Summer Garden Harvest | No Grocery Store Needed

It is time for a big garden harvest. We've got beets, we've got cabbages, we've got kale, we've got Swiss chard. And what else do we have? I think that's it. I think that's enough. Good morning, Early Bird! We're gonna harvest something. Yes, sir. We're gonna harvest Arun's garden. Yeah, Arun. First, moving the luchadors. And Jonah had a nice idea to get water to them easier. There's the luchadors. They move around back and forth in this field. Right next to them is this lane. Remember, we built this water supply line into this lane. We got a drinking safe hose. And we have a shutoff at the end of the hose. I don't think this hose will make it all the way. We need one more. Look at this, no more carrying buckets back and forth from the Luchador. Every day, in every way, we're getting better. Yeah, two chickens out, guys. Let's catch them. Let's mark them. These ones consistently getting out. Hold on, we'll all corner it. Papa, look over here! I believe I caught that chicken. Zip ties. Okay, this is your temporary jail till we can find you a new home. We're getting serious about these chickens that get out. We gotta keep those chickens in. So Arun has pulled up the bug netting. Let's get it out, Arun, and put it on the gravel to dry out. And then let's get everything that we're not going to save. Like, this is a good example, like lettuce. This bolted lettuce, we're not going to save that in any way. Chicken's lucky day. Second wheelbarrow load. I don't know if the chickens will eat more than one wheelbarrow of, of grubs a day, so I'm thinking we need to get that to the pigs. There's our cabbages, Mr. Brown. Now that one's fine. Well, You could maybe turn— pull that one off if you see any rotting leafage. Let's, uh, pull it off. The beautiful one is watering because it's gonna be blazing hot today. It was blazing hot yesterday.

The rain inside.

All right, like how you say sat. I like that. Turn into a true Southerner right there. I totally forgot to put the rooster with the other posse, but word on the street is we might have found us another rooster. Yes! A fat hen type of rooster. A buff Orpington. A calm big rooster, not an Icelandic rooster that gets as athletic as all get out. We harvested the last of the cabbages. Josiah, don't you think we ought to kiss the cabbage? Nope, he says. All right, one load of cabbages. We're gonna put these cabbages on the shelf just straight up. Didn't clean them, just dusted them off, and we're not gonna let them touch. That way if one spoils, it doesn't spoil the other one. This is spaced out nicely. All right, let's go see what's next. Man, I love that cool room. What do we got here? Oh my, and there's more mucho. I know, your teepee, Beck. I guess the kids aren't gonna go in it. You gotta go in it. Yep. Josiah, Lily, Gideon, come help harvest please. Swiss chard and kale. Come on, get in, we need some hard workers.

Can I spray all of this stuff?

Yes, when it's time. Let's get it all up here because the sprinkler is on the garden down there and on Kathy's garden. Let's, uh, let's get it all there and then take the water. Yes. Hey, you did a good job on the Swiss chard. Working this time. Spread it out and then get any roots or weeds out. Okay. Yep, see all that dirt in there? Spray that down. Let's rinse that soaking pail out. So this looks good. Wait, this here, sir? Yeah, see, stuff like that it's hard to get maybe with the nozzle. We'll get it by soaking it in water. All right, we've got this soaked and washed. We're gonna put it in there, put it in the cool room till Rebecca's ready to process it, blanch it, get it frozen. We're gonna do the same thing with the kale. Arun, I've got to go milk, but this is in good hands. And after this, Arun's gonna start working on the— look at this beet! We win, we win! We did good with the beets. We cut off the greens and we store this dirty as it is, I believe, in sand. All right, Arun's working on the beets. I got done milking. I'm gonna take a load, I'm gonna take a load of this stuff, Arun, to the pigs. Hey, look at my crew! We got a crew to take this stuff to the pigs. Where Okay guys, we'll go in just one second. The question of the day: why is this called Arun's Garden? Well, this is Arun. If you don't remember, in 2017 we went on the Great American Farm Tour and Arun farm-sat for us. Well, we didn't have a farm anymore, we liquidated that, but we did have a house and you house-sat for us. I did gardening exactly right here and there. When we come back and took it— when we came back and took it over He went on, did other things, and we just called this Arun's garden. It's funny talking to you because I'm like, oh, let's go harvest Arun's garden. We're very thankful for Arun. He does a lot for us on this farm. We have hired him as a farmhand. He needs the job, we need the help. It's a great combo. Uh, we love— we're lifelong friends, been friends for a long time. How long have we been friends with Arun?

