In his second attempt at growing a garden, my boyfriend, Corey, was even more successful than last year’s bountiful harvest. Lessons were learned, new ideas were tried and the outcome was phenomenal.
Corey manages the “jungle”
Last weekend he spent a couple of days removing the dead plants. We got a killing frost a couple of weeks ago, and he was able to harvest the unripe tomatoes, jalapenos, habaneros, bell peppers and herbs before the plants died. But, what do you do with so much produce that isn’t quite ready to use? We had carrots, broccoli, tomatoes, four types of peppers and a wide variety of herbs planted this year.
Corey’s garden mid-season and after everything was harvested.
Well, tomatoes will actually ripen in the basement (a room kept at approximately 50-65 degrees) as long as they’re in a single layer with green bananas nearby. It sounds weird, but I promise it works. I guess the bananas give off a chemical that helps ripen the tomatoes.
From barely green to completely ripe in approximately four weeks.
There were a lot of peppers left over. The jalapenos can be used when green. Corey made candied jalapenos with some and chopped, vacuum sealed and froze the rest. The bell peppers were chopped, vacuum sealed and frozen, approximately 20 cups worth! The habaneros were dehydrated. This was a task that needed to be done in a basement or room you don’t plan on being in for a while… the smell is a little overwhelming.
Five cups of dried habanero peppers, soon to be ground into a powder.
The carrots may have gotten a little out of hand. We planted them in the square openings of the cinder blocks and they really took off. Some got quite big… measuring more than an inch wide and 20 inches long. A few were intertwined. We chose the organic rainbow ones, so not all were orange. We had more yellow and white ones than orange. The red and purple were really neat, although they were orange once peeled.
A rainbow of color from this year’s final carrot harvest.
Even after the frost set in for a few days, the broccoli continued to ripen. Corey harvested what was remaining, approximately four cups once rinsed, steamed, vacuum sealed and frozen.
The bountiful harvest
Over the last few months, Corey has spent countless hours canning a wide variety of food from the massive amount of tomatoes he harvested. He has pizza sauce, spaghetti sauce, chili base and bloody Mary mix. These likely won’t last the winter. He also has an impressive quantity of salsa in flavors such as “raspberry peach lime,” “strawberry kiwi,” “mango peach,” “apple strawberry,” “pineapple,” “apple cherry” and “blueberry.”
The top shelf is spaghetti sauce, chili base and bloody Mary mix; the second shelf is pizza sauce and salsa; and the bottom shelf is all salsa.
A garden isn’t just something that magically happens. It takes time, energy, planning and a lot of care. Corey and I spent a lot of time caring for the plants, watering every-other day, propping them up when they were too heavy with growing buds and eventually harvesting everything as it was ripening. The time and energy are worth it when you’ve got a freezer and pantry full of success.