Is there anyone you can share with? They grow something, and you grow something different?

If you get overrun with something (*cough* zucchini) we were able to take fresh produce to our local food pantry.

**I have actually never been overrun by zucchini, but I hear other gardeners have this problem! :)

Even though I preserve tons of food every year, I also am trying harder to eat more seasonally, focusing on locally-grown foods. Succeeding at this largely means skipping the produce section at the grocery store so I am not tempted to buy out-of-season produce that traveled huge distances to the grocery store. I was in one of our favorite grocery stores one day which labels the geographic origin of most of their produce and they had a shipment of apples, just arrived from New Zealand. New Zealand? I am sure it is a lovely country, but do we really need to use fossil fuels to bring apples from that country to ours so we can eat out of season? That's a long journey for those apples to make.

Barbara Kingsolver's excellent book, "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" details her family's efforts to eat not only seasonally but as locally as possible for an entire year. It is a fascinating book, and inspired me to also focus on eating more seasonally. She even includes some great recipes that help you prepare seasonal food in other, less-traditional ways, for example, with asparagus, as an example---- when it is in season and you're eating it daily for several weeks, you can get tired of steaming it every day. I can eat the same food over and over when it is in season, but need to be able to prepare it many different ways so we don't get tired of it.

I also am trying to extend my family's idea of what is edible. I grew roselles (hibiscus sabdariffa) this past year, mostly intending to use the flower calyxes in tea and other fruit-flavored drinks traditionally made from the roselles. A bumper crop led me to make roselle jam, which has an amazingly fruity flavor that we like even more than wild plum jelly and blueberry-lime jam. Who knew that a jam made from the calyx of flowers would be so amazingly good? How good is it? We give away jars of home-grown, home-preserved food to a huge number of friends and family members, but we're not giving away any roselle jam because we want it all for ourselves. Just this morning my son waved an almost empty jar of roselle jelly at me and said "Do we have any more of this?" I replied "23 jars", and he was quite relieved to know we weren't about to run out of his new favorite jelly.

Sometimes thinking outside the box involves not only growing outside the box, but then learning how to cook and preserve outside the box as well. It is a wonderful adventure.

Sometimes you can barter those excess crops or canned goods with somebody who grows something you don't grow. We have friends who have some very late-fruiting peaches that produce ripe fruit in July or August, whereas our peaches ripen in June. So, I give them tomatoes and peppers and canned tomatoes and peppers, and they give us oodles of peaches that help extend our fresh peach-eating season and our peach canning season. It is a win-win situation for both families.

Every year I try to grow something edible we haven't grown before. Last year it was roselle, and this year it is going to be jelly melon.

I need to get more serious about growing fruit (the wildlife make it hard to get a harvest) if we ever are going to wean ourselves as much as possible away from eating non-seasonal produce from the grocery store. We always have some strawberries, bramble berries and tree fruit, but I need to grow more varieties to spread out the harvest season more.

Dawn

I have the same problem! And if reading about healthy food was as good as EATING it, I would be the poster girl for health. I bought a fermenting jar Sunday. I have already made saurkraut and pickles. I will try some other things things this year. Of course these things are salty, so that is a negative. I have lots of greens this year. I should have greens pretty much year round if I time things right. Also herbs (which I don't always know how to use). I had to buy garlic this week, because my home grown ran out, but gosh, that lasted a long time! I am trying alpine strawberries this year because DH eats a lot of strawbwerries. Tomatoes, of course, and cucumbers, a melon plant or two, Seminole pumpkin. DH wants zuchinni. I bought a hybrid that doesn't have to be pollinated and will be grown under a screen cage, also a bush acorn to grow under cover, too. A pole bean and a bush bean from George. Lots of flowers this year trying to attract beneficials.My problem is I want to grow everything right away...

Amy, you should try zuchetta for a squash. I had squash bugs last year, but I still had a harvest, although not nearly the bumper crop I had the first year. My neighbor's lawn guy took out half of my vines though, so that might have been part of that problem!

I need to get busy and figure out a trellis for it this year.

I got mine from Pinetree Seeds.

Lisa, I grew tromboncino last year, which, from what I googled is another name for zuchetta. The flavor was just ok to us, and DH likes zuchinni better. If I have room, I might use some of last years seeds, but the squash pests kicked my behind last year. I am not going to go overboard trying to fight them. Yes the squash bugs and SVBs even killed my Seminole, in the end. I think I need better soil and more beneficials before I try to grow a lot of squash again.

every year I grow a few herbs, basil,cilantro, parsley. Every year I hardly use any of it. Every year I grow squash, every year the squash bugs get them. I threw a few okra seeds out and grew some nice plants that produce well, never ate one. grew pumpkin but again the squash bugs got them. Grew several rounds of broccoli and have never really gotten a good crop. None of these will i grow this year.

