Harvest from the garden

16 years ago

Can ya'll put on your thinking caps for a few minutes? I am giving a talk titled, "Harvest Your Garden" at the senior center next month. I am trying to do a little brain storming, but am a little stuck. Based on the title, I am trying to think of things we harvest from our gardens. I know many of you have vegetable gardens, but there are also a lot of herbs, perennials, annuals, etc. out there that have a good use. Here are a few things I have thought of so far:

Fruit Â preserves, fresh, frozen; grapes, berries

Vegetables Â can for future use, tomatoes for sauces, and cucumbers for pickles

Herbs Â to use in recipes, fire starters, trivets (when you sew a hot pad and leave an opening to insert fragrant herbs), teas

Flowers Â cut flowers, floral arrangements, drying for potpourri, edible flowers

Can ya'll add to this list for me? Maybe share a recipe for something edible or for using herbs for other things such as teas, beauty aids, etc. I really appreciate your help with this. I have so much going on right now (involved with scouts, environmental club at school, garden club, etc.), my brain just stopped working after I put that list together.

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (5)

Patris
16 years ago
You might try herbs you can give as gifts.

Such as:
Making floral arrangements or wreaths include herbs to increase aroma and texture.
Herbal bath and drawer bags are great gift items they can make.
Napkin rings.
Candle rings for the table are both pretty and the scent is awesome.
A hanging ball with dried flowers and incude herbs.
Clove and orange pomanders. A little old fashion, but still very pretty.
denisew
Original Author
16 years ago
What do you use for the candle and napkin rings? Do you buy an inexpensive plastic ring or use part of a paper towel tube then glue the herbs onto that? Or do you just wire something like rosemary into a circle?

I do like the idea of the wreaths because I have done that and really like the scent.

What kinds of herbs do you use for the herbal bath and drawer bags?

These are all great ideas! Thanks!
Related Discussions
Harvesting Okinawa's from Container Garden
Q
Comments (1)
Hello phan, I am not a sweet potato expert but have grown sweet potato several times. I always place mine on an old screen door placed over some folding chairs so they get air top and bottom. The screen door is wood and has old screen still in top and bottom. This is on my side porch which is about 60 degrees when the sweets are harvested. I leave them there about one week then store them in a burlap bag. If you put them in a loose bin right after digging -- they might start to rot because they are not cured and will still be damp. Here is a link -- the information is old (1920's) but the man who wrote this was a sweet potato expert and also invented lots of other stuff. Go down the page to How to cure and store the sweet potato. See link below. Cheers, DL Here is a link that might be useful: How the farmer can save his sweet potatoes
...See More
HAVE: seeds that need gardeners
Q
Comments (19)
in a rare display of organization and not procrastinating- i have screened out the rest of the pineapple sage and separated them into four trades of (approx) 110 seeds each. then theres a larger rougher trade, lots of chaff, but many seeds. thats about when i gave up =) i have also prepared a a few other ready to go packets- two packets of spagetti squash with a dozen seeds and some packets of papaya solo with fifty seeds each, among others. i have also sent out in the mail 7 trades today =) so if you awaiting seeds from me from this thread they went out today mostly =) except for of course the new ones. and still would like to find gardeners for the seeds in the opening post of this thread. running out of tape and baggies, but still got stamps and making it work =)
...See More
inquiry-harvests from gardens and farms
Q
Comments (5)
I'm not abig farmer, but do have a good sized garden. Here, even though our spring was very unuslaly mild back in April, we did have our share of heavy rains. Things like cucumbers, peas, and corn were planted and most were either lost to the extreme water or were very slow in germinating. Usually, I am overloaded with cucumbers right now, but they were very slow in coming, and I am only getting small harvests about every four days. These harvest are just maybe 10- 20 pickling types from about 40 plants. Same with peas, which are now past due to the heat. String beans were also very slow, and are just now producing. The only vegetable that has been growing profusly are my small mildly hot peppers. I started these plants indoors and set them out the begiining of June between rain. My soil was so muddy, that I couldn't put down the fabric mulch I use. My shin high boots sunk into the mud so deep that I had to use a big shovel and some boards to get to it and pull it out. In April, I was able to do my tilling, and just after it was done was when the rains came. I believe that many have suffered loses due to rotting seeds, as well as having very poor growth due to temperatures and all the rains. Even for that, it was so wet, I had a few 'streams' form in my garden, and these washed away many seeds, fertlizers, and anything that was planted last fall as a harvest now. Garlic was the worst, and out of about 40 plants, I have just one single left, which is now looking very sickly. I think that not only will prices rise due to the weather, but also due to fuel prices. Someone has to pay the increases...
...See More
Harvesting from winter garden
Q
Comments (13)
Hmmm, just went out and took a close-up view of the peach tree and discovered it now has dozens of small peaches actually popping out all over, a few the size of marbles. Must remind myself to keep a closer eye on this guy ! We will now be placing a 1/2 " mesh size net over that tree, to ward off the frenetic bird attacks which I know will be just around the corner. Where I live here on the SW Florida coast, it is definitely bird country ! That is putting it mildly, you name the bird type, we have it here ! ( Including big vultures and humongous bald eagles,..a brief nose-to-nose skirmish between those guys just occurred on the street outside yesterday that left me speechless,..until now ! LOL For another post someday...perhaps ! ) I love all birds, - only rarely getting a bit annoyed,..like whenever I have a peach tree that is fruiting :o) Recall vividly the constant bird attacks on the two peach trees I had 8 yrs ago that caused me much grief resulting in me digging up both and selling at discount prices. LOL. Am curious Glenn, do you have the same concern where you live ?
...See More
texanjana
16 years ago
I enjoy watching Central Texas Gardener on PBS here in Austin. A contributor is Trisha Shirey, Garden Manager at Lake Austin Spa. She has tons of recipes and ideas for using herbs and other things from the garden.

The recipe tab has lots of different recipes, and not only for food. Her herbal carpet deodorizer is really good. Lavender is wonderful for drawer satchets.

Good luck!

Here is a link that might be useful: klru
Patris
16 years ago
Have used chamomile, basil, sage, rosemary, lavender, fennel frond, several kinds of mints and of course rose petals. Pretty much any you have on hand. Even check some of the wild flowers as many of them have wonderful scents.

I normally try to get the young stems of rosemary to tie around the napkins and then you can also stick in a tied together bundle of other herbs or flowers just for the sake of pretty.

The herb pouch for the bath is one of my favorites and all my friends look forward to that at Christmas.
missinformation
16 years ago
One of our favorite meals is something I call Portuguese Burgers (long story). It's just a ground meat patty - can be beef, lamb, game, whatever - topped with chard or spinach from our garden that has been sauteed quickly in a teeny bit of olive oil, and topped with an egg fried in the leftover oil from the greens. We get the eggs from our garden, too :-)

I put vases full of rosemary branches all around the house all winter, and we make living rosemary branch wreaths for holiday teacher gifts. I normally wrap in beautyberry or coral berry and wire in a pair of movie tickets or something.

Edible flowers are fun for brightening up salads or to stick on top of a rice or meat recipe.

And we take pretty little mini-bouquets of flowers and branches from the yard as gifts for hosts everywhere we go. I pick up yard sale vases so no one has to bother returning anything to me.

Harvest from the garden

Comments (5)

Patris

denisew
Original Author

Related Discussions

texanjana

Patris

missinformation

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

Harvest from the garden

Comments (5)

Patris

denisewOriginal Author

Related Discussions

texanjana

Patris

missinformation

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

denisew
Original Author