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12 Ideas for Gaining and Dealing with Huge Harvests

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Emma Gallagher is a Brit living in North Carolina. She grows organic gardens and... Read More

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It’s all well and good carefully planting and tending your veggies plants all season. You watch the plants grow and, you get all excited at seeing, literally, the fruits of your labor bulging and multiplying into the most amazing harvest.

You skip into the garden with your harvest basket, and you feel like a real homesteader, filling the container with heaps of berries, squash, and tomatoes.

Then, you get back to the kitchen. You realize you have no space in the fridge, your countertops are already heaving with yesterday’s harvest, and you are pretty sure your neighbors have also had their fill of your surplus.

So, what to do now? Well, help is at hand. Here is a whole harvest of OGP articles that give you lots of ideas about what to do with your monstrous yield.

1. An Over-Abundant Garden

We should all be so lucky as to have an overabundance of produce coming from our gardens, and frankly, those who do are people whom I envy. Many of us crop cultivators struggle at the beginning, working to yield a handful of tomatoes or cucumbers, but eventually, all that effort does translate into a bounty. Sometimes, it’s just too much for one person, even one family, to eat at one time. Let’s presume that our gardens this year will provide more food than we ever imagined, a harvest so plentiful that the thought of another freshly plucked sweet pepper just sours our faces. What a life!, folks will say, but we are left scratching our heads as to what will we do with all these vegetables. Let us scratch no further. Here’s what to do with that ridiculous abundance. Here are some great ideas about How to Make the Most of Your Over-Abundant Garden Harvest.

2. Tomatoes

Homegrown tomatoes are superstars of the garden. Of all the vegetables we might grow on our own, they are possibly the most rewarding. They just taste so much better than what’s at the supermarket, and tomato plants tend to put out serious abundance for much of the growing season. However, as the summer and early autumn warmth gives way to the cooler times, tomato plant production slows down significantly. Then, before that first freeze comes, it’s best to get the remainder of the crop off the plant and somewhere safe. That can mean massive amounts of tomatoes all at once and often in different states of maturity. With that in mind, it’s time to clarify how tomatoes work on and off the plant, as well as plan for What to Do with the Last Harvest of Tomatoes: Good if They’re Green, Ready If They’re Red.

3. Cucumbers

For inexperienced growers, it’s always a great idea to start with crops that are easy to grow and abundant producers. Green beans, tomatoes, and summer squashes are classic choices, as are cucumbers. The fortunate downside to growing these crops is that they often provide way more produce than a gardener, or even a gardener’s family, can dream of eating. Luckily, veggies like green beans and tomatoes are easy to preserve, simply by freezing them. With cucumbers, though, the massive harvest can be a bit overwhelming. Pickles are great, but how many jars of pickles does someone need? What‘s a successful cucumber grower supposed to do with all these cucumbers? And, they keep coming! If you are drowning in cukes, take a look at these 9 Tips for Dealing with Massive Cucumber Harvests.

4. Jalapeños

For those who grow a garden and like to put in a few pepper plants, jalapeños are always a super rewarding choice. Where they grow, they produce peppers in abundance, starting long before bell peppers get going and extending just as long into the autumn. Of course, with jalapeños, there is a notable level of spice to enjoy, not something crazy hot like habaneros but not the sweet, mild stylings of banana peppers. Jalapeños have the right amount of heat to appreciate their amazing flavor and get that rush of adrenaline. There are a lot of things you can do with japapeños, so start Playing with the Year’s Jalapeño Harvest: What to Do with So Many Peppers.

5. Harvest Bread

With a successful garden comes a great responsibility: Finding a way to use all of that fresh food you’ve got coming in day after day for months at a time. It’s a great problem to have, but one that many gardeners come to realize. The thing is that one can only eat so many zucchini in a week. We have to find new ways to imagine our vegetables. When it comes time to transform that harvest into a serious treat, bread is a great option. It can work as something savory in the form of flatbread or focaccia, or it can be those scrumptious sweet breads we love for breakfast or dessert. Regardless, it is possible to imagine a way for most of the garden to get into a loaf. Check out these 9 Great Breads to Make with Harvests from Your Veggie Patch.