Now I will grow onions, sweet corn, tomatoes, cukes, watermelon, cantaloupe, bell peppers(maybe) and snap peas. Ive always had good luck and decent harvest so these are what I will focus on this year.

I am really enjoying this conversation.....it will help me think.I have tried to find people to swap with will try harder...brrr been working in minimal heat to make some stuff today that is overdue to some customers so gonna go rest with my flax seed warmy bag YAY....

I can relate to learning to like what grows here. I remembered Okra from living here as a child--didn't see it much less grow it in Washington--and turnips and their greens. I had to work hard to learn how to grow Sugar Snap peas and broccoli, but after I did, I almost always get a good crop. I thought I could grow celery here when we first moved here from California; I quickly learned I could not. ditto for Brussels sprouts. I did get a good crop of eggplant one year, but learned that I'm just not that fond of eggplant after all. I love Swiss chard--it grew great in both Washington and California, but for years here the black blister beetles would descend on it overnight and destroy the crop. Now I only grow it in the greenhouse. It's been slow coming on this year with a very cold early November and very cloudy December, but it is finally big enough to start mixing a few leaves in with the mustard and kale greens.

Anyone who wants to grow sugar snap peas and broccoli will find detailed discussion by searching this site.

I was trying to decide this morning if I really wanted to grow cowpeas at all. I think I would rather grow asparagus beans to use in stir fry during the hot season, and just stick with the other green beans that I normally plant in Spring for all of the rest. I probably cook black-eyed peas a couple times a year so I don't know if it is really worth the trouble for us.

We were just walking around the garden and Al was asking me where everything was going, but I think okra was his main concern. He loves okra and tomatoes. I probably plant 3 times as many peppers as most home gardeners do, but we love them fresh, cooked, and frozen for use later in the year.

I don't plant corn because of space limitations. We love zuchetta and since it is easier to grow than most squash, that will be our squash. I must have melons, cucumbers, peppers, okra, green beans, Spring salad greens, onions, potatoes, broccoli, basil, and Chinese cabbage. I will try to do better with herbs this year. I'm sure I will have to do some in containers so they don't get too much water, if it is a normal year, but what's normal?

I will be making some major changes to my gardening area this year, and I also have a grass problem to fight. Even with all of the work ahead, I look forward to the garden.

Only 2 weeks until onion plants arrive.

ooh thanx dawn for the kingsolver book recommendation called the library already to get it interlibrary loan :)

where do you get the roselle seeds ?

we have some berry vines that will hit their stride this year and we stalk each berry for ripening.,..

but fruit is so hard to come by and it is so good as dessert and smoothy ingredient so would love to try those

Leava, You're welcome.

I believe I got the roselle seeds from either Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds or Southern Exposure Seed Exchange. They both carry them.

I agree fruit is hard to come by. Our late frosts are hard on tree fruits and our droughts and hungry birds, squirrels and other wild things are hard on any fruit that gets to a decent size. I have to fight the wild creatures for every single fruit we get.

We have a persistent problem with cotton root rot on our land, where cotton once was grown long, long ago. Periodically it rears its ugly head and wipes out plants, though not nearly as often as it used to. I think it might have gotten 4 of my roselle plants this past summer but I planned ahead for it, figuring it might be likely to cause us some trouble, so had more plants than we needed.

This year, I'll have to grow them in containers as I don't dare put them back in the ground where several of them died last year. Why does gardening here have to be so hard????

Dawn

Oh, I forgot peas and I usually plant snow peas and edible pod peas. I especially like Sugar Snap and Super Sugar Snap.

I think my onion plants ship on the 9th, so I guess I'll spend a little time later this week (maybe on Saturday when the forecast high is 74) getting the onion bed ready. I thought I might do it today before the cold front roars through, but the weather is foggy, misty, chilly....feels like winter out there. On a day like this, I'd rather be indoors than outdoors.

Carol, I'm glad you remembered the peas. I'm excited that pea planting time is approaching too. I'm going to sow a packet of flowering, fragrant sweet peas at the same time I plant my sugar snaps. I'm so ready to get something put in the ground. I just hope the sweet peas are able to bloom and perfume the air before the hot weather arrives. Some years, they burn up before they have bloomed for very long.

I have a hard time getting snap peas from the garden to the house because I eat so many of them while I'm out there working.

Our weather is cycling nicely between cool and warm every few days down here, which often is the sign of an early spring, although not always. I hope we have an early warm-up that sticks around this year instead of turning back cold around Easter.

