Why I do not garden

[arizona98tj]

A couple years a go I found a case of Campbell's Chunky soup in my emergency stash that missed rotation and was 6 years old, it was still quite palatable. A single can that was 7 years old was not as quite as "palitible", but still edible.

I just finished a jar of homemade venison mincemeat last night. Yes, it goes really well warmed up and put on vanilla ice cream. My point was that it was canned by my wife 5 years ago. It tasted every bit as good as the day she ran it through the pressure cooker, sealing it in those pint jars. We keep a large garden and put a lot of produce in jars and also in the freezer. We can enough of one item at one time such that we don't have to do it again for several years. That makes it a lot easier, in my opinion, than trying to process everything every growing season.

 

[OldMcDonald]

This week there was a sale on canned vegetables. $.20 a can. We bought a bunch last year at $.19 but decided to get another 20 cases...240 cans. A little voice told me our temporary inflation may not be over for a while. I have all this crappy stuff that is so inferior to home grown to deal with. But, we will adapt.

$48 for 240 cans. If I could till, plant, tend, harvest, and can that much stuff in 48 hours, and seed was free, fertilizer was free and canning lids were free, gardening/canning would have a return of $1/hr. I am too lazy to do that.

I have friends who garden and can to save money, but my little pea brain cannot figure it out.

From your avatar (owned equipment - very modern) it sounds like you are not short of spare cash. So why load your gut with such cheap inferior food? Do you not particularly like to eat good food? I note the admission of being lazy. Are you also fat? I also note your admission of having a pea brain. Perhaps that is the explanation.

I recently retired after more than 60 years farming and gardening around the world. I have enjoyed a very rich life, but am not a rich man in monetary terms. If I had earned a dollar for every hour I put in, I would have a fair bit more money than I have. What good would it do me? I only need one house, one car, one wife and enough good quality food to fill one belly (two if I feed my wife) - along with enough good quality wine to complement that food.

Try it. I even wrote a book about it "How not to make Millions - but still live a rich rural life". You might learn something, you might not.

 

[RalphVa]

This week there was a sale on canned vegetables. $.20 a can. We bought a bunch last year at $.19 but decided to get another 20 cases...240 cans. A little voice told me our temporary inflation may not be over for a while. I have all this crappy stuff that is so inferior to home grown to deal with. But, we will adapt.

$48 for 240 cans. If I could till, plant, tend, harvest, and can that much stuff in 48 hours, and seed was free, fertilizer was free and canning lids were free, gardening/canning would have a return of $1/hr. I am too lazy to do that.

I have friends who garden and can to save money, but my little pea brain cannot figure it out.

I garden for the better taste of fresh stuff. I'd starve if I had to live on what I grew.

Do not like canned or processed stuff. Grew up with that. Does not taste the same after being canned or even just frozen (for vegetables; meat okay).

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Canned vegetables are rather disgusting to eat.

 

[Jstpssng]

Canned vegetables are rather disgusting to eat.

I eat a LOT of canned tomatoes and tomato sauce. Other canned goods are on the shelf in case of emergency... I try to keep 2 weeks worth of food in canned goods, over and above what food’s in the freezer. I used to rotate them out every year at the annual postal service food drive, but they don’t seem to have that anymore

While writing this I realized that I do have my pigs for 2 more weeks. Maybe it’s time to get rid of some canned corn and beans.

 

[oldballs]

I grew up in the inner city...........didn't know anything but grocery store food.... and sometimes that was hard to find during WWII. When drafted into the Army, I thought their chow was delicious....especially the canned fruit K-rations and SOS.

Since moving to a rural area about 50 years ago, I've gardened ever since....fed a family of six and their friends too. Now, approaching 90 years old, I find gardening to be physically challenging, without much purpose to it anymore.....but still a way of life that I enjoy.

Cheers,
Mike

 

[Jstpssng]

Give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day...
I’ve long felt that if people who need food stamps were taught to tend some simple container gardens it would be better than just handing them an EBT card. Not everybody would be interested yet some people would really do well.

 

[PILOON]

Canned vegetables are rather disgusting to eat.

AND Usually much too salty.

