Garden Harvest this week - July 16

The vegetable garden needed some TLC so Sean and I spent 3 hours there this morning.  He staked the tomatoes (they were staked but are heavy with fruit and many branches had fallen over) and I weeded my little flower garden.  Then I tackled weeding the vegetable garden.  Sean picked the edamame and decided he didn't like picking.  So he watered and I picked the everything else that was ready.

The harvest!  From lower left:  red potatoes, edamame, zucchini, carrots, parsley, beets, shallots and onions, tomatoes and kolrahbi on the far right.

What to do with all this?  The potatoes I stored.  The zucchini and kolrahbi went into the fridge.  The onions and shallots will stay outside to dry.  The carrots were washed and stored.  The beans and beets were also washed.  I boiled the beets, skinned and vacuum sealed.  I blanched some of the beans and froze on a tray.  They will also be vacuum sealed.  The parsley is being dehydrated.  The edamame was boiled and then shelled and frozen.  No wonder I'm tired.

Fresh Edamame.  This is the first time I've grown it and it's a big success.  This vegetable will be back next year.

Ready to be frozen

I weighed all the cucumbers and found there is enough for a batch of dill pickles with some cukes leftover.  Tomorrow I'll make the dills but in the meantime, I made a batch of refrigerator pickles.  Layer sliced cukes with chives, rosemary and sage.  Boil cider vinegar and salt and then add cold water.  Pour over cuke mixture.

Last week I pulled up all the garlic.  These heads were a little squishy so I decided to roast them. I'll then squeeze them out and freeze the garlic paste.   The rest of the garlic is in storage in basement

Tomorrow we are going to pick peaches so that means more preserving.