how we do this and how easy it really is to preserve corn on the cob!
Next we had 6 gallons of cucumbers to come in adding to the 4 gallons we already had.
Then we picked 5 gallons of yellow summer squash.
A couple gallons of hot peppers.
Some zucchini & eggplant
A mess of green beans.
And a gallon of field peas or as I affectionately call them 'dirt peas'.
We had a mighty fine blessing through our gardens to say the least, but now we had to figure out what we were going to do with it all. Here is how I typically handle a bumper garden haul like this:
- Determine the produce which you collected the most; that one takes priority, unless it's corn. Corn must be done within 24 hours or it ruins.
- Decide what is going to be canned, frozen, dehydrated, or eaten fresh.
- Wash what needs washing.
- Put away what you plan to eat fresh in the fridge.
- Fill the dehydrator with what you want to dehydrate (In this haul we dehydrated the peppers).
- Chop and bag what you want to go in the freezer. (For this picking we skinned the corn, chopped the bell peppers, and shelled the peas all to go in the freezer ~ the peas we will can at a later time, but for now they can go in the freezer until we're ready to can them).
- Prep for any canning you plan to do, such as the squash, it can be cut the night before or just simply make sure you have all the supplies you needs for whatever you're canning the next day.
- If you got a super bumper crop coming in you can always try to sell some of it ~ we don't typically have good luck with selling, but you can always try.
- Go in on halves: this means someone helps you process your produce using whatever method you're using in return to take some of the harvest home with them.
- Give it away. After all it's better to give than to receive and I'd rather share our blessings with others than let it go to waste.
** And here's a BONUS TIP **
If you're going to be having a marathon canning day ALWAYS plan for simple meals throughout the day. I highly recommend putting something in the crockpot for dinner. Trust me when I say, you will not want to cook by the time folks are hungry for dinner!
Hopefully this simple guide will help y'all when it comes to dealing with the harvest. I like to remember it's all for just a short season. Maybe two months at the most when you feel like you eat, live, and breath the garden. And then all at once it's done and your larder is full and you can rest; enjoying the fruits of your labors throughout the fall, winter, and spring. And ironically, when the main summer garden rolls around again somehow you forget how much work it is to grow your own food. It's like the joy of enjoying the harvest in the off-season overshadows the reality of the time and effort you have to put into the main summer garden. It's a wonderful mercy from the Lord, that's for sure.
Thankfully, our Monday harvest has all been taken care of and none of our produce went to waste. We're filling our larder one day at a time and I give all the glory to the Lord for giving us the harvest as well as the wisdom and strength to get it all done.
With Love & Hope,
Jennifer
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