Maybe Prepper?

This year was fabulous as far as the garden went! I look around town and I don't see many gardens. The space is there, but nobody can be bothered to do anything with it, perhaps, because it involves a minimum of work. From the raised gardens below, I collected 26 meals for two that are now in the freezer.The carrot patch was one row long at 12 feet. I also got 52 meals of green beans (Scarlet Runners) that grew 1 1/2 feet over my 7 foot trellis. The bean row was 8 feet long. 

The garden also produced enough onions to last till next crop and enough potatoes to last till Christmas.

The apple trees did not produce this year due to a late frost, but that's OK, because we still have pies and crumbles left over from 2014 and 2015. Not many, but enough for the winter.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot the beets. I pickled up 12 pints and froze 18 meals for 2.

Now, as the apple crop failed, I splurged and spent $20 on a case of peaches which were then canned. This is not a bad year for the garden, and not a lot of work.

Now, I haven't got to the point of stashing away things like rice, flour etc., just in case... but I'm starting to wonder if I am becoming a "Prepper". What say you?

Many beets, carrots and beans were seriously hurt in this activity, but I am not going to apologize.

By the way, I am also a second generation vegetarian, cows eat grass, and I eat cows!

The garden is 168 square feet, total. 

A Good Day's Work!

Have we got raspberries! 46 cups picked so far and probably twice as much to come. So far there are 10 crumbles in the freezer and 24 jars of raspberry jam. One hour of picking gave enough to make the 24 jars.

Guess what I am doing tomorrow? Picking another batch for more jam. Then I will be turning the patch over to some friends to finish off. 

I never thought I would ever have too many berries!

A Rainy Day!

Fortunately, we have had a day of rain. The gardens and even the grass was starting to get very dry. I gave the garden a token drink yesterday, just in case the rain missed us. That is a sure thing to bring it on!

I was down to two jars of raspberry jam from last years crop and still had about 40 pounds of berries in the freezer, so it was time to convert them to something useful. There are now 16 pints of jam in the pantry. I would have kept on going except that I ran out of sugar.

If it rains tomorrow, I will do another 3 or 4 batches. The berry crop is likely to come in while we are on vacation. I suspect that we will allow "free picking" to friends and relations.

Yum!