 

[CalG]

How do you get garlic to grow in Vt? I thought it needed a much longer growing season than we have in New England. Greenhouse?
I have enough trouble with peppers...just doesn't get warm enough here. If we get any at all, it's not until mid-Sept. assuming we haven't had frost before then.

I don't know that much about it.

But...

A friend's wife makes her "pin money" growing and selling garlic. She has been at it for the past 20 years or so.

I "bought in" about 5 years ago. $20 worth. 10 bulbs. (around 40 cloves)

Cloves are planted late fall , early Nov. I move the planting bed to different parts of the garden each planting. You know, crop rotation and all that. The bed is covered with mulched leaves. The plants sprout out of the soil if the fall lingers, I'm told that's not good, but I can't tell any difference. But mostly they come up in spring.
With the summer growth, there are "scapes" which are pretty darn good stir fried or grilled, and taste"different", more mild than the garlic cloves in the ground.

I dig the bulbs in August, or when the bottom leaves brown and wither (if you can call them leaves)

Anyway, Yes, Garlic grow well here in S. Vt. , At least the hard neck varieties. I do need to try different types and varieties, but so far I'm good with these.

Having 50 bulbs braided and hanging in the kitchen inspires uses, and the wife and I eat a lot more now that we grow them. I hear they are good for a body!

eta

Check with Fedco seeds of Maine for a garlic variety they might suggest for your growing season in Coos NH? (You shouldn't have any trouble there, even if it does snow every month of the year! ;-) I met my wife while living in Bethlehem.. On rt302, "in the shadow of Mt. Wahington!"

 

[Jstpssng]

I grow garlic here, when I remember to put it in the ground. All that I do is pick up some garlic bulbs at the grocery store and plop them into the ground. I never got them in the ground this year, so will use them over the course of the winter.

 

[CalG]

I just finished a jar of homemade venison mincemeat last night. Yes, it goes really well warmed up and put on vanilla ice cream. My point was that it was canned by my wife 5 years ago. It tasted every bit as good as the day she ran it through the pressure cooker, sealing it in those pint jars. We keep a large garden and put a lot of produce in jars and also in the freezer. We can enough of one item at one time such that we don't have to do it again for several years. That makes it a lot easier, in my opinion, than trying to process everything every growing season.

Then do you not plant "last years" stuff until you need to restock?

 

[CalG]

I grow garlic here, when I remember to put it in the ground. All that I do is pick up some garlic bulbs at the grocery store and plop them into the ground. I never got them in the ground this year, so will use them over the course of the winter.

I thought of doing that, but never could figure if the grocery kind would do well here. When the friend's wife showed me her's, I KNEW they would do well.
Story to that though, She was getting tired of weeding, and asked my friend to put down that plastic row cover for this year. Well, we had a pretty wet spring. The garlic mostly rotted in the ground for her. She is heart broken and disappointed. Now they need to start all over, and "pin money" is scarce. Plus, she had dozens of customers built up over the years.

Farming can be a tough business...

Ours did OK. only a few questionable bulbs where the damp got to the stem where it goes into the bulb. We just used those up straight away.

 

[JasperFrank]

If I consider the time, and money building the raised beds , the cost of starters, the dirt and the water involved; our garden has never produced more than it cost. Its just fun. So when I see vegetables in cans for less than 60 cents per 14/15 oz can, I buy them, and buy a great deal of them. Wife does get mad at me though somethings if I buy something like palm hearts. I don't even know what a palm heart is... But still... it's 60 cents or less per can.
We have a pantry filled with our own grown and canned apples. None of which have we eaten in three years.

 

[Diggin It]

So why load your gut with such cheap inferior food?

Low price does not mean inferior. Fancy stores with high prices do not mean quality.

Raised beds? I cut the top and bottm thirds off some plastic 55g barrels. Filled about two thirds full of dirt and plopped potatoes in'em Grew rather well. Got lots of those little baby potatoes too.

 

[arizona98tj]

Then do you not plant "last years" stuff until you need to restock?

