What an amazing experience this project has been! 50 days ago I set myself a target of harvesting, processing and storing at least 5lbs of food a day. Whether it was something grown in our garden, meat birds or something foraged.
My target was to store 250lbs of food in 50 days, but by the end of the first week it became obvious that I would achieve that volume of harvest fairly easily and quickly, so I increased the target to 500lbs.
And, shortly after the midway point I realised that I could increase my target once again. Not in my wildest dreams had I imagined that this plot could yield so much food in such a short space of time.
I have, in fact, harvested more than the list below, because for the purpose of my 50 Days of Harvest project, I didn't include any food that we harvested to consume that day and it didn't include anything harvested prior to the start date. I will, in due course, calculate the total amount that has been harvested from our smallholding this year, but for today, I am celebrating that I have been able to harvest such a fabulous amount in seven weeks and a day.
Here's today's vlog, or if you can't view it on your device, you can watch it on YouTube here
The harvest included
317 lbs apples (cooking apples and eating apples)
85 lbs winter squashes
22 lbs beetroot
30 lbs dwarf beans
44 lbs courgettes
57 lbs tomatoes
3 lbs cucumber
9 lbs plums
48 lbs runner beans
8 lbs savoy cabbage
31 lbs borlotti beans (net weight)
9 lbs blackberries
75 lbs chicken and duck
16 lbs raspberries
19 lbs sweetcorn
3 lbs Greek gigantes beans
23 lbs pears
1 lb parsnips.
Our cupboards are filled with jars of apple sauce, plum sauce, green tomato chutney and raspberry jam. Demi-Johns are filled with country wines nicely fermenting away, the freezers are filled to bursting with produce and our hearts are filled with joy.
The whole project can be found on YouTube here
