The Hardest Part About Gardening

 
NoSmoke
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Post by NoSmoke » Fri. Sep. 29, 2017 6:00 am

It is a lofty goal and one that should be applauded, but sometimes I feel like snickering at people when they announce that they are going to have a 2 acre garden and grow all their own food. Don't get me wrong, we grow our fair share of our own food, and honestly we should; we got the equipment, manure and know-how to do so, so we should. However there is one tough part of gardening and food that is difficult; preserving it.

Canning is really hot work in the dead of summer when it is already hot, canning supplies are expensive, it takes considerable time, and finding space for all those canning jars can be difficult. Cold storage is not much better. I know we should have a root cellar, but I struggle with taking the time and money to build one, when the food we store in our cold mudroom does not work as is. Bushels of apples and peaches look fine, then...the entire bushel seems to go bad over night. We have done well with freezing stuff, but that can get expensive to run, has limited space and reduces flavor.

Don't get me wrong, I am not laughing at those who want to produce more of their own food, it is really in the best interest of everyone if they do. But I think sometimes in the excitement of growing things...which is exciting...people forget the hard part...food preservation. I just cannot imagine my ancestors who might lose food in poor storage conditions and could not go to the store and pick up their provisions like I can when things fail.

Does any one else struggle with this issue? I would say probably half of what we produce is left on the vine inadvertently, gets taken by pests, or does not make it through storage. Sad I know, but we really struggle in this area.


 
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Post by CapeCoaler » Fri. Sep. 29, 2017 9:33 am

Storage and keeping the food in good condition...
Main reason there is no garden for now...
But the kids are going to be 6 this summer...
So the garden will be put in...
Good life skills even if the garden is not huge...

 
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Post by Sunny Boy » Fri. Sep. 29, 2017 9:44 am

Yup, we do some.

Melissa grew up with her mother (the local school Home Ec teacher) doing a lot of canning. They had a vegetable garden and fruit trees. Their house goes back to the 1700's with a hand-laid stone foundation. The basement is always cool like a root cellar, so they stored the canned foods there. My house is the same.

We do canning, but only pickling in summer. The hot canning is done when the weather turns cold. And we don't try to can enough to not need trips to the super market. As far as savings we reuse the jars and lid bands only having to replace the lids, so, eventually, that helps keep costs down. And we only do the canning when the coal range is running anyway so the cooking heat is not a factor.

We grow lots of black raspberries here. Picked in July and put right into zip-locks and the freezer, to be canned in late Fall. Our house in Saratoga has a peach tree that was loaded this year. Melissa cuts them up and we freeze those to make peach jam later, also.

And if the super markets are running sales on things like oranges we'll buy up a lot, prep and freeze and later make marmalade jam.

Then there's lots of free fruits/berries to make jams and jellies, if you know where to look. We were fishing on the bank of the upper Hudson River and found a wild grape tree. Fish weren't biting anyway so we spent an hour picking grapes and putting them in shopping bags we keep in the car for just that purpose. Made the most flavorful grape jelly I've ever had !!!!!

And yes it's a lot of work, but with the two of us we have a system where each does his job and it makes it much easier. It's a fun way to spend an afternoon together in a warm kitchen. An added benefit for us is that the results seem to taste better than "store bought", too. ;)

Paul

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Post by warminmn » Fri. Sep. 29, 2017 11:43 am

Your making me hungry!

I freeze a lot of stuff too. I'll add sweetcorn to your list SB. Blanched and froze it can wait a couple years to can if need be. But it does take lots of freezer space and wrapping things well. Ive never really noticed any taste loss as long as anything frozen doesnt get freezer burned. I wish i could grow peaches here as I dont like buying things in a store to preserve.

I have gallons and gallons of wild grapes i do nothing with but maybe this will be the year.... wine would be good, maybe too good.

 
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Post by Sunny Boy » Fri. Sep. 29, 2017 12:38 pm

Makes us hungry, too. That's why you see a half empty jar in the picture of the marmalade batch. I always have to test for quality, ..... and as you can see by how much is left in that jar, that batch had a lot of quality !!!!! :D

Paul

 
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Post by scalabro » Fri. Sep. 29, 2017 7:18 pm

I've had large vegetable gardens since I was a kid and the hardest part lately is justifying the cost of it. There are lots of local veg farms that do crop share agreements and believe it or not, when my time is factored in (read as opportunity cost), it's way less expensive to do the CSA.

What I could justify is collecting wild 🍇 and making Grappa😜👍

 
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Post by coaledsweat » Fri. Sep. 29, 2017 8:02 pm

Getting sick of feeding the deer and rabbits.


 
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Post by NoSmoke » Sat. Sep. 30, 2017 5:41 am

I was surprised this year, we had a woodchuck not too far away from our garden but we could never seem to send him down the .410 highway. We did put up the cheapest, shortest fence made of 4 feet of chicken wire, dug 1 foot into the ground. Surprisingly it kept him and our chickens out. All I am saying is that I was surprised such a cheap, meager fence worked...but our garden is well away from deer.

 
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Post by Sunny Boy » Sat. Sep. 30, 2017 6:39 am

We don't have a fence around the garden.

Spotted a woodchuck in the garden last year that gave me doubts about not having a fence,..... until I went out and checked the garden. The chuck had chewed the leaves off several dandelion plants, but I didn't see any evidence of it going after the vegetables. Next day, more dandelions eaten down to ground level.