That is correct. For example, this year's tomato harvest was very good. We canned enough to last at least two years, maybe three. We didn't plant beets this summer because we still had enough from last year. On the other hand, we do plant potatoes every year, as well as carrots, peas, lettuce, squash, etc. Cucumbers for making pickles happens about every three years. We used to try to do all of it every summer and it made a lot of work. Now, it is easier to manage. When we built our new house (when I retired), we had a 10x12 "cold room" added externally to the basement. It is not heated and has an insulated door connecting it to our basement. Temps get into the high 30s during the coldest winter months while the rest of the basement stays around 69 degrees. We store garden produce such as potatoes, onions, squash, etc. in it as well as all of our canning. It is basically a modern-day root cellar except the floor is concrete and not dirt like it was when I was a kid.

 

[shooterdon]

From your avatar (owned equipment - very modern) it sounds like you are not short of spare cash. So why load your gut with such cheap inferior food? Do you not particularly like to eat good food? I note the admission of being lazy. Are you also fat? I also note your admission of having a pea brain. Perhaps that is the explanation.

I recently retired after more than 60 years farming and gardening around the world. I have enjoyed a very rich life, but am not a rich man in monetary terms. If I had earned a dollar for every hour I put in, I would have a fair bit more money than I have. What good would it do me? I only need one house, one car, one wife and enough good quality food to fill one belly (two if I feed my wife) - along with enough good quality wine to complement that food.

Try it. I even wrote a book about it "How not to make Millions - but still live a rich rural life". You might learn something, you might not.

We all make life choices that seem smart at the time. Might be why I have a few nice things like the ones in my avatar you commented on.

You mention if you had made a dollar an hour you would have a fair bit more money than you have now, but you do not regret your choice...and that is what worked for you and what you want out of life. That is great!

My life was different....by choice...my choice. When I retired, I was earning a very good salary and had invested wisely. Thus I have a few nice toys that you do not have....and more importantly you do not want.

I do not need to try your lifestyle as I was raised poor and we gardened every year. Been there, got the T shirt, and no desire or need to ever live like that again.

I waste time and money shooting and loading thousands of rounds a year. That is far more important and fun for me than tending a garden or canning.

Like you I live a rural life now that I am retired. I have friends who garden and they always produce far more than they can use and give me stuff...so why spend time doing something I hate....gardening. And here in Michigan, we do not get a lot of weeks of fresh produce. I will do tractor work or other things they cannot do so I trade my skills for what they give me.

Enjoy your garden and lifestyle....it is what you want. I could live like that, but choose not to. Neither of us are right or wrong...just different.

You believe you live a better life than I do, but it does not matter to me. The difference is I can choose to live like you if I wanted to but it does not interest me. You cannot choose to live like me even if you wanted to. Working for a dollar an hour to enjoy tasty veggies has consequences.

 

[lman]

From your avatar (owned equipment - very modern) it sounds like you are not short of spare cash. So why load your gut with such cheap inferior food? Do you not particularly like to eat good food? I note the admission of being lazy. Are you also fat? I also note your admission of having a pea brain. Perhaps that is the explanation.

I recently retired after more than 60 years farming and gardening around the world. I have enjoyed a very rich life, but am not a rich man in monetary terms. If I had earned a dollar for every hour I put in, I would have a fair bit more money than I have. What good would it do me? I only need one house, one car, one wife and enough good quality food to fill one belly (two if I feed my wife) - along with enough good quality wine to complement that food.

Try it. I even wrote a book about it "How not to make Millions - but still live a rich rural life". You might learn something, you might not.

You don't need a tractor? What are you doing on a tractor forum?

 

[lman]

Around here it doesn't cost much to have a garden. I use plenty of composted horse manure that is free thanks to my four legged friends. The vegetables then grow like weeds. Little irrigation is needed around here. I still have to use a hoe more than I'd like thanks to the pesky weeds, but I can skip the gym that way.

 

[OldMcDonald]

You don't need a tractor? What are you doing on a tractor forum?

Because, bonnie lad, I retired from farming at the age of 77 in May. I have owned and worked my own farms in the border area between England and Scotland (2 farms), Australia, Scotland and Portugal before finally calling it a day.

Am I to be barred from TBN now I am retired?

 

[OldMcDonald]

You believe you live a better life than I do, but it does not matter to me.

I did not say that. I queried why you would not want to eat fresh food in preference to store bought canned.