6. Big Time Tree Berry Harvest

It’s worth noting that food-producing trees are great friends to gardens and yards, as well as the people who cultivate and harvest from them. Trees are perennial plants, most producing year after year without much care, and one food tree can usually provide more quantity than dozens of crop plants. So, if you want to grow tree berries in abundance, it’s worth putting a few of these in the edible landscaping plan. For some huge harvests, read on to learn all about the wonderful world of Tree Berries: 7 Berries That Grow on Trees for Big-Time Harvests.

7. Autumn Harvest

With the cold weather here threatening to strip the world of fresh produce, it’s important to make the most of fall’s harvest, that last push of homegrown fruit and veg before dipping into the naturally preserved reserves. Hopefully, all those bountiful summer harvests have stocked the cupboards with canned tomatoes, pickled delights, and dehydrated treats. Possibly, you’ve packed the freezer with assorted berries, stock veggies, and smoothie-making fruits. Hang onto those as long as possible by utilizing what the fall garden provides, a great collection of protein-rich peas, nutrient-packed greens, and long-lasting fruits. Here are some great Tricks to Make The Most of Your Fall Harvest.

8. Summer Harvest, Winter Freshness

For many of us, the months of August and September are filled with bountiful harvests far too extensive for us to eat in a few weeks. And, truthfully, half the point of growing a good garden is just that: To put aside a wealth of organic, homegrown food for consumption during the leaner winter months. We grow to preserve some of our harvest. there is a lot to be said for freezing. Canning is exponentially easier to do with acidic foods, such as tomatoes, fruit, and vinegar. When that isn’t the situation, freezing vegetables is often a much better option. The food comes out much closer to the fresh version of itself, and the risk of bacterial issues all but goes away. Take a look at How to Freeze Your Summer Harvest for Winter Freshness.

9. Make Your Produce Last Longer

Jams are easy to make, basically requiring only fruit and sugar (if you even want sugar). We simply cook the mangoes down on low heat and can it for a no-sugar-added jam that’ll feed us for months to come. Of course, mango jam is but a blip on the jam register. Any berry, apples, citrus, grapes, apricots, and all sorts of fruit make a good jam. Find what’s cheapest at the time. You can also get funky with salsas, pickles, and chutneys. Try this Tremendous Papaya Salsa recipe and this article on How to Make Your Own Vegan Jellies and Jams Without Gelatin. Want to produce more than jam? Then, read this article all about How to Make Seasonal Produce Last Longer.

10. Elderberries

The elderberry fruit is generally ready to pick by late summer when the clusters of them turn dark. The berries are only around ¼” in diameter, but a mature tree can produce 10-15 pounds a year. Elderberry plants, including the raw fruit, are toxic, but if the problematic compounds are cooked, the issue is neutralized, as with potatoes, kidney beans, and mushrooms. For those with a wet spot in the yard, be it a ditch bank or a low area, elderberry shrubs are a great choice for growing something edible. These plants thrive in moist soil, and they put out berries very quickly. But elderberries aren’t something just everyone has handled. We have to learn what to do with them. Check out these 7 Ways to Use All Those Elderberries You’ve Grown.

11. Mulberries

Mulberries are great substitutes for blackberries, so pretty much any recipe that calls for blackberries can be switched out for mulberries. They do have a flavor of their own, so don’t expect the same results that blackberries would give, but other properties are similar. If you are lucky enough to have a mulberry tree growing in your yard, know someone who has, or have the knowledge to forage some, gather up a batch of berries and check out this list for fun things to do with them. Here are 7 Ways to Use All Those Mulberries You’ve Grown or Foraged.

12. Summer Squash

Daily walks in the garden time and time again send us back to the kitchen with basketfuls of cucumbers and summer squashes. It’s like the plants have no patience for timely consumption. They just keep on giving and giving, and the pile builds up into mountainous proportions. It becomes apparent we’ll never be able to eat it all. Now, with some crops, the situation seems easy enough. For example, tomatoes easily convert into spaghetti sauce, tomato paste, salsa, dehydrated tomatoes, tomato soup, and on it goes. With cucumbers, we think pickles, but from previous years, we know—like with fresh cucumbers—there are only so many pickles a person can eat in a year. And, squash! Squash doesn’t even give us that! If you are at a loss, check out these 7 Things to Do with Your Overabundance of Homegrown Cucumbers and Summer Squash.

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