Happy Friday! It’s finally cooling down a little bit, so this week has been grrrreat!
We spent last weekend with a bunch of my family in the beautiful area of Point Reyes, California. It’s a little north of San Francisco and seriously gorgeous.
Point Reyes National Seashore Lighthouse
We were there for my cousin’s wedding and it was awesome to see my parents, aunts, uncles and cousins on my West coast turf.
And the food. Uhm. YUM!
Here on the blog, I decided to start a new feature– Harvest Fridays! People are always asking me about the garden, plus I’m super proud of it and like showing it off. So I thought I would check in once a week and show you guys what I’m harvesting, what I’m planting, and what I’m doing with my bounty. I’ve seen this kind of feature on a few gardening and homesteading blogs I read and I love to follow along (and get ideas!). Of course– I’m starting this at the end of summer, so not a super-productive time. But even though the summer is winding down, I’ve still got lots going on in the garden. And last year our winter garden was pretty successful!
This week, I cut a ton of rainbow chard. We have had our chard growing since spring, but the summer heat and pests had it looking a little worse for the wear. I harvested chard here and there throughout the summer, but a lot of it had bug holes and for the most part I fed it to the quails. Ever since the weather cooled off and pests dissipated (in part, I think, because I pulled out all my tomatoes and zucchinis– both of which seemed to attract a lot of bugs), my chard has been doing awesome!
How beautiful are these stalks?
To preserve the huge amount of chard I picked, I chopped it up (both stalks and leaves), blanched and froze it. I eyeball it and freeze it in packages about the size of a box of frozen spinach. That way, when a recipe calls for a box of frozen spinach, I can sub in the chard instead! I used my frozen chard packs in this Quinoa Frittata about 6 times this summer! (It’s one of Nick’s favorite breakfasts.)
The other thing I harvested this week– peppers! Lots of peppers. Jalapenos and some long, skinny sweet peppers (I am not sure exactly what type they are). I have more peppers than I know what to do with, so I made another batch of Quick Pickled Jalapenos. I’ve been putting my pickled jalapenos on EVERYTHING lately since I have so many!
What I planted: Most of our winter garden has already been planted, but this week I added some Russian red kale in pots. We cleaned up the yard a bit, which included moving a leftover bag of potting soil into several pots. I didn’t want the pots of soil to go to waste and figured greens would grow well in them– we’ll see! I got the kale seeds (along with radish seeds to be planted soon, and 2 types of heirloom tomatoes for next summer) this weekend up North at an adorable little shop! All organic and heirloom!
That’s it for this week, but we’ve got a couple things planned going in soon– happy vegging!
Do you have a winter garden? What are you harvesting and planting these days?
I love that you are doing these posts! That rainbow chard is so beautiful! I need to get my hands on some asap! I love all those peppers too! I just planted some rosemary and thyme, but that is about it so far. My basil is still going crazy, but I finally ripped up most of my tomato plants. Hopefully these posts can inspire me to plant a bigger winter garden!
You know, I have never planted thyme!! I think I need to try some!! 🙂
Oh, I love the idea of Harvest Fridays! I love harvest season and I’m very glad that fall is here! I look forward to see more harvests – your chard is lovely.
I love Point Reyes! Especially the lighthouses. So beautiful. So excited for Harvest Fridays! Your garden haul is just beautiful.
Oh my gosh, the whole area was so beautiful. Living in the desert, we just love any time we see GREEN! And the ocean is an extra awesome perk!
You are so organized! My garden is dead for the winter, do I’m jealous of your chard and jalapeños!
I am soo jealous of your green thumb! That chard looks so beautiful! I tried to grow a small garden our yard but we get too much shade , plus I kill everything that I grow so I just gave up and just head to the store now.
Point Reyes looks so beautiful!
What a great idea to do posts like these, Jess! It’s so fun leaning more about you. That rainbow chard looks beautiful! Can’t wait to see what you have in store for next week.