Today's Harvest From The Square Foot Garden

I'm pretty happy with our SFG experiment this summer.  I would recommend raised bed gardening to anyone, specifically those who want to grow on a smaller scale or those who live in town.  You can harvest quite a bit of produce from a small amount of space.  I went out to the garden this morning and this is what I gleaned:

zucchini
cucumbers
greenbeans
radishes
2 types hot peppers
tomatoes
cherry tomatoes
cantalope

So much better than going to the store for your produce!  A quick rinse and it's ready to eat at the peak of ripeness.  We'll be adding some more raised beds for spring, and are already making plans for the new growing season in 2012. 

Making Applesauce

A friend gave me some apples from her trees, so I decided to make applesauce.  It took awhile to get them all peeled and sliced to fill up my big stockpot. 

 Here is a pic as they are cooking down...

Here is the applesauce when it was finished.  I added some cinnamon and some organic sugar to taste because the apples were a little on the tart side.

I usually can my applesauce, but I decided to freeze this batch because I didn't have a huge amount.  I plan on getting more apples later to make more sauce and pies for my freezer.  I'll be glad when all my apple trees kick it in gear and start giving me some apples!

The same friend also gave me a few peaches from her tree and they were so good.  They were little white peaches with great flavor.  The kids couldn't stop eating them, but I did manage to get another double batch of peach jam made.  Yay!

I love preserving food for the rest of the year.  I hope to someday have a root cellar and pantry stocked full with our garden's bounty.

A Pond For The Farm

We are getting a new pond dug for the farm.  It's pretty exciting, really. 

 This is a pic of the new crossing that lets us drive to the backside of our property.  The front and back is divided by timber and a fairly deep creek bottom.

 Here to the right of the crossing is the site of our future pond. 

There is some water in it already (very shallow).  There seems to be a spring or ground water that flows to this point.  Hopefully with winter snow and next spring's rain it will fill up nicely.  It won't be a real big pond, but we hope to maybe stock a few fish in it, or use it as a alternative water source for gardens/animals in the future.

Onions Galore!

This years onion harvest was great.  We have a TON of onions...what to do with them all...

 Clean them up and store them for winter.

 Onions braided and hanging in the kitchen.

Onions waiting to be used in everyday cooking.  I have been chopping some up to freeze, we've pickled a few, and have given away some too.  I think maybe next year I'll be planting less of these.  A girl can only use so many onions!

Summer Blooms

 Zinnias

 Cosmos

Not sure what these are, but thought they were pretty.  We picked them from our back pasture this past weekend.

Random Food Photos

August is busy here as we have started back to school, plus we are canning and preserving all we can from the garden.  We have been making pickles and pickled onions (as we have a TON of onions this year).  Today we are working on pickle relish.  Tomorrow it will be peach preserves and frozen peach slices for pies and smoothies!   

 Here is a picture of Bread and Butter Pickles (they look yellow because the cucs are a yellow variety).  Also, red onions in red wine vinegar. 

 Rosemary harvested from the garden.  I washed it, made sure it was dry, then put it in a freezer bag and put it in the freezer.  This tastes more like fresh than dried.

 Another batch of green beans are starting to produce.  Love succession planting! 

 A cantalope from the garden.  This is the biggest we have been able to grow, and it came out of the Square Foot Garden.  It was soooo good.  Way better than anything from the store!

A view of the inside.  I'm going to try saving the seeds from it this year to plant next spring.  Should be interesting...I'll keep you posted.

Pictures From The Square Foot Garden

I took these a week or so ago, and remembered that I hadn't posted them yet.  The SFG beds are really growing well. 

 2 very healthy zucchini plants and some Royal Burgandy beans (trying not to get crowded out)!

 Pumpkin plants...these got planted late in the season, and we do have some small pumpkins on the vines...hoping to get a harvest out of them, but we'll have to wait and see.

 Lovely little Delicata squash.  We also have some acorn squash in this bed.

 Cantalopes...these are a bit bigger now and getting their netted skin.  I think it won't be too much longer and these will be ready.  Yay!

And finally, little watermelons.  I am really hoping these grow bigger and are ready before any frost...we love watermelon!

I continue to be pleased with our square foot garden.  We added a few more beds and ripped out some flowers and spent plants to make room for fall crops.  I planted lettuces, micro greens, spinach, beets, more green beans, and snow peas. Oh, and more cilantro because I can't seem to go enough of it...it is so good fresh.  I plan on transplanting my perennial herbs to the square foot garden, and maybe my strawberry plants as well.  Always work to do in the garden...we just need more time to get it all done!