That chuck earned the right to stay. ;)

So far, the only real critter damage we've had is last winter the deer ate my blueberry bushes right down to ground level. :evil:

Paul

 
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Post by rberq » Sat. Sep. 30, 2017 9:01 am

scalabro wrote:
Fri. Sep. 29, 2017 7:18 pm
I've had large vegetable gardens since I was a kid and the hardest part lately is justifying the cost of it. There are lots of local veg farms that do crop share agreements and believe it or not, when my time is factored in (read as opportunity cost), it's way less expensive to do the CSA.
Same here. No pesticides ever in my garden. By the time I buy row-cover fabric to keep the bugs off, hay to mulch with, seeds, tools, and my labor – I can go to the local organic farm and get better product and spend less money. Those folks deserve every cent they charge for their hard work.

Preservation? Freezer only for us. My mother did the canning route big time, but even she switched over to the freezer once Freon was invented.
Last edited by rberq on Sat. Sep. 30, 2017 5:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.

 
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Post by tsb » Sat. Sep. 30, 2017 11:49 am

We did the full pioneer routine when the kids were at home to help, but with the two of us we only have a small early garden between the building and the road. When that gets shaded, we pull what's left and plant flowers for the summer. From then on it's CSA all the way. They cater to the organic crowd a little too much, but it's still easier than doing it yourself. The CSA offers a fruit share so we still make applesauce for the freezer.

 
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Post by brandonh98 » Sat. Sep. 30, 2017 10:33 pm

This is the very reason I only have a 8'x16' garden..and even with that I end up giving vegetables away.

Very similar to hunting. The work starts once you pull the trigger.

 
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Post by NoSmoke » Sun. Oct. 01, 2017 5:06 am

Sunny Boy wrote:
Fri. Sep. 29, 2017 9:44 am
Yup, we do some.

Melissa grew up with her mother (the local school Home Ec teacher) doing a lot of canning. They had a vegetable garden and fruit trees. Their house goes back to the 1700's with a hand-laid stone foundation. The basement is always cool like a root cellar, so they stored the canned foods there. My house is the same.

We do canning, but only pickling in summer. The hot canning is done when the weather turns cold. And we don't try to can enough to not need trips to the super market. As far as savings we reuse the jars and lid bands only having to replace the lids, so, eventually, that helps keep costs down. And we only do the canning when the coal range is running anyway so the cooking heat is not a factor.

We grow lots of black raspberries here. Picked in July and put right into zip-locks and the freezer, to be canned in late Fall. Our house in Saratoga has a peach tree that was loaded this year. Melissa cuts them up and we freeze those to make peach jam later, also.

And if the super markets are running sales on things like oranges we'll buy up a lot, prep and freeze and later make marmalade jam.

Then there's lots of free fruits/berries to make jams and jellies, if you know where to look. We were fishing on the bank of the upper Hudson River and found a wild grape tree. Fish weren't biting anyway so we spent an hour picking grapes and putting them in shopping bags we keep in the car for just that purpose. Made the most flavorful grape jelly I've ever had !!!!!

And yes it's a lot of work, but with the two of us we have a system where each does his job and it makes it much easier. It's a fun way to spend an afternoon together in a warm kitchen. An added benefit for us is that the results seem to taste better than "store bought", too. ;)

Paul
We love our new cook range for canning, and while it is a gas range, it was built in 1913. Considering these were the replacements for the old wood and coal stoves of the day, the ladies of the house that worked them expected them to be similar to what they had.

On our stove you can see that in the height of it. It is 6 inches shorter which of course lends itself to peering over deep pots, and reducing how high a big pot of water has to be lifted.

Another thing we noted about this was its grates, it is about 16 inches square which of course was the size of a galvanized metal washtub. Will all four burners going it would not take much time to get laundry boiling on the stove. Naturally we do not do that; I make Katie beat the clothing for all 6 in this family on a rock down by the stream, but all joking aside this thing can bring water to a boil almost instantly.

In some ways we would love to use the oven portion of it, but because it is uninsulated and tucked into a counter spot, we do not dare do so. We are afraid the radiant heat from the oven might be too much, and cause a fire. So we just use it as a stove top.

But for canning, this stove is unbelievable.
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NoSmoke
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Post by NoSmoke » Sun. Oct. 01, 2017 5:10 am

We put our garden to bed for the year, and while some today my disagree, we plow under the vegetation, add a layer of sheep manure/compost and let it sit until tilling next year. I know that no-till is all the rage now, but I seem to have better luck busting sod; don't beat me up for it though. I might even add a bit of lime to the garden, and maybe add some 05-13-41 I have kicking around.

 
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Post by keegs » Tue. Dec. 26, 2017 12:09 pm

I've participated in or maintained my own vegetable garden most years since childhood. I do a lot of the cooking now and so I lean on recipes with ingredients I can source from the garden while it's producing. Kale, peas, lettuce, string beans, zucchini, regular, plum and cherry tomatoes, peppers and chilies, beet greens, spinach.... produce from early August through Sept. Keeping an eye out for new recipes or simply chopping those vegetables larger or smaller keeps it interesting.

Some vegetables freeze better than others. I avoid freezing snap peas which isn't too much trouble because they're so good fresh from the vine but kale, when quickly blanched and frozen holds its flavor and texture.

Some root vegetables like beets, potatoes and turnips... almost take care of themselves once harvested. Carrots last a long time in the crisper.

For many years we half cultivated wild raspberries, blackberries and blueberries that grew in the yard. We would do syrup and preserves.

We both like San Marzano plum tomatoes. It's a lot of work canning them but I do it over the 4-6 weeks that the plants are producing and so it's a few hours for each batch which isn't too bad. And knowing that that work will pay dividends throughout winter and spring almost makes it easy.

I guess my take on it is to try to be flexible with how we consume what we grow which may not always involve preserving..... knowing that there's always the produce section at the local grocery. :)
Last edited by keegs on Tue. Dec. 26, 2017 1:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.


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