Home Grown Part 8: Still Harvesting

Summer might be over, but don't tell my garden that! I've still got a plentiful supply of eggplants, bell peppers, cherry tomatoes, watermelon, beets, carrots, basil, parsley and some winter squash. Oh and beans. So many beans! I've been neglecting them for weeks, but the plants are still producing. I've decided to continue to let them go, so I can harvest them for their seeds.

I've started saving the seeds from some of my produce so far. That really makes me feel that summer is over. If anyone would like some organic seeds for their garden next year, let me know! I will have plenty.

Young asparagus has taken over this bed, which is still
producing cherry tomatoes and beans.

The squash bed has a few butternuts, and some other squash
which will probably just end up as fall decorations.

The last cantaloupe was picked this week,
but there are still a few watermelons in there.

Peppers and eggplants are dominating here.

Some eggplants that the chickens haven't found yet.

Ready for picking.

My freezer is ridiculously full with bags of frozen basil. And drying the herb in the dehydrator takes way too long and is too time consuming, so I'm experimenting with drying them indoors. I picked the plants, separated them into 3 groups depending on their size, and hung them upside down in a closet. It's only day 3, but they look great so far! This method is much less time consuming and way more energy efficient than using a dehydrator.

Picked basil.

Bunched with rubber bands.

I hung them by stretching the rubber bands
over a coat hanger. 

Thanks to Andrew for the rubber band/hanger hanging idea.

They supposedly take anywhere from 5 days to 2 weeks to dry.

Logan and I spent the day with my friend Cami bouncing from farm to farm on the North Fork today, a trip complete with cider donuts, apple cider, farm animals and good times. Our first stop was the Garden of Eve, one of the handful of organic farms out east. Since space in my garden has opened up, I bought a few new plants, including kale, lettuce and swiss chard. I also went home with a couple varieties of garlic, the cloves of which I plan on planting soon.

So many choices! I eventually settled on Italian White,
German White, and French Red.

There were several varieties of organic plants to choose from also!