Harvest, Cook & Eat: Collards

I don't know if this is the most efficient way, but it's what we have.

Where are we going right now? Well, maybe the wheelbarrow, but then even then I'd have to get it from the wheelbarrow into something to into the house.

So, or you could just wheelbarrow it into the house. Okay, or not. Replay that face.

Justin says there's one princess in every family. And I guess I'm it because he's carrying all my stuff. I have to carry the camera. So— oh, look! Hi, guys! They think that—

they come running. What do they want?

We're their friends. I don't know, because they have food. I guess they just like us. Another harvest of broccoli, and this time collards. We're gonna harvest some collards. We're gonna look at the broccoli. We're gonna see what we can get out of the broccoli. And then I know for sure we have collards. I'm, I'm doubting a little bit that we're gonna have broccoli. We might have some, but it might still might be too small. That one looks like it might, so we might have a nice good broccoli harvest. Collards 100% need to be done. I'm very excited about that. And I've got onions that we planted last August that, um, I can put in the collards.

You ready to go? It's hard not to feel positive about the day, life, hopeful when it's so bright and cool. Okay, you want to keep pushing or you want to pull it? Yeah, I like to give them choices whenever I can because it doesn't matter if he pulls or pushes it. It doesn't matter. Okay, so we'll switch. Yeah, so proud of himself. Beans need weeding, potatoes need weeding, our corn needs weeding. I'm gonna get this garden stuff done so I can start doing this Mulching country around the fruit tree project.

Yeah, Papa, I'm gonna tell you what looks like the woods. This looks like the woods.

Oh, it does, doesn't it? Oh my gosh. Yeah, that is— that's the woods trying to take over. You know, it'd become forest if we didn't do anything. Wow, they've pretty much taken this grass down. Austin showed yesterday, had a couple of stragglers yesterday. Well, what was it, 2 or 3? Well, only one died, so good we let them go because I can't even— I don't even see any stragglers today, so they revived.

I just harvested this same basket for the third time. It's crazy, there's so much broccoli. I love it, makes me so happy. I'm definitely the crazy broccoli lady. Definitely gonna— I like to use this basket. It's a good basket. And then bring it back and put it in these other containers. It appears that I'm gonna have about the same amount of broccoli that I did the other time. I still have one more row to go. Broccoli is definitely on the menu. Obviously I need to do some back, lower back strengthening exercises. Because my back hurts. Also, I got bit up the other day. Like, I have bites on my legs, which is one reason I have my pants rolled up, because the pants rubbing on them make them itch more. But there is some bug, and that bite's living in here because it got me good. Um, I think it went in my pants. And bit me multiple times. So we're done with the harvest. I'll show you. It is more, I think, than the other day, because the other day we only had— we didn't have that big container right there. We just had these 3 containers. So yeah, and there is a lot more in here. So I'm gonna do it tomorrow. Today's Thursday. Tomorrow will be Friday. I'll do more tomorrow because Saturday we rest, and then I'll do it again on Sunday. If you caught my talk at Homestead Festival, then you know why I'm just putting the broccoli just right inside the door is we don't wear shoes in our house, and there's a reason for that. And the reason is there's lots of stuff that gets on your shoes. And so just practicing taking your shoes off before entering your home can reduce the air quality— the, the poor air quality. It doesn't reduce the air quality, it reduces the air pollution in your home. Do I have bacteria on my shoes? Maybe. But you know what I do have on my shoes? Dirt and grass and all sorts of that stuff. So It's at least gonna cut down on my cleaning. Lily is in here cooking for the kids. I'm gonna make my breakfast. And then we're gonna get back out there and do collards.

I really want to get these chores done so I can help Mom gardening or any kind of chore. Is always funner with someone else. Funner could be a strong word. Uh, sometimes it's just more bearable with somebody else. There's 3 little trays aren't keeping up with them anymore. Raising a batch of sea monsters. When those in the field get harvested, these go out. We timed it so you can raise 2 batches of meat birds and 8 plus 5, um, 8 plus 5 weeks is 13, 16 weeks. If you were to do 2 batches, that's how you would do it if you were a market farmer too. You stack it. What happened? Our little comfrey tea has fallen over. A little horse manure here, so we added that. We'll make some compost tea. Cup-free compost tea. Come on, Henry. Come on, Gideon. Ready to garden with the beautiful one? I think she's gone. I miss it. I missed gardening with the beautiful one because, let's face it, as a mostly carnivore, I A garden for the beautiful one, to be with her in a positive activity, or to please her by getting it done and it being a gift to her. Did I miss it? Oh, whoa, another large score, babe! Are you gonna have more after this too?

