Vegetable Garden

[MissouriExile]

I went to Wal Mart with my Wife yesterday afternoon because I had a craving for a boiled supper. (corned beef, cabbage, carrots, celery, potatoes)

I was shocked at the prices on vegetables. (Wife has insulated me for years by doing the shopping)

A small bag of red potatoes (1-2 lbs) was $3.29. The other vegetables were just as expensive.
The vegetables altogether cost as much as the large corned beef.

When I was a kid in Tennessee most vegetables were grown in the 1-2 acre garden and canned or frozen for the winter. Harvesting potatoes was done with a mule team dragging a framework of railroad ties with spikes on the bottom and a gang of kids riding on top for weight.

Is it time for that again? How many folks grow and preserve most of their vegetables?

Jon

 

[Hippie Rancher]

It IS time for that again. It is an act of revolution as serious as not watching television though, so be careful. The corporations don't like you to think for or feed yourself.

I quit the tv and do grow summer vegetables (especially tomatos) but need to work on a bigger growing area. We get short on water in the summer so that is another of my excuses. (not a great one, but real heh heh)

 

[Lammie]

I am going to get serious about it this next spring. Larger garden, and canning. I haven't seen prices like that on 'taters, but it makes sense with the price of everything involving petrolium going up. Plus, everyone is going to hop on the band wagon and raise prices while they can use oil as an excuse.

All our veggies used to be put up, too. My mom kept taters in the crawl space under the house where it was dark and dry. Onions were hung up everywhere. Tomaters were canned or frozen. So were green beans and all kinds of fruit. Jams and jellies. Kept us busy all summer. This summer I put up green beans and squash. Gonna do better next year.

 

[backhoeboogie]

I spent too many hours on the end of a hoe as a kid. There was a hoe in the rack at the edge of the garden and I had to hoe two rows, minimum, every day. For now, I'll keep buying fresh veggies from the maw and paw produce stand.

The only way to get boysenberry jelly that is worthy is to grow your own berries. I do that. The store bought boysenberry jelly just doesn't cut it.

 

[ROB]

we put out garden every year. we can tomatoes, green beans, freeze sweet corn, and sometimes do potatoes to store for the winter. with the tomatoes, we do juice and whole tomatoes, lots of salsa (mild to hot) and sometimes spaghetti sauce. i have no idea how much we save by doing this, but the quality of home grown produce makes it all worthwhile.

ROB

 

[Gate Opener]

I haven't had a garden in a couple of years. I tried to grow all of what we like except back then I didn't have room for peas, Watermelon and Cantaloupe. I canned pears and fig preserves sometimes Strawberry.

I am going to try and get a garden going this year. I miss having the fresh veggies and now I have a big garden area. I have also noticed how high vegetables and other foods are.

 

[chrisy]

here they are blaming the floods we had a few month ago, on the high prices, shame I haven't got anywhere that I can grow my own. I do grow tomatoes and runner beans in pots. A 2lb bag of potatoes here are around £2.49 that would be $3.99.

 

[MistyMorning]

we put out garden every year. we can tomatoes, green beans, freeze sweet corn, and sometimes do potatoes to store for the winter. with the tomatoes, we do juice and whole tomatoes, lots of salsa (mild to hot) and sometimes spaghetti sauce. i have no idea how much we save by doing this, but the quality of home grown produce makes it all worthwhile.

ROB

I do pretty much the same as ROB. I did have a really nice lettuce and greens garden too this past summer. Also do herbs and dry them. The worst thing about winter is having to buy vegies from the store. Most don't taste like anything!

 

[Running Arrow Bill]

Had a garden this year. Last year was too dern windy to grow anything. Basically this year just grew cantaloupes, green beans, tomatoes, and peppers.

Learned a lesson on cantaloupes: When they begin to form, put straw or hay under the fruits. Keeps the bottoms from rotting next to ground.

Going to move the garden for 2008. Couldn't keep weeds and grass under control, even with spot spraying before and during with roundup.

Plan for 2008: Layout a patch, roundup on grass, remove dead grass. Put landscape fabric down. Make retainer on perimeter with crossties. Fill inside with soil & some rabbit manure mix we have. Make sure tomato stalks are supported UP so tomatos don't touch ground and rot. Lots of space between rows and others. Make sure can weed, pick stuff without stepping on other stuff.

Hope for better luck in 2008...lol.

