Garden Journal Catch Up

Our garden plot produced lots of vegetables in June.  I gave up trying to weigh all our produce. We harvested lots of beets, broccoli, brussel sprouts, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, kale, lettuce (gourmet blend and buttercrunch), parsnips, and turnips.  At the end of June, just before we went on vacation, we had our biggest harvest day so our mature crops would not spoil.   A friend and her two young kids joined us for the big harvest.  My son was thrilled to have a “play date” at our garden plot. It was a joy to watch children have a blast pulling out root vegetables. They tugged then giggled as their buried treasure appeared out of the dirt.

carrots
Baby carrot (my son planted the carrot seeds)

Our best early season crop this year was the cabbage. We grew green, savoy and red cabbage. I estimated that our 15 cabbage plants produced over 50 pounds of crisp, sweet cabbage.

our cabbage patch
our cabbage patch

My mother-in-law and I had a “play date” in the kitchen. We got creative with the cabbage! We made sauteed cabbage greens (with garlic, onion and chopped apple), stuffed cabbage leaves (with ground beef, onions and tomato sauce), shredded cabbage salad. I even tried substituting pasta with sauteed strips of cabbage. The cabbage leaves were al dente and tasted delicious covered with sauce and cheese. Cabbage is a great low carb alternative to pasta!

Stuffed savoy and green cabbage leaves
Stuffed savoy and green cabbage leaves

Donating to Local Food Bank

The Howard County Community Garden food bank donation for July 21st

The Howard County Conservancy Community Garden donates a portion of its produce to the Howard County Food Bank every Tuesday and Thursday.  Volunteers pick the produce contributions from a plot solely dedicated to the food bank and from individuals’ gardens with portions marked for the food bank.  Often a gardener will mark their plot for the food bank when they are out of town for  an extended period of time.  The goal is to prevent waste in our gardens.

Yesterday, my son and I joined another gardener to pick the produce for donation.    It was fun and I learned how to harvest cabbage.  The cabbage head is cut from the thick stalk because a new cabbage head may grow from the old stalk.   I will look for cabbage regrowth in the food bank plot.

We collected three bags of produce including tomatoes, cabbage, peppers, Malabar spinach, zucchini, and eggplant.   It weighed in at 29 pounds at the food bank!   The fresh organic produce was greatly appreciated.

Over 36 million Americans are hungry and rely on local food pantries to help sustain their families.  For more information about how other gardeners are giving to food banks across Maryland and the United States visit Grow It Give It.