Harvest Totals 2013 vs. 2012
It seems a million miles from gardening season what with the astonishing amount of snow covering all the vegetable beds and all, but I don't care. We've got our seed order in. We're sketching out plans. We're getting ready for all the joys and toil of the vegetable garden once again.
We're still working our way through our haul of garden bounty from last season. Some things are all gone--the potatoes and garlic for instance. Others are rapidly dwindling--such as the tomato sauce, cherries, peppers, and onions. Some we still have quite a lot of--applesauce, grape juice, and sage. Matt has mentioned we were going to have to start actually buying produce regularly again though. Drat. We're always looking to postpone that enviable time of year a little longer until the day we can actually grow enough and store enough to make it a whole year through.
We typically center our meals around whatever is seasonally available. This winter we've eaten a lot of stir-fry and soups centered around carrots, peas, and onions. In the summer we grill zucchini, eggplant, peppers, and the like nearly every night. We do buy produce throughout the year, of course, but only what is on super-discount. If its not marked down we can almost always learn to live without it. As a result we get the sporadic treat of variety beyond what we've homegrown--mushrooms, red bell pepper, satsumas, sweet potatoes. Its a wonderfully interesting, affordable, and delicious way to eat well, if you ask me.
I look forward to spring foods--like fresh spinach. (Though we do still have a couple pints worth from the 2013 garden in the freezer.)
I look forward to summer foods--like grilled zucchini. (Though we do still have a good number of bags from the hard-to-keep-up-with 2013 harvest shredded up and frozen.)
I look forward to autumn foods--like new potatoes and peas. (Though we do still have a few pints of peas from the 2013 garden frozen as well.)
I look forward to winter foods--like roasted butternut squash. (We're down to the last one at this point.)
Its fantastic. It makes me happy to be developing such self-reliance and seasonality. It encourages a varied, diverse, colorful diet which, I think, is the healthiest diet there is. The foods taste the freshest and tastiest and I never tire of them from overindulgence--they're each a special season of wonder, each in its own time.
We typically center our meals around whatever is seasonally available. This winter we've eaten a lot of stir-fry and soups centered around carrots, peas, and onions. In the summer we grill zucchini, eggplant, peppers, and the like nearly every night. We do buy produce throughout the year, of course, but only what is on super-discount. If its not marked down we can almost always learn to live without it. As a result we get the sporadic treat of variety beyond what we've homegrown--mushrooms, red bell pepper, satsumas, sweet potatoes. Its a wonderfully interesting, affordable, and delicious way to eat well, if you ask me.
I look forward to summer foods--like grilled zucchini. (Though we do still have a good number of bags from the hard-to-keep-up-with 2013 harvest shredded up and frozen.)
I look forward to autumn foods--like new potatoes and peas. (Though we do still have a few pints of peas from the 2013 garden frozen as well.)
I look forward to winter foods--like roasted butternut squash. (We're down to the last one at this point.)
On the other hand, as I mentioned, our zucchini was almost hard to stay caught up with! We were eating zucchini like crazy people and discovered you can slip it into just about any dish that usually calls for potatoes.
Every year is an experiment and an opportunity to try new crops and new techniques or fine-tune familiar ones. The multifaceted return on the endeavor is worth more than the money saved by a great margin.
Spinach – 17 lbs, 10 oz
Chard – 9 lbs, 6 oz
Kale – 8 oz
Total Greens: 27 lbs, 8 oz
Beets – 4 lbs, 7 oz
Broccoli – 13 oz
Cauliflower – 5 lbs, 8 oz
Peas – 4 lbs, 14 oz
Strawberries – 7 lbs, 12 oz
Rhubarb – 5 lbs
Garlic – 5 lbs
Garlic scapes – 1 lb, 13 oz
Chives – 1 oz
Onion – 42 lbs, 7 oz
Leek – 5 lbs, 1 oz
Yellow Zucchini – 24 lbs, 15 oz
Green Zucchini – 8 lbs, 6 oz
Light Green Zucchini – 34 lbs, 5 oz
