An Abundant Harvest

An Abundant Harvest

It has been one of those years, where our edible garden has paid off in abundance.  We are in the homestretch of reaping the harvests and it’s extremely gratifying.  Most of our harvests are from fruit trees and shrubs that we planted on our lil’ suburban homestead.   Our fruit trees shared quite the robust harvest with us this year.

This past year we had good fortune with growing lettuces, spinach, and mustard greens, but our tomatoes, eggplant, and cucumbers were a bust this year.  However, to make up for that we have also had an amazing pepper crop this year, some were from the ones we planted and some were from a local gardener friend.

We did have a bumper crop of figs, peaches, pears, and elderberries this year.  These are all items that just grow in abundance on the homestead.  I love an edible garden that does most of the work for you.  It also helps to grow varieties that just thrive in your gardening zone.  As a matter of fact our garden has been going so well that with our schedules between work, school, and social, it has been a lot to keep up with.  Notice, that our fruit never looks like it does in the grocery store.  Grocery store fruit has often been waxed or even wrapped up in special packaging.   Home grown fruits/vegetables sometimes might have more evidence of scars, bruises and bugs being on them, especially if you garden organically like we do.

We decided to simplify this year and I harvested the entire heads of the elderberries and froze them, until I could get back to them where I could scrape them off the stems.  It worked, but regardless there is absolutely no easy way to harvest those berries, that is for sure.

Harvesting Elderberries, Figs, Pears, and Peaches

Speaking of short cuts, sometimes wines, juices, and ciders are the way to go when appropriate and they actually give your budget a boost if you spend money on alcohol.  Hard cider, wines, kombucha, and even sodas or pop (whichever you call it), have all gone way up in price.  Sometimes, it’s the best option with the particular fruit or product from the garden that you are working with, especially if you have a bunch of fruit, and it’s rather bruised.

Bonus Pears – A funny story…

As luck would have it, we were attending a wedding this past weekend of our son’s close friend and his bride. Our son was the best man actually, and I absolutely loved his toast to the bride and groom.  I digress though, and the family had a beautiful outdoor celebration for the happy couple and right in the middle of the party was a magnificent pear tree.  The Viking was visiting with the host about how beautiful the pears were, and the host told us to take what we wanted.  So, sure enough at their wedding we harvested a bunch of pears to add to our pears for our pear cider. We of course, waited until the end of the festivities.  The bride and groom were not surprised that we were picking pears at their wedding at all lol…  Pears in my opinion that are grown in Coastal, North Carolina have a taste when they are fresh, similar to a very light and crunchy apple. They are delish!

And Yes, We Are Making Applesauce too!

Lastly, we did get back up to beautiful Brevard, North Carolina recently and we stopped by SkyTop Orchard.  We stocked up on some apples to make some applesauce this year too. It’s been fun to reap in this abundant harvest this year.   We look forward to our well stocked pantry filled with homemade, superior quality, and delicious food.

I have always loved canning, and it especially pays off during these expensive times.  It feels great to be prepared for the cool fall and winter months ahead.

I wish you all a beautiful week…until next time!

Fondly,