We LOVE growing food. LOVE IT. I feel it's the most rebellious thing we can do these days as activists, as parents and as humans. We started about 6 years ago, I planted a few things in a tiny garden bed in a house we were renting. Both myself and my husband grew up with parents that enjoyed a garden, so it wasn't something foreign to us. The following year we bought our house with a decent sized backyard and attempted a veggie patch- in which we made dozens of mistakes. With gardening there's no better way to learn than by totally screwing it up! Each year we got a bit better, a bit bigger and this year was our biggest and best yet! Last year as well as this season we made use of my husband's mother's garden since she had decided on not doing as much from now on.
I got to work meticulously planning, I made spreadsheets and maps, organized and researched, collected tons of seeds, and STILL made tons of mistakes!
LIVE AND LEARN!
My favourite crops this year are as follows;
The top of the list has to go to the black beans, they do amazingly well here on the prairies.
Very minimal weeding, they grew fast and healthy, no pests went after them and we should get an amazing haul out of it!
I will be growing black beans every year, I love them in burgers, soups, tacos, either way they rock!!!
Next, the corn. It's incredible! I have no idea what I'm going to do with it all, as it's not good fresh and it won't pop like popcorn. Field corn they call it, and as I recall I have no chickens or sheep to feed it to. Hahaha
This was one of our big mistakes this year when planning the garden, having gotten them for free from the Sherwood Park Seedy Sunday, we didn't look up the three varieties we planted to see what they would be good for.
We planted Flint Corn, which is the yellow one and Painted Mountain which is all that beautiful coloured stuff. Strawberry Indian corn is the third variety but it's not quite ready yet. I'm hoping they will get enough time to ripen before the frost hits.
The Amaranth we grew was also totally unbelievable!
The young leaves were tasty although they did get bitter as the plants grew. We are still waiting to harvest this crop as the seeds have not quite ripened yet. We used West Coast Seeds 'Hopi Red Dye' amaranth and it grew beautifully!
We did have a few get eaten but not too many and we were able to spread out a couple clusters of over-seeded spots to fill in the gaps. Hopefully we get a ton of seeds out of it, I would for sure grow this variety again!
The quinoa! Oh the quinoa!! I'll admit, I really had no idea we could grow quinoa here in Canada. In zone 3-4, I would not have expected it to be able to do so well, but it did!
It was, unfortunately, one of the favourites among the various critters that snuck into the rural garden in the spring. Those little buggers, whomever they were, deer, bunnies, bugs, ate almost all the young quinoa! We were quite disappointed to say the least.
The few survivors did flourish however, and we expect to collect quite a bit of quinoa in the next week or so! And look at that colour!
Every heard of Calendula? It's super popular these days, a pretty little orange or yellow flower, aka marigold, and it can be used in all kinds of ways.
These beautiful flowers were easy to grow and fairly easy to harvest and then dry. I used the dehydrator to fully dry them, they stayed sticky for quite some time.
Then I just put them in big jars and into the pantry.
I love to infuse oil with them and then make it into lotions, ointments and deodorant.
Did you know Canada is one of the largest exporter of lentils?
I had no idea until we changed our diet and began eating them so much. They're such a little powerhouse food, loaded with nutrients and can be used in so many dishes!
We received some Black Beluga and some Red lentil seeds this spring and planted a whole bunch! We have picked them and have them drying now in our shed.
The rest of the garden was filled with the usuals, cucumbers, peas, carrots, celery, sunflowers, lettuce, garlic, zucchini, potatoes and more.
We also grew sweet potatoes for the first time this year. I was very surprised by the process to say the least! @venomnymous has been working on a blog post to share our experience, it was really cool so keep an eye out for that :)
Many of the things we planted were gobbled up by hungry critters in the spring, such as the soybeans, so we replanted but many things, like the soybeans, just didn't get enough time in our short growing season.
Its September now, getting colder and soon the frost will hit hard. We love growing things and are already planning for next year! I hope you all had a productive year as well!
~Happy Growing!
You absolutely deserved the curie award just for the photos - that is one impressive garden. Getting into the grains like amaranth and quinoa is pretty ambitious!
Thank you so much! We just love growing food SO much! lol
This year was our biggest and best but we always just want to get bigger and Bigger and BIGGER!!!! Muahahahahah!!
A farm is totally in our future, this is all just practice :)
Great post!
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Can't wait to see the sweet potato post!! :)
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You and your garden - amazing !! :)
Happy Growing!!
Respect.
