June has come and gone and July is almost over! Things have really been heating up around here: literally! While people in the lower 48 states were dealing with another ‘polar vortex’ event of cooler weather, we were dealing with mid to high 80 degree temperatures. Now, before you start thinking I am a total wuss there are some things you need to keep in mind such as where I live, our average temperature, the insane amount of humidity we have, and the fact that we are right on sea level. 85 degrees is HOT for us. My poor greenhouse got up to 100! I think it might have done in the garlic but I am not pulling them until the stalks start to fall over. 🙂 I will not give up and in the end, it is all a learning opportunity. Moving forward!
We have been busy harvesting the natural bounty that is around the property and island we live on. Huckleberries and salmon berries next to the greenhouse, a few scraggly blueberries. We have also enjoyed some salads picked right from the garden with lettuce, green onions, peas, baby carrots, and…you get the idea. It has been wonderful
From our own garden, we have harvested some peas and some baby carrots from thinning the rows out. I will be planting another batch of peas this next week since they can handle some light freezes. I think I still have time to squeeze out another good harvest of them, fingers crossed. We have gotten some strawberries, the garlic scapes, a few green onions here and there as well. The green beans are finally starting to produce but the plants sure are a lot smaller this year compared to last year. We needed a trellis to help keep them up! I planted more beans in a different area about 10 days ago and they are already up with the first true leaves fully opened. I hope to get a few more staggered plantings in before the end of the month. I can still sow lettuce seeds in the cold frames through the end of August so I will at least have that to look forward to after the main harvest comes in. We are really looking forward to when the potatoes are ready to be harvested though it seems like it will be forever! I feel like an impatient kid the night before Christmas! If you didn’t see last month’s “Catching Up” post, the title pictures are the same. If you look at the dates, it is about a 5 week difference and oh boy, WHAT a difference! The Mister has been tending those potatoes as if it was his first born and they are showing it. I am eager to see how many pounds of potatoes we end up with!
I canned up some smoked fish for a neighbor in exchange for 6 beautiful fillets of sockeye salmon. We plan on smoking some of it along with the king salmon we also have and jarring it up as well. It makes the best salmon dip EVER. The key is all of those oils in the jar. 😉 Finally, I dehydrated oregano, dill, lavender, parsley, and cilantro. I still have more to dehydrate but ran out of time this weekend. I do not expect I will have to buy any of these spices for the next year and that makes me one happy camper. The cost of herbs and spices here is outrageous! Growing my own saves me money and I get a far superior product than I could buy. Win-win!
In other areas, the Facebook page passed it’s one year anniversary and we had our biggest giveaway ever for a Foodsaver sealer with jar attachments! I love my Foodsaver Vacuum Sealer and wouldn’t trade it for the world. I hope to be able to get the new freezer 2/3rd filled with fish fillets for the winter. I also hope that the Mister will be able to get a couple deer this year so we can get even further along in our efforts to be as self-sustainable as we can be. It goes along with our progress in getting rid of the boxed and canned foods. It has been quite the ordeal sometimes but then again, changing your usual lifestyle and way of doing things tends to have that affect. It is 100% worth it! The more we produce on our own, the better food tastes and the more I feel like we eat better than people who pay $100 for a single dinner meal. Funny thing is, my carrots came out of the ground just the same as the ones on that $100 plate but mine are non GMO and grown with zero chemicals. Ah, I do love a good irony!
What sorts of things have YOU been up to lately? Do you have a garden and is it a food source? Share your stories here and as always, feel free to ask any questions you may have! I usually respond within 24 hours or less. Happy dreaming!