Hello, Reader,

We are beyond grateful that right now on our farm, we're getting the following from our garden so far:

• 1 lb of beans/day
• 5 lbs of tomatoes/day
• cucumbers
• blackberries
• raspberries
• peppers
• corn
• small Japanese tiger melons

and we're spoiled for herbs on top of it.

I was out weighing today's tomato harvest from our research beds, where we've been comparing compost tea, organic fertilizer, and an untreated control on Cherokee Purple tomatoes. The verdict so far: compost tea-treated is the most abundant by weight.

Maybe you're drowning in harvest too, or you bought too much of something at the market and now it's staring at you from the counter. So what do you do with all that abundance?

3 Ways to Deal with Bounty

1. Use what you can. Simplify your meals instead of overcomplicating them. Mozzarella over tomato and basil. A smoothie with microgreens, stone fruit, and berries. Real, unprocessed food is the easy choice right now, not the hard one.
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   That said, we are also making nettle tarts and tomato sauces because they use up a lot of tomato and our ever abundant stinging nettle.
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2. Give to those in need. We've been giving beans to neighbors, family, and friends. But a nearby farmer (thanks, Doug) also pointed us to a local food bank that takes drop-offs every other Saturday, so our overflow is going somewhere that matters.
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3. Preserve your harvest. This one I'm worst at. Right now I take for granted that I can walk out and grab any herb I want, basil, Thai basil, sage, oregano, mint, thyme, lavender, rosemary, for whatever I'm cooking. I'm lazy about harvesting enough to dry for winter. Between weeding and getting the kids to school on time, it's easy to let this slide. Writing this is as much a reminder to myself as it is to you.

That's exactly why next Tuesday we'll have some real help.

Emily Jacobs, a registered dietitian and nutritionist with the VA Cooperative Extension, is walking us through food preservation in detail, and this class is part of a series of food education classes she's running.

I'll admit I'm enjoying them more than I expected. Every time we have pancakes now, it's with a blueberry lavender jam I made with Emily's guidance.

Register below, and a grocery list will go out ahead of time so you can ferment right alongside us Tuesday night.

Hope to see you then.
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Grow abundantly!

Nicky (& Dave, who is outside harvesting beans)

PS. Just curious, but what's coming out of your garden right now, Reader.