Poultry Talk Ontario (pto.ca)

In the Seventies when we were all ever so enthusiastic about Self Sufficiency I grew EVERYTHING !!!!
took only couple of years to downsize all that enthusiasm to things that the kids would actually eat, and after the kids left it was down to what I wanted to eat, and now it's down to labour versus value......

One time very long time ago I grew a bed of poppies for poppy seed cake :)
Seeded, watered, weeded, harvested, dried, opened heads, got the poppy seed out and after weighing it found I have produced $0.54 worth of poppy seed.
I still remember the sum, it has served as a reminder of Labor versus product Value ratio ever since. :)

The other thing with the potatoes was that DH said we should give away the surplus to the neighbour who were too lazy to grow their own. This was before DH retired so I did all the harvest etc. I asked the next door chap if he would like some because he was watching me dig and he said he would. I pointed the area he could dig and left the fork there. He then said he wouldn't dig them and that I should!!!!!

Killerbunny wrote: ↑

Sun Mar 21, 2021 1:08 pm

The other thing with the potatoes was that DH said we should give away the surplus to the neighbour who were too lazy to grow their own. This was before DH retired so I did all the harvest etc. I asked the next door chap if he would like some because he was watching me dig and he said he would. I pointed the area he could dig and left the fork there. He then said he wouldn't dig them and that I should!!!!!

Wow! How lazy is that!

We’re sandy here.....have to admit I love potatoes fresh out of the garden. I downsized our garden too. With just the two of us and I hate preserving, I grow what we can eat fresh. I do freeze tons of tomatoes and rhubarb. That being said, I have tons left over. Maybe a rule of thumb should be if it’s still in the freezer in April....it’s low on any future planting lists. I think my cooking has changed as we shrink....I bet I only made 3 stews, as many soups and no tomato sauces this winter....we lived on that stuff before. Reflection of an easy winter.....?

that's what i try to do...if the freezer still has them in the spring the next year, then fewer that year and finish up what's in the freezer. i fail a lot LOL.

I'm itching to get out into the garden...went to rake out the one pile of manure for a garden to discover it's still frozen in the middle. i guess i'm a little early. ah well. time to find the greenhouse heater. I think we're doing a smaller garden this year mostly because i can't do as much of the weeding and working at ground level any more. and raised beds aren't in my future-they aren't any easier to work in for me. i either need something at 5 feet height or may as well be ground level.

i'll give out stuff to non-gardening neighbours, but most are more than happy to help! sometimes i have to say "NO" because they help too much and wreck the plants or walk on other plants....so i'm happy to give with a little help from those that are teachable to "don't walk there, those are baby cauliflowers....". but my goodness if someone wants and doesn't have the whatevers to lift the shovel-HA i have NO sympathy! i'm out there and if ANYONE would have an excuse to not yield a shovel it might be someone with 4 feet of metal in their spine.....um. if they can't tough...no sympathy here.

I agree with those above - grow the vegetables that you know will be eaten over the winter. We had to throttle back on the squash only because we just had too many. We still have canned vegetables from a couple of years ago, and some still in the freezer. We did eat all the carrots we had; I keep those in the basement fridge, unwashed, in plastic bags. They last a good long while like that. And I do like to get out to the garden and munch on some sugar snap peas. Those are yummy. Kale is one of my all time favourite leafy green; I still have some jars to use but think we've used up the frozen patties.
This year, we will be growing more of the vegetables that people were asking for at our farm gate sales.

Ontario Chick wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 11, 2021 10:45 pm

Unfortunately here it's a backbreaking job to get those suckers out of the ground and they have to be washed after, and I figured for a total value of about $ 20 simply not worse the effort.
I think the last thing I will get rid of is garlic, lots of work, but well worse the effort.

But those little new baby potatoes are sooo good :D

So it’s that time of babysitting seedlings that I’m ready to drop kick them out to the garden. I have trays of them in the upstairs bathroom as it has a huge window and a skylight. Would be great if the weather would stabilize, then I could start toughing them up for going out. Calling for freezing again tonight and I refuse to haul that many seedlings in and out. The wind today would probably fly them all into the next township. Interesting that there seems to be plenty of seed potatoes at the feed store still. Last year you couldn’t find nary a one around here.

It's snowing here right now - and sticking, 2C and windy. I've been hardening off my starts over the last few weeks but have yet to have overnight temps at 10C or above so that I can safely leave them out. Also, there have been days that they didn't go out at all, due to high wind. Hauling all my flats out and in every day is getting tedious.

FIRST step in my veg garden transformation to permaculture....
Bed # 1 - 4 raspberry shoots 2 from last year two from this year, hoping to get some raspberries from the last years shrubs, unless the birds get them first.
Just waiting for the June weeding, then will comer with landscaping fabric and wood chips, hoping to keep weeding requirements to absolute minimum.