After a long winter, my garden waked up early May and started to grow very quickly. I couldn’t keep up with eating everything. That is the time to harvest for the freezer for the next winter months. Most of the sorrel plants started to flower. Even when sorrel flowers, I continue to harvest the leaves. The leaves are good in cooking because they are more though. It is the fourth week of May and a Saturday. I didn’t make soap in the morning. I decided to get out and harvest some sorrel and anything else I could find probably more Egyptian onion. The latter is sending flower head and my chives are flowering. I don’t think I harvested a lot of onion for the freezer yet. Once Egyptian onion flowers, it doesn’t produce new leaves. It would focus on producing and ripping onion bulbs on top during the month of June. It would go dormant in July. In August toward September, It would start to grow new leaves again.

Sorrel and Dandelion

I harvested sorrel in the back yard along with dandelion leaves. I rinsed and chopped them. I filled a gallon zip bag of sorrel and stored in the freezer. The dandelion leaves filled a gallon bag as well.

I returned to the garden and harvested sorrel and dandelion in the front yard garden. After rinsing and chopping, I filled three gallon zip bags of sorrel and one gallon bag of dandelion. They are stored in the freezer. I didn’t want the greens to sit for long before I prep them so I did multiple returns to the garden.

Egyptian Onion

After sorrel and dandelion harvest, I harvested Egyptian onion leaves from the back yard garden. I harvested one hand full of it, rinsed, chopped and filled one gallon zip bag. I stored it in the freezer and returned to the garden. I harvested another handful of onion leaves and prepped and filled one gallon zip bag which went in the freezer.

Wild Thyme

I returned to the back yard to harvest wild thyme and made Thyme Oil. I rinsed and chopped. I put the chopped thyme in my granite mortar and ground it with a little extra virgin olive oil. I transferred to a glass jar and add more olive oil. I stirred and stored in the freezer.

Wild mint

In the afternoon, I returned to the garden to harvest a mint with lemon scent to it. I didn’t plant it and at the moment it is growing in both front and back yard gardens. Its tea has lemongrass flavor. I would call it “wild lemon mint” until I found out about the name. The plant looks like lemon balm. I harvested the mint in the backyard garden and along the fence of the front yard garden. I tied the stems in small bunches and hung in the shade outside to dry.

Peppermint

Peppermint and English mint I planted myself few years ago are just coming back. They are still low above the ground. I harvested peppermint in the backyard and tied in small bunches and hung outside in the shade to dry. Later in the evening they were moved and hung in the garage.

Winter savory

I harvested winter savory and made winter savory oil which went in the freezer. To make the herb oil, I rinsed the leaves, chopped them and ground with a mortar and pestle. I didn’t add oil to the leaves. I ground well and transferred to a glass jar. I added extra virgin olive oil and stirred well. I stored in the freezer. Both winter savory oil and thyme oil would go well on pork chop right out of oven. Either one of them could be used to saute vegetables or added to stew at the end of cooking.

It has been a busy Saturday for me but a very productive one. I am glad I didn’t waste these vegetables and herbs but harvested them at their peak and processed them very quickly before drying or freezing.

The following day Sunday, May 26, 2019 I reorganized my second chest freezer and remarked that it contains a lot of chili peppers I purchase last year on sale and green beans harvested from the garden last year. I used grocery bags to pack the vegetables. I have three grocery bags of green beans and two grocery bags of chili peppers. I have 11-1lb of butter, 18-8oz. cheese (shredded and bloc), and some greens. I preferred to bag items in that freezer which makes it easy to get to items at the bottom of the freezer. My smallest freezer is full of vegetables. I don’t have room for more.

Egyptian Onion

Monday was a holiday. I took corns I saved on the cob out of the smallest freezer, boiled about one minute and removed from the cob before freezing. That allowed me to have a little space in the smallest freezer. I profited to harvest Egyptian onion from the front garden. I froze three gallon bags of chopped green onion.

In the afternoon on Monday, I weeded the garden a little. I used the weeds as mulch. I also cleaned up the garden by cutting down dead branches off trees.

Fruit trees

The blackberry canes from last year didn’t leaf out. So I cut them out to leave room for the new growth.

A bunny got in the back yard garden last year and did damage to my fruit trees. They didn’t come back this year. They all started to grow from above or below the graph level. I cut the dead trees a foot above the graph area. The bunny didn’t damage persimmon, pawpaw, mulberry, aronia, and elder berry trees. But It destroyed two-apricot, two-peach, two-quince, one sour cherry, one sweet cherry, one goumi, two-apple, two-pear, one meldar, six- blueberry trees, and three grape vines in the back yard garden.

 

Among seeds that I sowed this spring, arugula is growing. Red giant mustard sowed last year seeded and these seeds are sprouting in the garden. Many kale plants are growing in the garden. They could either be seeds from last year kale that went to seeds or seeds that got lost under the wood chips last year and didn’t grow. Lettuce plants are sprouting in the garden. I didn’t sow it this year. I sowed some green beans few weeks ago and they started to grow.

Most grape vines at the front yard had freezer burn and didn’t leaf out. They started to grow back. Concord seeded and concord seedless vines , and wild grape were not damaged by the winter. Their vines resisted the winter and start to flower this spring.

I have been occupied in the garden during this long weekend. I am glad I was able to put away some vegetables grown in the garden and clean the garden as well. We are having a lot of rains and the garden is growing very fast. A coworker gave me oregano plant this spring and I planted it. It is doing well. I remarked I have a similar plant in the garden not knowing what it was. I sowed Greek oregano but it has not sprout yet. I cut wild thyme rooted stem and planted. It is doing well. That is how I propagate my plants.

Beside putting food away from the garden, we shopped sales as well. Read more….