Well, I've been friends with Amy, his wife, for over 12 years because I was pregnant with Jonah when I met her. And then you guys have been married for 7 years?

8.

8.

Yeah.

So I've known him for— I— we didn't meet until after you guys came back to the States.

First time I met you guys, but we used to Skype.

Yeah, we used to, we used to talk on the computer. Yeah, because they were in India and we were here. Yeah, so I met him over the computer then, but then we didn't meet you till 2013.

Yep.

Okay, in person.

Okay, another popular question I get about this garden is, why don't we ever see Arun in this— in Arun's garden? Well, today you get that. I hope you got your fill. Arun all up in his garden today.

Well, also, one of the reasons we call it Arun's garden— I don't know if you've said this— was that, um, after we got back from the tour, we let him have this garden.

Yeah. Oh, that's right, that's right. It wasn't just while we were gone, correct?

It was because when we came back, all right, they wanted to grow food still.

That's right.

And we said, well, you can use this garden.

That's right. So now we've almost harvested this completely. Hopefully, Rebecca, we might cover this this afternoon.

Well, okay, wait, we got to, um, don't we have—

I know we have to shape. We have to shape and put compost down, but this needs to be covered until then.

We could cover it and then when we get the compost—

exactly. Here, then we'll shape it because we don't need to shape now, then throw compost.

Yeah, because I really do not— like, we learned our lesson in the garden. Yeah, yeah, no, you gotta shape before you cover it because we had to shape after.

That just starts—

we forgot, and it was— it's been a nightmare with the weeds in that garden. That garden has been the worst garden this year. So I'm like, I literally want to pull it back and then just plant in it and not—

yeah.

Disturb the soil much.

Yep.

So Azariah was like, Gideon, do you want a smoothie? And Gideon was like, is it organic? And Azariah was like, yeah. So then Gideon goes, so what's in it? And Azariah said, blueberries, bananas, milk, and probiotics. And you know probiotics are good for you, Gideon. So then Gideon goes, are the blueberries organic? Azariah said yes. Are the bananas organic? Azariah says yes. And is it our milk? And Azariah goes, yeah, it's your milk. And he goes, okay, I'll take one. So then I give it to him and I'm like, is it good? And he's like, yeah, it's so good. I said, it's not organic. And he goes, really? I said, I'm just kidding.

Almost done. When we go, sometimes we buy from Whole Foods. Yeah, like, no, they're not even so big. They're like kind of— you can see like this. Yeah, it's 4. Like around maybe like $3 because they also wear this also, you know. Wow, well that's a lot of money right there. Yeah, I know. Hey Rebecca, do you want beet greens this morning? Yeah, I want beet greens. All right, we're gonna see. Orin's wanting to cover that when he's done. I was gonna see if we have a tarp. We're supposed to label these tarps. That's it, it's labeled and it's right there. Oh my word. It comes handy labeling it because otherwise you got to get them all out, spread them out, find the right one, hold the wrong ones back. This— that was easy. There it is. You want to cover whole thing? Yes, sir. You see these wooden stakes? Yep, from wooden stake to wooden stake, and then put those, uh, sandbags on it. Okay, I put them back. Oh, okay, that's okay. Yeah. That's okay. We'll— yeah, bring them up, cover it real nicely, and that way no more weeds will start coming. You think they'll eat it? Well, I think it'll give them something to do. Oh wow, it looks like a stick. You guys should have— Do you not see how he looks like a stick? Oh my gosh, it's okay. That's camouflage to keep him safe.

