My First Garden Harvest

So its not technically my first harvest because I have already gotten Rhubarb but this is my first harvest of what I've planted this year.  Many people give me grief about planting early.  Well when you can your food you definitly dont want everything in your garden getting done at the same time!  I have mine planned so that you can continually obtain produce and do something with it wether it be dehydrating, canning, freezing, or eating.  I start my garden on St. Patricks day or that weekend, depending on weather.  Then two weeks later I plant more, and two weeks later plant again, and continue that pattern.  Weather greatly affects when I plant.  This year we've had boatload of rain.  I am so glad I was out very early planting lettuce and greens.  Now that it's been raining almost everyday my plants are growing really well.  Most of my friends dont even have their gardens in yet and its almost the end of May.  I am getting ready to harvest already!  So here is my first harvest.  Its radishes.

This is only a partial row.  With radishes, carrots, turnips, and beets what I usually do is grab the larger ones instead of thinning my rows early.  This allows the others to continue to grow and I get more bang for my buck.  I am actually growing radishes mostly for my parents.  They only grow tomatoes and green peppers really anymore. This year I asked them what vegetables they wanted, how they wanted them done, and how much they wanted.  Then I kept it in a notebook.  These radishes my dad wanted chopped really small so he could chew them easier and put them on salads or whatever.  They wanted a pint bag so right now I have two snack bags for them.  I just used my food processor.

 We are not really fond of radishes, sometimes we will eat a few in a salad but my kids think they are too spicy/hot.   Visiting my garden today and looking at what was going, it looks like lettuce (leaf and romaine) plus my kale and chard will be ready next.  I am going to dehydrate all the greens this year.  I still have jelly jars canned with greens from last year.  I will also feed the chickens some to supplement their diet.  I always grow extra for that reason.  Also strawberries are doing really well this year, getting plenty of rain so that will be a good harvest too.