Stars of the Garden In 2023 – Part 2

I hope you enjoyed reading the first part of my annual garden review, and I’m back again today with the second part. Let me jump right in now and start with a crop that had mixed results this year, and that was the eggplant. The container plantings of Gretel, Fairy Tale and Icicle did very well, but the in-ground plantings of other varieties suffered like the sweet peppers did. Thanks to the container plantings, I did harvest just under 20 pounds this year, compared to last year’s whopping 55 pounds! We certainly enjoy eating all we got in a variety of ways, including roasting them for an eggplant sandwich. And I had enough to make Baba Ganoush a couple of times too.

eggplant trio

open-faced eggplant sandwich

Baba Ganoush

My records show it was about an average year for the squashes here. I planted fewer of the winter types, and about the same amount of summer varieties so it is hard to make a direct comparison with years past. We had our fill of them fresh, and I froze extras for use in the winter for soups and other dishes so we are well supplied for the months ahead. The summer squashes did produce a bit more than 2022, though not as much as the 120 pounds we got in 2021 when I planted too many and we were giving it away (almost) to strangers!

assorted squashes

It was a great year for the spring brassicas too. We had just enough rain to make them grow, but not so much to cause splitting or rotting issues. The Sweet and Tender variety of cabbage made a giant head that weighed five pounds, and I harvested a bit over 20 pounds of cabbage in all. That gave me plenty to turn into sauerkraut, and well as for fresh use.

Sweet and Tender cabbage

The kohlrabi did quite well too, and I harvested just over 30 pounds of it. I turned quite a lot of it into kraut and fermented kohlrabi ‘pickles’, plus I froze some for use in soups. The frozen kohlrabi holds up very well, and added a mild cabbage flavor to a pot of vegetable soup I cooked up this week.

Kossak kohlrabi

vegetable soup with kohlrabi and other veggies from the garden

It was also a great year for lettuce and other salad greens. I grew these all in the greenhouse this year during the cooler months of the year (October-May). I think the homegrown lettuce has a better flavor than those we buy at the grocery, and it is also easy to grow organically without using harsh chemical sprays. The only pest I usually have to deal with is slugs, and I spread the organic certified Sluggo-Plus in the beds to keep them under control. I also grew mizuna, arugula and baby pac chois in the greenhouse and they did quite well. The mizuna and pac choi adds color and flavor to salads and soups, and our homemade pizza wouldn’t complete without a big bunch of arugula on top!

Navara lettuce

Starfighter lettuce

mizuna

pizza with arugula

We had mixed results with our fruit crops though. Our blueberries and blackberries underperformed this year, though we had plenty for fresh eating. But we got our first big harvest of persimmons from our little tree. I managed to pick 25 pounds of them this fall, and froze most for later use. We also got a few cherries in spring, which we used to make a cobbler.

cherry harvest

blueberry harvest

Nikita’s Gift persimmons

I hope you have enjoyed this review of some of the veggies and fruit we grew here in 2023. I’ll be back soon with more adventures from HA, including my plans for the garden in 2024.