I will have probably a smaller run, but yeah, I still have a ton out there.

Yes!

I know, right? We did it. We did what we set out to accomplish, which was grow a lot of broccoli.

A year's worth of broccoli.

I will say, I don't know. Okay, so it's great, honestly, how intense it is, but it's really hard for harvesting. But I mean, I guess—

you mean for getting it?

Yeah, because it's— the aisle is basically taken up.

It's a good problem to have. The plant's so big. Okay, what you doing? You're gonna go back out to college?

Yeah, I just have to eat my breakfast.

So I didn't miss you. I might go weed out there until you get there. I'm gonna check on the boys.

I think this is a good amount. I don't think we need to get any more broccoli if we lose a couple heads. Well, it's gonna be cool the next couple of days. I could start to tell that some of the heads were gonna bolt if I didn't get them today, even though they were still kind of small.

So what are you saying, you're done harvesting broccoli? Yeah.

No, today.

Oh, today. Okay.

Yeah, see how this is starting to kind of like—

can the next harvest wait till Sunday?

I don't think so. I'm gonna have to do it tomorrow again, and then we'll skip Saturday and then go Sunday.

All right. Yesterday I noticed they were using a waterer without a, um, the COVID had gotten knocked out of it. So of course he-man steps in it. They're not going to drink that, and it's hot. If they do drink it, they're going to get parasites. So my new job, as my kids become more and more capable and they're kind of doing their own thing, dividing and conquering, is to float, you know, help, help check in on Mom, help check in on the boys. We checked the eggs yesterday for Gideon. I didn't really need to do that today. I'm gonna help him You work. I'm gonna work with him on this water. Water going uphill. We can't put this downhill. He-Man's an ornery little teenager right now, and he'll push this trough. He'll lift it up, pour it out, knock it onto the fence, and then they're free. I don't know if he's smart enough to know that's freeing them. Or he's just fooling around and he's having to have— getting a happy accident. It's a good looking view. Also the graveyard. I'm gonna be underground there one day before I know it too, the way time's flying. But I'm not there today. I'm not there today. There's a little water connection right there. We'll put the water at the top. He's less likely to push it, and if he does, it's less likely that it's gonna fall on this fence. Make sure the nets are connected, make sure they're in the ground. This one isn't even in the ground at all. Hey boys, when you see a wet spot like this, go, hmm, track it down and realize we got a leak.

Breakfast is had. I've got the little boys and Lily, and we're gonna head back out. And I think Justin's already out there, so we're coming. I've got Annie and I've got Lily. I don't know where Justin is. I thought he was out in the garden, but he's somewhere. And I got the two little boys too. So let's make light work of this. The sun is kind of poking through. I saw somewhere that we might be getting Canadian smoke. I don't know if we are. It does seem a a little hazy. Hey buddy! Hi Winnie! We definitely need to weed too. It's definitely getting rough out here. All right, I'm gonna go ahead— while I wait for everybody, I'm gonna go ahead and recover the broccoli. I don't know that it's doing much anymore at this point. I'm a creature of habit, so set you up here.

The dog.

I know, why does this keep stopping?

So many collards. And then what about this broccoli? Not quite big enough.

Yeah, so collards kind of start here to here, but also Brussels sprouts may be in here too. Oh, pull these plants and cover this, or do— what do we want to do?

Is collards all the way to the end? Yeah, yeah, you don't even have to cover it is because it's a It's a weed fabric because you're saying we might pull up a little micro cabbage. What do you call those? Brussels sprouts? Yeah, like that might be a Brussels sprout plant. We don't know because I don't think we've ever successfully grown Brussels sprouts. I thought it was Brussels sprouts were more thin and vertical. You have something to do— you can do with all these collards?

Yeah, cook them down, baby.

Hey, look, the bugs have finally got to them. Bug nets are a wonder because brassicas get chewed up. Of course bugs can get in there now that they're so big they lift them up, you know, like this, but 10 times worse. Just, let's just harvest a little bit and see where you're at. Okay, don't get more than you can, but you can freeze, you know, if you super cube them pretty fast.

Yeah, I'm gonna super cube them.

You'll have— yeah, you'll have more super cubes, right? My hunch is half of this row you'll be able to cook down and put on our super cubes, probably. What's y'all's hunch? Yeah, let's do it. From here to about right there.

Are we gonna pull up?

Let's do it. Yeah, we're pulling it and pull the good stuff off. Y'all gonna have to give up your seat though. Is he? How do you know? Look at this.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on. Henry, Henry, Henry, Henry. This is a plant, bub.

