Harvesting Peas and Garlic

Fresh picked peas ready to be shelled

This is when gardening gets exciting. After planting early in the spring, watering, weeding, and waiting I am finally seeing the fruits of my labor. 

We have been enjoying picking fresh peas from the vine. When it comes to the snap peas we are lucky if they even make it into the house. 

I went out the other night and picked what was left of the peas from the withering vines. I managed to get enough to feed the family a side of peas at 2 meals. 

This may not seem like a lot, but considering I only planted a small amount of peas this year I thought it was pretty good. I also had enough to save for next years planting. I am hoping to plant a whole lot more. 

I also decided to go ahead and pull all the vines out to make room for another planting of pole beans.

With the small amount of gardening space we have I will have to get creative next year to plant everything I want to. I will make sure to keep you updated on how we do it. 

Picture of my tiny pea growing trellis. I am still happy with what we managed to get from about a 3-4 foot area.

 I planted 3 different varieties of peas this year. The snap peas are by far my favorite. On the left is a bowl of mammoth sugar peas and on the right are the snap peas I left on the vine so the seeds could mature. 

A big bowl of peas ready to be cooked and served for dinner

 I had the cutest helper with this chore. He loved it! It was also a good way to help him learn some fine motor skills.

After we shelled all the peas I made sure to save enough for planting next spring. I placed each variety on a tray from my Excalibur dehydrator and let the sun do the rest of the work.

 While I was picking peas I also noticed that the small patch of garlic I planted last fall was ready to harvest. I wish I had thought to get a picture of it while it was still in the ground so you can see what garlic looks like when it is ready to pull.

Basically the bottom leaves will start to turn yellow and wilt. I read that once garlic starts to wilt you need to dig it up soon or the cloves will start to pull apart and it will not store as well.

I think this is a pretty good harvest considering I only planted 1 bulb of garlic pulled into individual cloves.

To cure the garlic you need to lay it on the ground out of direct sunlight. In the garage is an ideal place. My garage smelled so good for several day.

I am not sure yet if I will mince it and dry it in my dehydrator or store it so it can be used fresh.

I will also be planing a lot more of this next year.

What have you been harvesting so far?