State of the Garden 2022

It's been kind of a medium garden harvest year. We have enjoyed quite a few green beans, a good amount of tomatoes, lots of raspberries, a moderate number of peaches (one tree produced a small number of very large peaches), some potatoes, some corn, some cantaloupe, and plenty of cucumbers plus a few onions. The watermelon I planted was kind of a bust--too many seeds and the first one I picked way too early. The Japanese eggplant I planted has been a pleasant surprise and a low maintenance plant.

The squash and zucchini fell victim to some kind of plant disease so we didn't get very many of those.--not like last year's crop where we had so many we didn't know what to do with all of them.

I've done a better job of cooking with my vegetables. I liked the Roma tomatoes I planted and have dried, canned, and frozen some. I also made a new recipe I got from YouTube: 2.5 lbs. chopped up tomatoes (in the food processor), 1/2 c. olive oil, 4 cloves garlic, some salt. Brown the garlic, then cook the tomatoes for 10 minutes. Add a large bunch of chopped basil to the cooked sauce, then serve on noodles, bread, etc. I also made some ratatouille which tasted pretty good.

I haven't been very creative with the green beans but I did freeze some. We also froze a little corn. And I've shared some produce with friends and family members.

Next year I think I want to plant a bigger garden and preserve more produce but I will have to be ready for the work involved with that, so I'm still thinking about that.

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