Harvesting from the long garden bed

 

Harvesting black amaranth seeds.

I've been busy harvesting from the long raised garden bed. I planted corn and taro and volunteer squash, tomatoes and amaranth filled the garden. I have been harvesting tomatoes for a while now, the chickens love them! I didn't plan to harvest the amaranth, but it grew so well I didn't want to let it go to waste. I have offered the plant to my chickens, but they do not like it. I am hoping they will enjoy the cooked grain, if not this will be the last time I harvest it.

Black Amaranth Seeds

So far I have harvested about six pounds of seeds. The process is tedious and time consuming, but I do enjoy it.

Corn

Corn was the main crop I was aiming for and proved to be the most difficult to grow. Initially I had problems with seeds that were not viable. Finally I found one ear of corn in the freezer that was saved many years ago for seeds. Fortunately, some of those seeds grew. I now have plenty of seeds for the next crop and enough for the chickens to enjoy.

Taro

I learned something about taro this year. I planted a crop in the long raised garden bed more than a year ago, but I didn't harvest it. I learned that the large bulbs produced the first year die and new smaller ones grow. Because of that there weren't any extra-large bulbs this year. They are still delicious to eat but take more time to prepare because of the small size. 

Now I will let the raised bed rest until the rains return. The next planting I will focus on corn and taro.