That's my acorn squash. I like that. We should replant some more in here.

I thought they were all eaten.

Yeah, should we plant some more in these? Didn't come out.

I, I planted the seed, but then the seeds got tampered with with mice. Oh, but some are sprouting.

What I want you two to do to keep you busy, you guys start hauling this to the pigs. Yeah, come on. And then you can play when, when this is gone. I'm gonna throw more and more in the aisle. Okay, Henry, we'll get some bee honey after this. You do it, man. Oh, when they're little, the incentives are so easy. He's dropping it everywhere. I love the homestead. I love the homestead life for these kids because everybody has a job, something we can do together. But Rebecca's vlogging. How do you guys like that? You like that she's vlogging? I like it. You don't always see a lot of her. There's a reason this is called the Justin Rhodes Show. I don't want that pressure on her. I'm the provider in this family. With the loss of her mom building of the house, her being in charge of that, and then the hurricane, she's hit especially hard. And even if you don't see her in the vlog, doesn't mean she's not doing important things behind the scenes, usually boring things like, um, bookkeeping or replacing a lost credit card or getting the kids enrolled in their driver's license or whatever, you know, shopping for the good deal. We're going to pick up cabinets today. She probably spent half a day, maybe a day, finding the absolute best deal possible. Cabinets for our guest cabin and Jonah's future home. She's been feeling super good lately. So good she's vlogging. Yay! Spam the comments, yay Rebecca!

Danny and I are walking the wheelbarrow. Produce. We recruited help with Jonah to get us over this, this lip right here. There we go. I think you got it. It's smooth sailing from here. I'm getting these inside so they're not sitting in the sun without using the wheel. I mean, I guess we could just put the wheelbarrow inside. I'll just wipe it up with a towel. Justin had said that yesterday. I was like, I don't want that wheelbarrow in my house. After I talked about not wearing shoes in the house, we're gonna put the wheelbarrow in the house. Yeah, on to broccoli time. I have my broccoli. It's just gonna be a lot of the same of what we did the other day, which is put it in the bowl, get it all processed, and then do it. Annie's gonna help me and excited. Okay, so we are— got our pots on. I only have a little bit of water, so we're gonna steam blanch today. I have a feeling it's gonna go better. We're gonna try it out and see, and if it doesn't work, then we'll just fill the pots up and do it the other way. I have an extra pot of water here that I'm gonna bring to a boil that I can replenish this water with, and then I'm gonna get my bowl of ice water ready. We've got our table set up, so we are ready. And then Lily, I think, and Annie are going to, um, start on the collards. You ready to do collards? She's like, why do we have to eat so much broccoli? I'm like, because other people like it, just, you know. All of my kids have one vegetable they don't like. Is broccoli the vegetable you don't like?

No.

Which is the one you don't like? What's that like, that white broccoli? What is a white broccoli? Cauliflower. Cauliflower. You don't like cauliflower? I hate it. It's even worse than broccoli. Well, we don't even grow cauliflower. We did one year. Yeah, but broccoli is my second least favorite. Really?

Okay, Josiah, the rest of these collards have to get pulled up. Oh, look at these insects mating. They're mating and walking at the same time. Wow, way to multitask. Did y'all finish? Looks like you got a load. Boy, those pigs are gonna be happy. Well, Lily, they hoed one row of potatoes. See the difference? He's gonna go help with the collards and the broccoli and kitchen. Josiah, let's go fix this water line. A few moments later. Okay, wow, call the Inquirer. I forgot to film, left the camera behind. We found 2 breaches in the water line. It should be starting to build up pressure now. Mom's not coming, it's just us. Me and my 4 boys. Love it. Look at this, super local. This is even before we get to town. That was a perfect load. We couldn't have took one more piece. We maxed out the truck and the trailer. Hey, what do you think?

I'm excited!

All right, well, truck's getting kicked out of the garage. George Fowler would be rolling in his grave. He had nothing but a car in his garage. Good deal. A good stinking deal. And only 5 miles away. Wish we would have known about that before we did our cabinets. This is what I like to see, everybody working together. Getting to work, babe. So did you overdo the collards or what?

I'm pretty sure I did. Pretty sure.

So you think we're good with what we harvested today?

I think we'll have— we'll eat for a year on what we harvested today.

What?

I mean, don't you think? It's gonna be like 10 gallons.

That's a gallon a month. That's a lot.

I was gonna say, it's a lot of collards. Um, I think that— well, we're gonna see what happens. So I'm gonna— we're gonna start cooking them down. I think I have enough to start a pot. I'm cooking these collards down.

When do you add the bacon?

