Wonderfully Overwhelming?

At times having a garden can feel overwhelming.  Previously the weeds and the desire to get rid of them was overwhelming; now having to deal with all the mature vegetables is overwhelming.  When looking at the garden I have a hard time thinking of each vegetable separately; I see one thing that needs to be harvested and feel that everything needs to be harvested and dealt with all at once.

Last weekend I spent Saturday picking and shucking peas.  (I think I ended up with 16 cups of actual peas.)  On Sunday I picked and washed about a third of the swiss chard and blanched it, I blanched the peas too.  And that was my weekend.  When I think of how long it took to do those two things I get stressed because of what is still left to be done.  And then Steve comes to the rescue and brings me back down to reality:  the reality that everything is just fine where it is, growing in the garden, the reality that just because the peas need to be harvested doesn’t mean everything else does too.

I looked back at my photos from last year and discovered this: we pulled the potatoes September 4(because the plants were dying), the zucchini plants were pulled September 5(they had stopped flowering), I harvested and pickled my beets September 11, the tomatoes were brought inside September 14, and the carrots were pulled October 4^th.  And why is it I feel the need to do everything right away?  I have no idea.  The fact of the matter is there is still a lot of growing time left, and if the weather man is correct, some of the warmest weather of the summer!

As the garden has just recently begun to produce mature vegetables we need to take advantage of it; we need to stop being lazy and start eating the fruits of our labor.  This week I implemented a new rule in our house.  That rule being this: we need to eat something out of the garden everyday.  It’s a rule that makes total sense – why have a garden if you aren’t going to eat your produce when it’s at its freshest?  Since the rule’s inception we’ve had fresh carrots in spaghetti sauce, peas & carrots as the nightly veggies, and tonight we had a roasted beet & feta salad.  Tomorrow could be a challenge as its pizza night – how does one get fresh veggies on a pizza?

My new rule also helps “un-overwhelm” me – the more veggies we eat fresh, the less there is to blanche and freeze.  This weekend I think I may have to pick more peas before they get bitter and should probably pick more swiss chard before the grasshoppers do more damage.  I’m also planning a “Jam & Jelly Day” on Saturday, sounds like another busy weekend!

(I’ll post more photos on The Thirsty Dirt Facebook page.)