How Does Your Garden Grow: First Harvest

My gardening project has been such an experiment for me this year. I really have had no idea what I’m doing and I’m learning as I go. I keep my little gardening notebook handy so I can jot down my notes so next year I will have a handy cheat sheet. I also google questions that I have… a lot! This week I had to do a little google research about my spinach. And I didn’t like the answer.

I learned that I had let it go too long without harvesting it and it bolted (gone to seed) and once it’s bolted it is apparently too bitter to eat. Sad day for me. But I guess that is what happens with experiments. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. But I have learned something and next time it will be better!

Once I learned that little piece of information about my spinach, I wondered about my other plants. I didn’t even know of such a thing as bolting so I figured I better look into a bit. Which brings me to today and my first harvest. Once I looked into cilantro and basil I learned that to keep it growing and not letting it go to seed too early I need to prune it regularly. So I pruned my cilantro a bit today with the hopes that it will keep growing. The basil can wait a bit yet but the cilantro was ready for a bit of pruning. And I’m super excited about it.

It’s not a ton of cilantro, only about a half cup, but it’s something :) And I grew it, all by myself. I can hardly believe it. This is from a girl who, in the past, has killed many house plants. It’s pretty amazing!

My plan is to try the freezer method to save it a bit longer. I really want to use it for fresh salsa but I have to wait until my tomatoes are ready. So, I’m going to chop it up and measure it out into ice cube trays. Then I will add water and freeze it until my tomatoes are ready. Then I can just add an ice cube to my salsa and it will be like having fresh herbs! If I can harvest enough cilantro we can hopefully have fresh cilantro in our salsa and other recipes all year long. Wouldn’t that be sweet?!

Has anyone tried this method of freezing herbs? I hope it works!!