So crazy.

And if part of why they were getting out is boredom, well, this will give them something to do. Breakfast crew, let's get us some— How about let's have beet greens and cabbage on today's episode of Burn It Up Cooking Show. We gotta cook eggs. Beet greens. Let me see it. That's a good knife. So we've rough washed this. We're gonna wash it again. You cut it like Swiss chard, really, stem and all. Okay, just cut it into little bite-sized pieces.

All right, I like Swiss chard.

And that does—

well, this tastes a little like Swiss.

It tastes a little bit like Swiss chard. Josiah is cutting up the cabbages. Lily's gonna do the beets. Now that we've cut it up, wash it again. So you got the pan— you got the pan for this, or the bowl? Thank you. Rinsing it out, and then we're gonna soak it. We're gonna like triple wash this thing. Put it in there. This is just a standard salad spinner. Meanwhile, let's get our cabbage cooking. Josiah, can everybody say copious amounts of butter?

Copious amounts of butter.

Agitate it a little bit. Now I want to show you guys something. It's a little purple, but look at all that dirt. Nice. Will you pump that for me, Jonah? Putting in our salad spinner, get it dry off. Can you say copious amounts of butter? Oh no, I can't. Put on the brake. That doesn't work. Something's wrong with our brake. It's this one.

It's this.

Oh, that's the— that holds this down. Yeah, here's my brakes. All right, is that just too much butter? Never. We're getting near the end. We are starting to burn it up, Lily. I start smelling it. We actually are cooking some. We're living up to its name. Yep, see, we're losing some of this. We gotta add more butter. See, I didn't put enough butter. Grandma just told me the other trick is just to turn it down. It wouldn't be Burn It Up Cooking Show if we didn't— high heat all the time. High heat or nothing. High heat or bust. Hey, I don't remember, did I add salt to this? Yeah, I put some salt in here. Okay, then you put salt in the cabbage?

No.

Okay, do that. What? Nice. That's so heavy. That's a lot of dollar bills and beets. Oh yeah. Oh my, it is done. This looks delish. Look, hey Teddy. Hey Jonah, hang on one second, buddy. We've got fried cabbage. Look how purple and green and red and green. That's so beautiful. Fresh eggs from the farm. All right, some leftover ham from the farm. Man, this is delish. Look at you, go enjoy that. Thanks for helping. How is it, everybody? Whoa, watch Teddy! Watch Teddy! How is it? Mom's already ate it. Gone back in, back to work. Uh, looks like Jonah's already eaten it.

Can I be done? I'm gonna go get some more meat. Yeehaw!

Arun, you did it! Arun's garden is covered and ready for compost. Afternoon chores. Okay, they have a little bit left there. We're gonna weigh the turkeys just to see where they're at, see if we're— they're getting too big for that bucket, I think.

Oh my gosh. Okay, 11, 10, just a 10-pound.

So that, that one was 13 and a half. You want me to catch one more?

14, 13.

Okay, so 13. So maybe if he was 14, that'd be 4 pounds. Although he'd be 10 pounds in the free freezer. And we have—

so we'll just probably— it'll probably be a week later.

Wow, what a shame. So close. Sorry, we're trying to time it with the Sea Monster butchering, uh, which is not a week from today. Yeah, they won't be ready in a week, will they? No.

There's some poop right there.

It would have been easier to do it because everything will be set up. Actually, we'll probably— if it's only gonna be a week later, we'll just leave it all out. As for the Sea Monsters, Wow, I don't think they're gonna— yeah, I think they will certainly be ready at their 8-week birthday. Big boy, 7.5 pounds means if it's— let's say it's 8 pounds, that's 6 pounds in your freezer. Holy smoke. Do you want me to get any other ones? They seem— that seemed like a big one.

Yeah, that's good.

But like, they might beat last year. I think they might beat the spring weight because it's hotter and so they're sitting around more. Yeah, what do you think?

Probably.

It's kind of cool because they're not eating as much and getting fatter.