And I already have the bacon— the bacon and onions I've cooked in the bottom of this, and then I put water in this.

All right, barbecue ribs is the last of the Pork ribs, enjoy them, guys. If anybody wants collards, go a little easy. We might run out. Just, just want to make sure there's enough for everybody. There's 10 gallons, okay? So don't eat more than a gallon and a half. No, that's too much. Y'all don't even like collards? Okay, good. More for Mom. You guys think that's enough carnivore plate?

It is. After lunch, it is collard cooking time. I have got one pot here. I just started this one. This one's been going a minute and it is cooking down, and so I was able to get more collards in there. And then I still have another giant bowl. We still have— I'll show you what's still in the, um, wheelbarrow. So we I still have this, and I have sent texts to all of my neighbors that garden and, and like Whole Foods and all of that that I know, um, that might be interested in coming and picking, because I don't think we're gonna pick no more. I think we have too many already. So I have about 5 or 6 texts out to people, and and I got responses from 4 of them, so that's good. So what's in the wheelbarrow, I'm going to give away the rest of that, and then I'm going to let people pick as much as they want. And then what nobody eats, um, I mean, maybe we'll eat off of it, I don't know, just depends. Um, or we'll just pull it out and give it to pigs. So In the pot, I did bacon and onions in the bottom. Then I put water in after the bacon has cooked nicely. I then put some more water from my pot filler. It was so convenient. I love it. I just put some about, I don't know, 3 or 4 inches. Then I added collards. I mixed it up. Then, you know, added more water, added more collards, kind of just layer it up. And I was cooking it on high, and I'm basically going to cook it all the way. I mean, collards can cook for a very, very long time, so I'll probably cook it like an hour or so. Then I will cool it down, put it in the fridge, and then tomorrow I'm going to put it into Super Cubes. And I don't know if I have enough Super Cubes. I have a pretty big stash of Super Cubes, but I also have a lot of collards. So my other thought is, is I would take vacuum vacuum seal bags. These are already labeled for broccoli because we've been doing that also. We've been vacuum sealing and getting broccoli in the, um, freezer. So we are putting it on the trays, getting it in the freezer, then once it's flash frozen, then we put it in bags. So I'll put— so my thought is to put in the collards with the juice, with their, you know, the broth and stuff. So in the water I used some freeze dried broth powder. You can use homemade chicken broth powder— broth. You can use homemade chicken broth, whatever you have on hand. You don't even have to use broth, you can just use water. I was planning on putting them— if when I run out of Super Cubes, I'll put just the collards and the juice in here, and then I'll freeze this standing up, and then once it's frozen, then I can vacuum seal it. But if you you try to just put in like collards and juice in here, it won't vacuum seal. Or you can use quart-sized bags, which is another option for me. I don't know, we'll just see what happens. I'm flying by the seat of my pants here and realizing we probably shouldn't have picked so many collards at once. I've never had this many collards to pick at once, so I mean, we're doing good. And now we're gonna have collards birds a couple times a week along with our broccoli all winter long, then I'm not going to the grocery store. My goal is actually to start doing a monthly Azure order and then not going to the grocery store at all. Well, I should say only for like emergency things that like I forgot to buy at Azure or that Azure doesn't carry, which is very minimal stuff. So, um, so my, my grocery budget We'll have a chunk for Azure monthly, and then I'll have like my emergency contingency budget for local stores or online shopping. You know, like if I wanna buy like Mesa chips or something like that, so.

What happens after it cooks down, we put 'em in these super cubes. Let's take a couple of these. Basically we're gonna take these and push 'em out It's not lost on me that I'm wearing a kale no shirt right now. Might as well say collards no, because I'm never gonna eat these collards. The beautiful one is though, so once you get one of these out, we're gonna get 4. You can put them in freezer bags, but they're in 2-cup increments. So this is like, just grab one of these for a family meal. We tried to save some money. We tried to not get the name brand, and these are not fitting. Oh wait, maybe I can do this. The Ziplocs, these fit. Not cool. No bueno. Sometimes it does not pay to be cheap. It does not pay to be cheap. I don't think it's tall enough either. Okay, but anyway, get your Ziplocs, not the Walmart brand. I don't even think I can close it. And anyway, the idea is if we would have thawed all those, if we had frozen all that together, it'd be too much for a serving. Serving— this doesn't take up that much room in the freezer. And I'll put our affiliate link to to Super Cubes in the description if you're interested. Austin will put it right there. I will not leave the link for those Amazon, uh, gallon freezer bags. I'm, I'm saying we're gonna go with Ziploc. Happy day.