Dawn

Dawn, I hope that means an early Spring because I am getting the urge to plant seeds and I don't normally plant anything until around the 20th. I really want to start a few things earlier and have them growing inside while I am planting onions. The Dixondale chart shows my onions shipping on the 17th this year.

I went through my tomato seeds this morning and selected the ones that I MUST plant. However, I didn't find any SunGold in my stash. I don't know if I really have run out or I just didn't put the pkg back in the right place, but I know I have to have those. Al and I will both eat those over all other tomatoes in the garden.

Maybe you need to make a list of the types of things you have started so the rest of us don't forget to get our transplants ready. LOL

Do you start spinach outdoors? When? Sometimes I start it outdoors in a tub where I can protect it if I need to. Sometimes I forget and it gets to hot for it to germinate.

Carol, I have plenty of SunGold seeds and would be happy to send your some. Send me your snail mail address and I'll put them right in the mail.

I'll work on getting the other grow lists posted ASAP---I have been working on them, but (no surprise here) am having trouble pruning the lists down to what I actually have the space to grow as opposed to what I want to grow.

Sometimes I start spinach outdoors in March. The timing in March is variable depending on what the soil and air temperatures are doing. I've also started it indoors some years and transplanted it out, which seemed a wasted effort because it didn't produce an earlier crop than sowing seed directly in the ground. Spinach really does better for me in the fall garden, but in all these recent drought years, I'm too worn out from fighting the drought to even want to plant anything new for fall---so I just keep the summer plants going.

Sometimes you can germinate your spinach indoors. Put the seeds in a plastic container filled with cold tap water. Put a lid on the container. Put it into the refrigerator for a day or two. I shoot for a minimum of 24 hours. Then, I take the container out of the fridge, drain off the water, roll up the seeds in a paper towel or coffee filter, put it in a baggie, and put it somewhere in the kitchen where I will see it constantly and not forget about it (often on the window sill by the sink). I check the seed daily and as soon as the majority has sprouted, I go out and put those pre-germinated seed in the ground. I've never had them fail to sprout in spring soil if I pre-germinate them indoors that way. I think the cold water soak in the fridge must initiate germination or speed it up. I know it is not nice to fool Mother Nature, but I like fooling the spinach seeds. Here in Oklahoma where we can have fall, winter spring and summer weather all in the same week, we have to use all the little tricks we can find to get the seeds to sprout when we need them.

Dawn

Thanks Dawn, but I will first try to find a pack....but if all else fails, I may give you a shout. That is a good idea with the spinach seeds. I mostly just use spinach in it's raw form, or a little on a Greek pizza or something, so I don't plant too much. I normally set aside one bed or one tub that is just salad greens and I try to start the spinach first. I have never done the "jar thing", so may give that a try. Thanks for the idea. I'll try to go through the rest of my seeds and hope I find SunGold.

It is 29 degrees here with wind and a wind chill of 19 and going to an actual temp of 14 tonight. Spring seems further away than it did last week.

Maybe you need to make a list of the types of things you have started so the rest of us don't forget to get our transplants ready. LOL

LOL Ain't that the truth.

Carol, okay. The offer stands. When I misplace a packet of seeds, I always find them somewhere crazy six months later. So far this year, I haven't been able to find my Yellow Oxheart seeds which I purchased way, way back in Dec 2014. I'm going to tear apart my seed box today, hoping to find them mis-categorized in a ziplock bag full of flower or herb seed packets. I know I have seen them in the last month but cannot imagine why they weren't in the ziplock of other yellow tomatoes. If I cannot find them I'll just substitute Lillian's or Hugh's for them.

The big danger in digging through the seed box for them Is that looking at the other tomato seeds will give me a worse case of tomato fever and I'll decide to start 15 more varieties. I'd say the odds of me doing that are somewhat high. I already fought the desire to start Dester, Cherokee Chocolate, Jumbo Jim Orange, Doña, Carmello and a few others on seed-starting day because I had cut them off my list on an effort to cut back.

Bon, I am gonna get that list posted today, Lord willing and if the creek don't rise! I have started tons of flower seeds too and hope to post that list. I sort of continually start flowers and usually don't list them because often I am starting new ones almost daily and it makes it hard to keep a current list, I think my flowers get most of the credit for us having a successful edible garden because they attract all the pollinators and other beneficial insects. I just don't talk about them a lot individually. Every time I put edible plants or seeds in the ground, I plant flower transplants or seeds at the same time.

Because recurring drought has been so hard on the wildflowers the last few years, often killing them before they can reseed, I am over-seeding several pasture areas with wildflower seeds this month. I bought a little over 3 pounds of wildflower seeds. I am hoping for decent rainfall to help them germinate and get established but not such heavy rain that all the seeds rot or wash away.

Dawn