Total Zucchini: 67 lbs, 10 oz
Butternut Squash – 22 lbs, 14 oz
Carrots – 40 lbs, 5 oz
Yukon Gem – 6 lbs, 12 oz
Norland Red – 9 lbs, 1 oz
German Butterball – 3 lbs, 8 oz
All Purple – 4 lbs, 14 oz
French Fingerling – 1 lb, 12 oz
Kennebec – 10 lbs
Total Potatoes: 35 lbs, 15 oz
Hutterite Beans – 2 oz
Rattlesnake Beans – 13 oz
Red Mexican Beans – 1 lb, 6 oz
Yellow Indian Beans – 1 lb, 6 oz
Total Beans: 3 lbs, 11 oz
Eggplant – 5 lbs, 15 oz
Tomatoes – 50 lbs, 13 oz
Tomatillos – 2 lbs, 8 oz
Hot Mexican Bell Pepper – 3oz
Hot Wax Pepper – 9 oz
Cayenne Pepper – 12 oz
Habernero Pepper – 2 oz
Nardello Peppers – 2 lbs, 1 oz
Carmen Peppers – 4 lbs, 4 oz
Golden Bell Pepper – 7 lbs, 10 oz
Red Bell Pepper – 2 lbs, 2 oz
Baby Bell Pepper – 4 oz
Sweet Cherry Pepper – 6 oz
Total Sweet Peppers: 16 lbs, 10 oz
Total Hot Peppers: 1 lbs, 10 oz
Grand Total: 358 lbs, 3 oz
Tomatoes – 50 lbs, 13 oz
Tomatillos – 2 lbs, 8 oz
Hot Mexican Bell Pepper – 3oz
Hot Wax Pepper – 9 oz
Cayenne Pepper – 12 oz
Habernero Pepper – 2 oz
Nardello Peppers – 2 lbs, 1 oz
Carmen Peppers – 4 lbs, 4 oz
Golden Bell Pepper – 7 lbs, 10 oz
Red Bell Pepper – 2 lbs, 2 oz
Baby Bell Pepper – 4 oz
Sweet Cherry Pepper – 6 oz
Total Sweet Peppers: 16 lbs, 10 oz
Total Hot Peppers: 1 lbs, 10 oz
Grand Total: 358 lbs, 3 oz
Snow Peas – 12 oz
Eatin’ Peas – 3 lbs, 12 oz
Total Peas: 4 lbs, 8 oz
Kale – 6 lbs, 8 oz
Spinach – 7 lbs, 8 oz
Chard – 4 lbs, 13 oz
Arugula – 8 oz
Total Greens: 19 lbs, 5 oz
Onions – 17 lbs, 11 oz
Purple Long Eggplant – 2 lbs
Black Beauty Eggplant – 6 lbs, 2 oz
Total Eggplant: 8 lbs, 2 oz
Black Krim Tomato – 17 lbs, 14 oz
Cherokee Purple Tomato – 33 lbs
Mountain Boy Tomato – 23 lbs, 3 oz
Earliest Paste Tomato – 33 lbs, 10 oz
Roma Tomato – 21 lbs, 15 oz
Old German Tomato – 8 lbs, 11 oz
Peach Tomato – 16 lbs, 11 oz
Tangerine Tomato – 16 lbs, 6 oz
Total Tomatoes: 171 lbs, 6 oz
Mountaineer Squash – 58 lbs, 7 oz
Butternut Squash – 4 oz
Buttercup Squash – 1 lbs, 11 oz
Kambucha Squash – 7 lbs, 12 oz
Total Squash: 68 lbs, 2 oz
Strawberries – 1 lb, 3 oz
Bell Pepper – 7 lbs, 7 oz
Banana Pepper – 2 lbs, 2 oz
Nardello Pepper – 5 lbs, 5 oz
Jalapeno Pepper – 2 lbs, 3 oz
Cayenne Pepper – 4 oz
Total Peppers: 17 lbs, 15 oz
All Blue Potato – 34 lbs
Russet Potato – 18 lbs, 12 oz
Fingerling Potato – 41 lbs, 6 oz
Mountain Rose Potato – 3 lbs, 1 oz
Yukon Gold Potato – 10 lbs
Total Potatoes: 107 lbs, 3 oz
Carrots – 20 lbs
Grand Total: 435 lbs, 9 oz
Undoubtedly a few harvests here and there were, for whatever reason, not recorded. I know for a fact we harvested golden and red raspberries in 2013...but since they all got gobbled up before they made it into the house for weighing they are completely omitted on the list. But, its a ball park estimate that helps us gauge our progress or lack there of.
Gosh, I hope the tomatoes are better this year.
That is really cool to compare one year to another. Maybe I should buy a scale. I have resisted doing so, because it felt like one more gadget I have to store, and really don't need. But it's really neat to be able to tell mathematically how one year compares to another. And counting each item got really old for me. ( I tried that one year.) 2 years ago, I had great bean year. Last year, the tomatoes went gangbusters. Maybe this will be a great tomato year for you.
ReplyDeleteI see that you have many types of peppers. My son is planting 7 types of peppers (8 plants) in his part garden this year. That's the most individual types we have ever grown. All of them are hot. We should have plenty for hot pepper sauce in many flavors! (At least I hope so. It is more important to me that my kids' gardens do well than mine, because it is such a learning experience for them.)
Happy gardening. :)
We like keeping personal statistics, I guess. We do so for lots of things--Scrabble scores, miles walked each day, books read, dollars spent, Grateful Dead songs heard live, and so on. I'm not sure why....there is no real point to it. But, its interesting, I think. For the garden there is some practical purpose to our notes as they can sometimes be helpful in planning for the next year. In the end though, its all a gamble. Every year.
DeleteI hope your son's peppers (and mine) produce like crazy this year. (Tomatoes, too!) If you ask me, there can never be enough spicy peppers.