One of my favorite things about summer is being able to harvest fresh produce from the garden!
Early in the spring we posted about gardening and how gardens not only promote good well-being and health, but they are also a great way to create family bonding time.
This is my first year gardening in my own backyard and it has been a bit of an adventure. Our garden is far from perfect. Our soil is mostly hard clay and super rocky. Plus we almost planted (or transplanted) too late in the spring. But miraculously, despite these odds, our garden has started to produce, and it's fabulous!
This year we were able to plant a few onions,
squash and zucchini,
peas, tomatoes, bell peppers, 2 cucumber plants, and 1 bean plant (that's all that survived). We also planted a few marigolds along the front (they seem like a traditional garden flower) and we were lucky enough to inherit a raspberry bush from the previous owners.
We haven't harvested everything, and we have yet to find out if all of our plants will continue growing and producing. But so far we have harvested lots of squash and zucchini plus some cheery tomatoes, peas, and...
raspberries (my favorite!).
Even if we don't yield as much as we anticipated, harvesting is still so rewarding because you have a great feeling of accomplishment AND you get to enjoy the fruits of your labors, literally! Yum!
Even if you don't have your own garden, you may know friends or neighbors that are willing to share their abundant produce with you. Or you can always stop by the local gardeners market.
A couple other fun ways to create the "harvesting" feel for you and your family is to find a local farm that allows you to pick your own fresh produce before you buy it, like this local U-Pick farm. It's a great way to get the kids involved, and is way more yummy than buying produce from the grocery store!
Another way to get your fresh produce is to find out about local co-ops in your area. One great website is Bountiful Baskets. This organization is largely volunteer-based and seems to keep growing and adding new locations.
Whichever way you get your fresh produce, we wish you a Happy Harvest!
No comments:
Post a Comment