9 Great Breads to Make with Harvests from Your Veggie Patch

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 zucchinis 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.

So, as this warm weather gets further and further along and the produce keeps rolling in, it might help to harken back to this article and find a fruitful way forward. It’s called bread!

1. Zucchini Bread

Source: Zucchini Bread With Fennel and Pistachios

Zucchini bread, a la banana bread, is a classic treat, and there are many ways to make it. Some folks like to put walnuts in it. Others insist on a bit of frosting. Some people even create savory versions of zucchini bread. This is one of the most difficult crops to keep up with, so it’s great to have multiple outlets for it.

2. Garlic & Herb Bread

Source: Garlic Herb Kale Bread

Garlic is a fantastic companion plant for other crops, as are fresh herbs. It’s great to have them growing all over and around the garden. They’ll attract pollinators and confuse pests. But, then, you’ve got to use them. It’s simple: mix up a regular sourdough loaf and put fresh herbs and whole cloves of roasted garlic in it before baking. Magic.

3. Vegetable Bread

Source: Low Fat Whole Wheat Carrot Bread

If we can add garlic and herbs to our bread recipes, why can’t we add vegetables? We can! Vegetable bread is a great way to make use of the veggie patch. Shred some carrots and squash (salt it and wring it out first), toss in some fresh herbs, and bake something the slices a little different. This is great with spreads like hummus or cashew cream cheese.

4. Jalapeño Cornbread

Source: Jalapeno Cornbread

A good pepper plant will put out loads and loads of jalapeños. Combined with some green onions and fresh sweet corn, jalapeño cornbread is a crowd-pleaser. It works magically with a big pot of vegan chili for more vegetables from the garden. Cornbread can work will all sorts of garden veggies.

5. Vegan Focaccia

Source: Olive Focaccia

Basic focaccia bread is easy enough to make, and it works so well to bring about smiles. Start adding things like jalapeño pesto and sun-dried tomatoes to the mix, and it reaches a whole new stratosphere. For that matter, dehydrated or sun-dried zucchini, yellow squash, peppers, and herbs all work well with focaccia.

6. Flatbread

Source: Rosemary Black Pepper Focaccia

Flatbreads can be made with and without flour, so they are a great option for gluten-free folks. They also make quick use of fresh herbs and dehydrated vegetables. Plus, flatbreads are begging to be smothered with a spread or a light salad. They also bring about a clambering for vegetable curry.

7. Pumpkin Bread

Source: Pumpkin Bread

Zucchini is the only garden great that stars in the bread. A few pumpkins provide huge harvests that are far more than most families can tackle. They work wonderfully in bread. Think pumpkin pie spice by the slice. Put that beside a cup of coffee for breakfast and life looks a lot better.

8. Pesto Bread

Source: Pesto Twist

While traditionally pesto is a basil dish, contemporary versions add and substitute lots of different herbs and greens like arugula and kale. Whatever greens and herbs are coming out in abundance, they can be blended into a pesto that goes into an amazing bread. It could be stuffed pesto garlic bread, twisted pesto bread, braided pesto bread, pesto-tomato swirl loaf…

9. Carrot Bread

Source: Carrot Cake Bread

Often, planting carrots basically boils down to sprinkling a bunch of seeds over a patch of ground. The seeds are far too small to try to space them perfectly, so we find ourselves with more carrots than we know what to do with or desperately in need of thinning out the carrot patch. Carrot bread is awesome.

Who would have ever thought having too many fresh, organic vegetables would be a problem? Just about anyone who has grown a successful garden. It happens. Why not make so bread happen, too?

Related Content:

• 10 Fantastic Flour and Flourless Flatbreads
• 5 Types of Homemade Breads Ideal For Every Thanksgiving Table
• 12 Tasty Egg-Free Breads!
• Love Bread? Here are 10 Deliciously Nutty Breads!
• Daiya Launches First Ever Plant-Based Gluten-Free Flatbreads

Easy Ways to Help the Planet:

• Eat Less Meat: Download Food Monster, the largest plant-based Recipe app on the App Store, to help reduce your environmental footprint, save animals and get healthy. You can also buy a hard or soft copy of our favorite vegan cookbooks.
• Adopt-a-Pet: Visit WildWatchers, a watchdog platform specifically designed for animal, earth, and wildlife warriors to actively give back, rescue, and protect animals and the planet.
• Reduce Your Fast Fashion Footprint: Take initiative by standing up against fast fashion Pollution and supporting sustainable and circular brands like Tiny Rescue that raise awareness around important issues through recycled zero-waste clothing designed to be returned and remade repeatedly.
• Support Independent Media: Being publicly funded gives us a greater chance to continue providing high-quality content. Please consider supporting us by donating!
• Sign a Petition: Your voice matters! Help turn petitions into victories by signing the latest list of must-sign petitions to help people, animals, and the planet.
• Stay Informed: Keep up with the latest news and important stories involving animals, the environment, sustainable living, food, health, and human interest topics by subscribing to our newsletter!
• Do What You Can: Reduce waste, plant trees, eat local, travel responsibly, reuse stuff, say no to single-use plastics, recycle, vote smart, switch to cold water laundry, divest from fossil fuels, save water, shop wisely, Donate if you can, grow your food, volunteer, conserve energy, compost, and don’t forget about the microplastics and microbeads lurking in common household and personal care products!