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I am certainly glad I tried growing dry beans before I actually need to feed my family from what I can grow in my yard. Mind you, I didn't expect to get a huge yield from 7 square feet of cranberry beans, but neither did I expect to harvest under a quarter pound of beans. Perhaps it is that the soil is in its first year and hasn't broken down and developed into good growing media. Compost, peat and vermiculite are a good place to start, but plants need better than that to flourish.
My eyes have really been opened this season since I set my goal to be able to feed my family on exclusively what I can produce at home. I never intended to do it all at once, but this gardening year has shown me exactly how little I can do, how little I know, how much there is to learn, and how long it will take me to reach my goal. My hat is off to all of you who do produce most or all of your needs. I wish you lived near me so I could pester you into becoming my mentor!
I have a few questions about producing enough to live on. How do I find information on typical yields of various food plants? It would be nice to know if I am in the ball park, or doing rather poorly. It would also be good to know if I even have enough land to devote to growing food. It seems to me that I have a huge yard, but I'm not sure if it is enough to grow beans and grains.
This year has given me the opportunity to assess a good deal of vegetables. Eggplant and kohlrabi may not reappear in my garden. I am going to keep trying to get a harvest of swiss chard, cabbages and cauliflower. Corn gets another year or two, after all, I am the one failing here, not the corn. Green beans, peppers, tomatoes, cukes, carrots, radishes, lettuces, onions, garlic and peas all get invited back. The sun flowers look big and beautiful, but haven't bloomed yet. We'll see if they are worth getting more of the garden next year.
Gardening is probably one of the most enjoyable pursuits I have taken up. Learning better how to use the harvest is right up there as well. I just made up a few batches of refrigerator pickles, stared a crock of sour pickles, frozen about 10 pounds of green beans, am fermenting a batch of hot sauce, and have dried some jalapenos and radishes (not sure I've developed a taste for dried radish yet!). And I am going to try to make some pickled green beans as well. I love those!
My eyes have really been opened this season since I set my goal to be able to feed my family on exclusively what I can produce at home. I never intended to do it all at once, but this gardening year has shown me exactly how little I can do, how little I know, how much there is to learn, and how long it will take me to reach my goal. My hat is off to all of you who do produce most or all of your needs. I wish you lived near me so I could pester you into becoming my mentor!
I have a few questions about producing enough to live on. How do I find information on typical yields of various food plants? It would be nice to know if I am in the ball park, or doing rather poorly. It would also be good to know if I even have enough land to devote to growing food. It seems to me that I have a huge yard, but I'm not sure if it is enough to grow beans and grains.
This year has given me the opportunity to assess a good deal of vegetables. Eggplant and kohlrabi may not reappear in my garden. I am going to keep trying to get a harvest of swiss chard, cabbages and cauliflower. Corn gets another year or two, after all, I am the one failing here, not the corn. Green beans, peppers, tomatoes, cukes, carrots, radishes, lettuces, onions, garlic and peas all get invited back. The sun flowers look big and beautiful, but haven't bloomed yet. We'll see if they are worth getting more of the garden next year.
Gardening is probably one of the most enjoyable pursuits I have taken up. Learning better how to use the harvest is right up there as well. I just made up a few batches of refrigerator pickles, stared a crock of sour pickles, frozen about 10 pounds of green beans, am fermenting a batch of hot sauce, and have dried some jalapenos and radishes (not sure I've developed a taste for dried radish yet!). And I am going to try to make some pickled green beans as well. I love those!