BTW: Produce in supermarkets is a crap shoot. Especially potatos: Too much "green" found on them: Think stores use special kind of lighting to disguise "green" skin from showing and when you get them home...10-20% waste from cutting off the "poisonous" green part of potatos.

 

[show steer up]

I have a black thumb. Everything I try to grow dies. Its always too much water, not enough water, I just cant get it right. I tried canning a few years back and screwed that up too.
Im sticking to the metal cart method, its not as good tasting but works for me.

 

[angie1]

I have a black thumb. Everything I try to grow dies. Its always too much water, not enough water, I just cant get it right. I tried canning a few years back and screwed that up too.
Im sticking to the metal cart method, its not as good tasting but works for me.

Hey, here you are, I was just looking for you SSU, come see what I have behind this 8 horse trailor........... (where is icon with little guy rubbing hands together).

 

[angie1]

I planted a huge garden and every thing in it was FANTASTIC ~ just ask my chickens :roll:
I can't keep them out of it. So I, like BHB, buy at local veggie stand.

 

[KNERSIE]

I went to Wal Mart with my Wife yesterday afternoon because I had a craving for a boiled supper. (corned beef, cabbage, carrots, celery, potatoes)

I was shocked at the prices on vegetables. (Wife has insulated me for years by doing the shopping)

A small bag of red potatoes (1-2 lbs) was $3.29. The other vegetables were just as expensive.
The vegetables altogether cost as much as the large corned beef.

When I was a kid in Tennessee most vegetables were grown in the 1-2 acre garden and canned or frozen for the winter. Harvesting potatoes was done with a mule team dragging a framework of railroad ties with spikes on the bottom and a gang of kids riding on top for weight.

Is it time for that again? How many folks grow and preserve most of their vegetables?

Jon

This is completely off topic, but since Missouriexile brought this, I've got to ask.

Does anyone have a good recipe for corned beef. Its something I never ever see in SA, but it was very common when i used to live in the UK for a few years.

It must be my English ancestry, but I love corened beef.

 

[novatech]

Now you got me craving a Cornbeef Rubin Sandwich.

 

[grannysoo]

Food has gone up a lot in price over the last year. I have done our grocery shopping for years and can tell you that it has changed.

As long as oil continues to be high, everything will be high.

(Diesel fuel, fertilize, food, etc.)

 

[mermill2]

We grow tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, peppers, cabbages, eggplants, cantalopes, watermelons, and pumpkins. We also have a patch of turnips for greens and turnips. We grow eveything in tubs and patches. Haven't grown a regular row garden in years. Plus, we have lots of wild brambles, raspberries and blackberries, and paw paws on the farm.

 

[show steer up]

o.k.

brambles, paw paws :?: :?:

 

[backhoeboogie]

paw paws :?: :?:

"Way down yonder in the paw paw patch" ?

"Picking up paw paws, puttin 'em in his pocket. Picking up paw paws, puttin 'em in his pocket"

I can still hear my great grandma singing that song to me nearly 50 years later.

 

[john250]

o.k.

brambles, paw paws :?: :?:

Paw Paws (aka Indiana bananas) are wild fruit, actually quite tasty.
Brambles are any of the wild berries.

 

[MissouriExile]

I went to Wal Mart with my Wife yesterday afternoon because I had a craving for a boiled supper. (corned beef, cabbage, carrots, celery, potatoes)

I was shocked at the prices on vegetables. (Wife has insulated me for years by doing the shopping)

A small bag of red potatoes (1-2 lbs) was $3.29. The other vegetables were just as expensive.
The vegetables altogether cost as much as the large corned beef.

When I was a kid in Tennessee most vegetables were grown in the 1-2 acre garden and canned or frozen for the winter. Harvesting potatoes was done with a mule team dragging a framework of railroad ties with spikes on the bottom and a gang of kids riding on top for weight.

Is it time for that again? How many folks grow and preserve most of their vegetables?

Jon

This is completely off topic, but since Missouriexile brought this, I've got to ask.

Does anyone have a good recipe for corned beef. Its something I never ever see in SA, but it was very common when i used to live in the UK for a few years.

It must be my English ancestry, but I love corened beef.

We bought a packaged "Corned Beef" (pre-spiced etc) with a receipe on the label. Basically it says to boil in big pot for x amount of time. Start from scratch? beats me.

I love boiled corned beef with cabbage, carrots, potatoes, celery, what I call a boiled supper. To bad my wife is Polish. She looks on such things as outlandish and " not quite right"!!

Jon