There have not been many homegrown vegetables this year. The weather has been the main enemy ... well that and the pesky little caterpillars that descended on and ate all my kale in the space of a couple of days.
Two lots of potatoes are still to be harvested and I am still eating the tiny little courgettes as and when they are ready. If I leave them to get too big they rot and fall off, so up to now every courgette I have cooked with has been about four inches long and not much fatter than a chipolata sausage!!
But the garlic and the onions have both done quite well. The onions are all quiet small really, but the garlic was the star of the show. After a couple of weeks of letting them all dry off outside whenever there was a sunny day, I got round to separating the cloves of garlic at the start of this week, the onions were done last week and have already been divided equally between me and Alan.
The total weight of the garlic, which now lives in our respective freezers.
I double bagged mine for longevity as I found I still had this garlic bought much earlier this year and also frozen. I do like to store my garlic this way as none goes to waste. You can use it straight from the freezer, and if you use a very sharp knife to top and tail each clove the skin just slips off. By the time you have prepped the rest of your ingredients the garlic clove is thawed enough to slice or crush.
The only photo I've got that shows the homegrown onions.
I was adding some of the smallest ones to the Mediterranean vegetables that I bought from Morrisons the other day, along with a couple of squishy tomatoes from the fridge. Oh, and there's a couple of my miniscule courgettes. 😄
I made enough from the Mediterranean veggies with the extra additions added, for a good few meals.
The first meal was this, using some of the hummus and a couple of the little veggie samosas, I ate one before I took the photo.
The next night, to use up the rest of the cooked rice I had a Kyiv with some more of the vegetables. I would say there is enough for a couple more different meals, one of which I can pretty much guarantee with be a pizza. 🍕
Sue xx
Your Mediterranean veggies look absolutely lovely, and I only have slight garlic envy :-)
ReplyDeleteDid not manage to grow any this year and will miss the "baggie in the freezer". I love the way the skins come off so quickly as each clove starts to defrost.
It's so convenient having them in the freezer isn't it. When I've not got homegrown ones, I just buy some nice heads from the supermarket and prep them the same way, hence the tub I already had ... which I had forgotten all about. Oops!!
DeleteThat's a nice harvest of homegrown garlic. I tried growing onions, last year, and had no success - they bolted before the bulbs even formed. I didn't even try to grow any, this year. But, I was able to pick about two dozen ears of corn, so that was nice. :)
ReplyDeleteI have to admit that over half of my onions bolted this year, that crazy hot spell we had earlier this Summer (maybe that WAS Summer) was to blame. It's a long time since I've grown corn, but the homegrown stuff is amazing isn't it.
DeleteI had no idea you could freeze garlic! X
ReplyDeleteI've been doing it since I grew my first massive crop of garlic many years ago on our first farm. I had some of the garlic plaited and hung in the kitchen, and prepared some this way for the freezer, this proved to be the best way to do it for me. It was obviously not as pretty as garlic and onions hanging in the kitchen but much more sensible for longevity.
DeleteNo garlic here but my best ever year for beans [OK, I have only been growing them since 2022 but this year has been Splendid] Lots of beans and spinach in the freezer
ReplyDeleteAlways big up your 'best ever year' ... never mention that it's just out of three. :-) A stash of beans and spinach in the freezer is great for the coming months. I have to admit to forgetting to sow any spinach seeds this year, but seeing what the caterpillars did to the kale, perhaps that saved me from more disappointment.
DeleteGlad it's not just me who is having that problem with the courgettes. The garlic looks amazing. Thanks for the tip about freezing.
ReplyDeleteAlison in Wales x
I'm glad it's not just me, I have never had such ridiculously small courgettes before. 😄
DeleteI'm salivating over your Mediterranean vegetables! We didn't bother growing anything this year but managed to find a crop of new potatoes we'd forgotten about and I've got five big zip-lock bags of redcurrants, blackcurrants and raspberries in the freezer, the best year ever for soft fruit! xx
ReplyDeleteThey are very tasty. 🙂 It sounds like you're set-up with fruit for quite a while, lots of lovely breakfasts ahead.
DeleteI really need to try planting garlic and I am going to follow your example and freeze the small bag of garlic I purchased a week ago.
ReplyDeleteGod bless.
It's really simple to grow, you can even grow from a bulb you buy in the supermarket. Just separate the cloves and push them into the ground. They grow best getting them in before Winter hits, I usually put mine in the ground in October or even a bit later.
DeleteMust look up how to grow garlic. I'd have room in my little garden, for sure.
ReplyDeleteAnd I have just seen your response to a comment above and it sounds like the optimum time is coming along.
Exciting! Thank you very much. xx
Take a garlic bulb, separate the cloves and push them root downwards into the soil, so that they are only just covered. Wait until next June ... et voilà. One bulb of garlic for every clove planted. 😀
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