Having a fresh, off the vine veggies just out the back door is a dream come true.  But it can be overwhelming.  Even a small garden plot can produce faster than we can gobble it all down.  Instead of tossing rotting tomatoes, or throwing out shriveling peppers, find a way to share!

It’s been wonderful to have a garden this year!  We had such high hopes for our garden of 2014, all of which came to a halt when our baby came three weeks early, literally the day after I brought my veggie starts home. They baked and dried up out there on my back patio while I was in labor and delivery.  By the time we started to settle in a little as a new family the garden had been long forgotten, and it was too late to start tomatoes anyway.

2015 has been a completely different story.  Over the past few weeks I’ve sampled raspberries from by newly planted bushes, plucked Anaheim peppers, and drooled over my very first vine ripened tomato of the season.  But most of all there has been the zucchini.  At first it was amazing, I’d check my plants every day and pick the squash at its perfection.  We grilled, diced, marinaded, baked, sauteed, and cooked in every delicious way imaginable.  And then came the end of July.  Suddenly our 5  plants started doubling production.  Last week we had a few very exciting, garden neglecting days while my husband was interviewing for an amazing new job.  After all the excitement was over, and the new job finalized {wahoo!} I finally wandered out to the garden where I was accosted by nearly a dozen club-sized zucchini. That’s both an overwhelming quantity and size.  Thankfully I knew how to handle the situation.

At the park across from the street we’ve got a “Share the Harvest Cart” where anyone can drop of extra produce and you’re welcome to take as you please.  It was here that we deposited all of our very large zucchini.  I wasn’t quite sure if anyone wanted them since they were so big.  I definitely prefer mine smaller than a rolling pin, but I was hoping there would be some avid zucchini bread makers out there who would enjoy.  We weren’t disappointed, when taking the baby for  a pre-bedtime stroll later that same evening we walked past the cart and to our delight all the zucchini were gone.

5 Easy Ways to Share your Garden Produce

1. Social Media.  Post a picture of a basket of extra veggies of facebook, twitter or instagram.  Comments and requests for your delicious tomatoes or juicy peaches will continue to come long after they’ve been claimed and eaten. #firstcomefirstserve
2. Homemade veggie stand.  These can be as adorable as the cart in our park or as simple as a table with a “free veggies” sign.  Extra produce put out on your front yard can be easily found and appreciated.  Who knows, you might inspire your neighbors and create a mini free farmers market on your street.
3. Community share stations. If you are wondering if your community sponsors a share the harvest program like mine check with your local parks and recreation department.  If they don’t have one, consider spearheading the implementation of a community produce sharing program.

Have any other ideas for how to share your bountiful harvest? Comment below!

Green onions are the best.  I love how they add a similar flavor to traditional onions without the sweat and tears.   They’re just so darn convenient.  I don’t even whip out the cutting board, just a pair of scissors.  I can snip the desired amount into scrambled eggs, bread dough, salads, or homemade pizza without breaking stride in my dinner preparations.  Most grocery stores sell them in little bunches of about six or seven which lately hasn’t been enough to get me from one shopping trip to the next.

So this past week I decided to work some propagation magic and see exactly what I could get out of the six skinny stalks from the grocery store.  When it comes to the culinary, green onions and lettuce have a lot in common. The most delicious and desirable  parts of these two plants  are  the leaves, which makes them a perfect plant for propagation because of their speedy maturity.

Let’s get all botanical for a second.   All  fruits are created by the sexual reproductive parts of the plants {the flowers}.  Once the flower is fertilized the plant’s ovary matures into a fruity structure destined to carry the ovules or seeds.  Then there’s veggies like potatoes and carrots where we’re eating the root of the plant.  With plants like green onions however, we’re eating the leaves of the photosynthetic part of the plant.  With roots still attached, the plant is able to continue to produce leafy deliciousness and there’s no waiting for a flower to develop into a fruit.

The process is simple.  I grabbed some green onions from the produce section of the grocery store and removed any damaged/wilty looking outer leaves.  Unhealthy pieces would decay quickly in water and encourage the growth of smelly bacteria.  For my container I just used a small canning jar.  I wanted something short so that as my onions grew I could snip them down easily, without combating the sides of the container with my scissors.  But really any jar/vase/cup would do.   Make sure to chose something fairly narrow though, so that once the stems are trimmed they can lean up against the sides of the container and wont fall horizontal into the water.

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I snipped my onions about 2 1/2 inches from the base, making sure to leave the little roots intact.  The tops were sliced up and added to a variety of yummy things including pasta salad, paninis, and some fettuccine over the next couple days.

Exactly one week later my onions looked like this:

Remember, the onions will drink the water so checking the water level every few days is important.  I’ve had this batch in my kitchen for about four weeks.  I cut off of them at least every other day but I’m finding that they don’t produce nearly as quick as they used to.  The reason for this is that while they’re receiving plenty of water, they’re not getting supplemented by other nutrients.    Rotating them out for a new batch every six to eight weeks will result in a consistent supply of green onions.