Every year that we have a garden I feel so truly blessed, and this year was no exception. God provided us with so many organic vegetables. We tried some new things and planted some vegetables we had never planted before. We also planted some old favorites. This year we planted and harvested salad greens, onions, butternut squash, zucchini, spaghetti squash, cucumbers, tomatoes, green peppers, cabbage, broccoli, corn, sweet potatoes, and green beans. We also have blackberry bushes and an apple tree.
If you are inclined to see how our garden progressed this summer then check out the posts below.
I did talk about our produce in a few other posts, so if you really have nothing better to do then you can see all of my gardening posts by clicking here. 🙂
Now, with all of that gardening what did we do with our harvests? Well, we ate a lot of wonderful foods all summer and are still enjoying our bountiful harvest thanks to canning, freezing, and storing some foods in our basement.
Canning Totals
38 pints and 33 quarts of green beans
12 jars of pizza sauce
10 quarts of spaghetti sauce
15 pints and 37 quarts of tomato sauce
9 pints of salsa
14 pints of applesauce
Freezing Totals
68 cups of shredded zucchini
1 gallon of zucchini chunks
2 gallons of broccoli
6 gallon bags full of cabbage
corn (I forgot to count.)
Storage Room Totals
4 milk crates + full of sweet potatoes
1 milk crate full of butternut squash
1 milk crate full of spaghetti squash
a small box of onions
We gave away a fair amount of zucchini and green peppers because of our abundance. Our tomatoes and corn didn’t do as well as in previous years, but thanks to the generosity of my mom and some family friends we were able to have plenty to can and freeze.
I am definitely no expert when it comes to gardening and many years have grown weeds better than anything else. However, I wouldn’t want to have a year where we didn’t plant anything. There is nothing more satisfying than sitting down to eat a meal and knowing that most of it was grown in your own backyard with no chemicals whatsoever. I am definitely grateful for the food the Lord has provided us with this year.
Today I am joining Laura of Heavenly Homemakers for Gratituesday. Check out her blog to see what others are thankful for.