Watch My Food Grow ~ A South Florida Raised Vegetable Garden

Florida Backyard Raised Vegetable Garden

First Harvest of the Spring Season

April 24th, 2014 by Lila Steinhoff

Spring Garden

In South Florida, there are two growing seasons… the first begins in October and ends in February; the second begins toward the end of February and goes until about mid-June.

raised garden boxes

 Planted Raised Garden Boxes

B-I-G Bunch of Green Beans

The first of the produce has just come in. In the last two days, I picked three gallons!!! of green beans from just ten Blue Lake Green Bean plants. There were also tomatoes, long Italian eggplant and dark Black Beauty (or classic) eggplant.

green beans, tomatoes, eggplant

 Green Beans, Tomatoes, Eggplant

The bowl pictured here holds six quarts, and the basket holds one gallon. I filled the bowl with green beans twice. I picked nine Italian eggplant and one classic eggplant.

Prolific Production

I gave away two gallon bags of green beans yesterday, and cooked half of the remaining ones for supper tonight.

green beans

Green Beans

If they keep producing at this rate,  I will be canning green beans again this year.

I will have to find a few more recipes for eggplant, too, because none of the people I usually give my extra produce to likes eggplant.

eggplant

 Eggplant

And, there are going to be a whole lot more.

 

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6 responses so far ↓

  • The vegies look wonderful!
    The real question is ….how do you cook your Green Beans?….long and slow with pork fat or fast and not much, so they are crispy.
    Egg plant…where to begin, well there is always eggplant parm….fried egg plant, grilled with garlic with olive oil, eggplant boiled mashed ad spices for salsa….mmmm…and FRIED egg plant using corn meal, egg batter in mazola oil with a little pepper and sea salt….and that’s about all I know about Egg Plant.

    • Terry,

      I prefer my green beans cooked in a wok with a little garlic until they are just a second or two past crispy. Second favorite is to pour the ones I’ve canned into a skillet with crispy bacon pieces and fried onions. Just heat them up.

      Thanks for more ideas for eggplant. This is the first year growing eggplant, and I am limited on my eggplant recipes.skills.

  • Hi Lila, it’s so much fun to read about your garden! Have you ever made Ratatouille? Cube eggplant, sweet peppers, onion, zuccini, squash and tomato. Cook until soft with lots of garlic and salt and pepper. It should come out like a vegetable Ragu. You need quite a few tomatoes (can use canned ones too). It’s delish and keeps a long time!! : ))

  • Wow! Looks amazing!!! I love eggplants, you can make a stew with eggplants, potatoes, peas, tomato, season with ginger, red chili powder, coriander, & sugar.
    Do you ever sell your surplus fruits and veggies =)

    • Parul,

      Thank you for another suggestion for using my eggplants. I am finding that they work very well in places I hadn’t expected… pasta dishes, for instance.

      As for selling my produce… my garden is just large enough to feed me and a few friends and relatives. I don’t really have a surplus big enough to sell.

      However, my herbs grow too well. Even though I use a lot myself, I have to cut them back often. I regularly give my excess fresh herbs to several local chefs.