Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
A Seasonal Guide
to Managing
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16
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Your Harvest
Have you ever had neighbors sneak zucchini onto your front porch and run away hoping you'll
adopt their overly productive garden fruits? It totally happens on the backyard farm as seasonal
bounties ebb and flow. One month you have an influx of tomatoes, the next month your meat
chickens are ready to put in the freezer, and the next month you have more winter squash than you
know what to do with. But nothing should go to waste on a backyard farm, and you can preserve
what's available now for the times when it isn't available later.
Learning to appreciate what is available in season during the peak of its availability will make best
use of what you're growing and producing. Not only that, but you'll be eating more nutritiously as
well because the vitamins and minerals in your food decrease with storing and preserving. And of
course, eating locally (or self ) grown foods while they are in season will save you money as well.
There are so many reasons to take the challenge to eat more seasonally. It's a shift of focus for most
of us, but an important one for our Earth and our self-sufficiency.
Eating Fresh in Spring
As winter chill fades away, the world awakens with spring's promise. In the garden, spring means
you'll be harvesting anything left from your fall garden and late-winter garden (Chapter 7). Swiss
chard, peas, lettuces and cabbages of all kinds (Chapter 8), and soon fresh asparagus (Chapter 10)
will be ready for harvesting.
On the livestock side of things, you'll be on kid watch for your goats, or lamb watch with your
sheep (Chapter 14). You'll be getting ready for this year's baby chicks (Chapter 12) and checking
your hives for signs of nectar flow (Chapter 15).
Gathering fresh spring greens, like spinach or chard, along with those amazing first eggs as your
hens bask in the lengthening days, is indescribable. And everything works in tandem. It's time to
begin sowing seeds, both indoors and out, and your goats, chickens, or rabbits appreciate the thin-
nings from extra seedlings. Meanwhile, your spring cleaning deep clean of coops, sheds, and cages
provide compost materials that will feed your garden in the coming year.