Thank you!! :)
Nice garden and the corn looks crazy. I agree that the land is better used by growing vegetables instead of grass. Keep up the harvest. Thanks for posting.
I did a post on how I did a faux pas this season on over fertilizing. I won the darwin award.
There's no better way to learn than by making mistakes when gardening! LoL
I must be a very good gardener than.
Haha us too!
Show me your 'green thumb'. Mine is green but I think it's mold. Have a nice day.
Haha I've always said I have a black thumb, I still have quite a knack for killing tomato plants haha
Have a good one! :)
That's a good one. You have a good day too.
super super like. Its my dream to have a garden. Right now I don't have space. But u doing well. Keep us the good work.
Thank you so much! We started really small and it just grows bigger every year. Container gardening is a great way to go when you're low on space :) I hope you get your dream garden soon!
Awesome! Keep it up! There's something special about feeding your family with food grown yourself.
Thank you! It really is special. You can truly appriciate the food you eat when you grow, prepare and cook it all yourself :)
What an amazing harvest. We too desire to #growfoodnotlawns. It is so much more nutritious. Thank you for this inspirational post!
Thank you for the kind words! Growing our own food has been so much fun for us. Some day I would love to only be eating food we grew ourselves :)
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STOPThis is awesome.. great post. Your labor is not in vain. Keep homesteading with awesomeness. :)
Thank you so much! I'm literally sitting here taking a little break from shucking black beans haha
There's so much work this time of year but it's worth it 100% :)
I really appreciate your works. You did great.
This is what I want in my life. ...this is very impressive...it's the way we all should live. ..I definitely think this post is way underpaid...it is one of two of the most important valuable posts I have read today...I am talking with my mom about us doing this together...when I move there in about 6 months...I think everybody should grow their own food and share with each other...thats what my moms neighborhood does...well eight families. ..and I think it's great ...Great post!! Great photos!! Upvoted following and resteeming....You are awesome !!
Wow I'm so flattered by your comment!!! Thank you so much! :)
And what your moms neighbour does is awesome! If all neighbourhoods would grow a few things and share we could all have a ton of food :)
We share seeds every spring as seedy Sunday, I feel seeds should be free and accessible to everyone !!
Maybe next year is your year to begin!
You wrote a GREAT post!! I was reading your other posts as well...and I think your content is both fun and valuable :) :) Seedy Sunday sounds awesome...great idea to whomever started it ... I hope this next year..is my year to begin...I also have a secere panic disorder and I think this will help me by focusing on growing the food and staying busy..andvwho doesnt like to cook and serve food grown by their own hand :) :) looking forward to more great posts from you :) :)
Thank you so much :) I really appreciate your words so much. I have severe anxiety so I totally understand. It's a rough road but it gets easier! And gardening does help, it's super calming and humbling too! I love that I can slow down and notice things I might not have otherwise :) take care!!
Wow..i really love those crops and vegies so much,congratulation for a great and success garden @theneohippy,
Keep on inspiring homesteaders,happy and love to see those homesteaders working great and successful to all they are doing..
God Bless @theneohippy
Thanks so much Bein! I really appreciate that :)
My pleasure @theneohippy
Beautiful photos of your garden items. I don't think I would call what you did a mistake. It looked great to me.
Thank you! I have to agree, it's the best mistake ever! At least I will have plenty of amazing, beautiful corn seeds to share :)
Oh my god, you amaranth is truly incredible. I grow red garnet amaranth to the microgreen stage and eat it in micro-salads and top my soups with it. I need to let one of them grow longer some day...
Thank you so much! I've never tried it as microgreens! What a fabulous idea! I bet they taste amazing :)
I'm starting to get a little worried the seeds won't mature in time lol Hopefully soon! :)
They have quite a mild taste...but the color and the appearance are OUT OF THIS WORLD.
Oh no doubt! It's incredible how vibrant the plants are! I swore I'd never go another year without at least a couple of them :)
Amazing looking garden. I definitely need to do some of those black beans! Looks like bush bean variety?
Thanks so much! I got the seeds originally from a seedy Sunday event at the trade/swap table and I'm not sure the exact variety. I have given them supports in previous years and they did climb but this year I didn't bother and they still did well :)
Congratulations @theneohippy!
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Sweet! Thanks!!
I love all your pics! Beans grow well here too but I never thought of trying black beans. I think I'll put it on my list for next year.
Thank you!
They grew so well here, I was super surprised!
I hope you get a great haul! :)
Thanks roboblogger :)