What Do I Do With My Crops?

[Dirtmechanic]

I'm not a canner as the only things that I have canned were jams. Fruits suitable for preserves are nearly all perennials. That's one type of gardening.

Persevering fruits with sugar is a fairly safe way to can. However, all of them can be made and then frozen. Containers can be as simple as zip-lock bags.

With a small garden, a very specific orientation might be taken guided by the preferences of the household. A simple one might be a love of salads. Timing of plantings is important because you don't want it all to come and go in a week or two when a growing season lasts for a half a year or longer .

A very specific orientation is the herb garden and seldom are seasonings needed by a family in large amounts. Drying is a common way of preserving. Some, like cilantro, are wanted fresh. And, gardeners can really become fussy about protected growing for extending their growing seasons. It's best to keep that on a small scale, also.

Steve
interesting that @Dirtmechanic uses the term courgette. i am not even sure how to pronounce it. i bet @Marie2020 knows. and yet , @Trish Stretton calls them marrow ...

All are correct, courgette and marrow are from the French. I occasionally lurk a board based in the UK. Good times.

 

[flowerbug]

there are things called food forests too. a whole different type of gardening. this is a topic often covered in permaculture courses but it can be learned about apart from that too. that is what is fun about gardening. you can do about what you want with quite a wide array of climates and sites.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

All are correct, courgette and marrow are from the French. I occasionally lurk a board based in the UK. Good times.

Well, if you want to be REALLY technical, a marrow, or a vegetable marrow is 1. A British term and 2. refers to what a Zucchini grows up to be, a BIG summer squash. The French term for that is courge with an accent over the "e" (in French -ette is the diminuative and means "little, like -ini means in Italian "zucchini", little zucco (pumpkin squash) or -ito means in Spanish

 

[Dirtmechanic]

Well, if you want to be REALLY technical, a marrow, or a vegetable marrow is 1. A British term and 2. refers to what a Zucchini grows up to be, a BIG summer squash. The French term for that is courge with an accent over the "e" (in French -ette is the diminuative and means "little, like -ini means in Italianq "zucchini", little zucco (pumpkin squash) or -ito means in Spanish

Well, if you want to be REALLY technical, a marrow, or a vegetable marrow is 1. A British term and 2. refers to what a Zucchini grows up to be, a BIG summer squash. The French term for that is courge with an accent over the "e" (in French -ette is the diminuative and means "little, like -ini means in Italian "zucchini", little zucco (pumpkin squash) or -ito means in Spanish

I believe I read where the term was "borrowed" from the French. But that would be the level of detail found in something like the Oxford dictionary and maybe the web.

 

[Trish Stretton]

I'm not a canner as....It's best to keep that on a small scale, also.

Steve
interesting that @Dirtmechanic uses the term courgette. i am not even sure how to pronounce it. i bet @Marie2020 knows. and yet , @Trish Stretton calls them marrow ...

I use 'zucchinis' for the little 'normal!!' sized ones and marrows for the monsters that hid til they just couldnt any more...or waited til you had to go out of town for four days before they grew a couple of feet long.

 

[catjac1975]

I want to grow a giant garden. A humungous, beast of a garden! But one problem, my family will most likely eat only a bucket's worth of vegetables and then the rest will rot. Do you know what else I could do with the vegetables? Do you think that I can, can them and put the cans up in those cupboards by the stores. The ones that are for poor people and are free? I don't even know how to can stuff.
Or should I just grow a small garden?

You absolutely cannot can food to give to the poor that you have canned. The fact that you do not know how to can food is a clue. It can be very toxic if not done properly. Look up botulism.You can donate the fresh produce or give it to your neighbors.

 

[Trish Stretton]

I discovered that I love tomato juice!
So, I have been letting the Beefsteak toms get really ripe, then slice them thinly and salt.
My salad spinner basket works better at draining them than my colander, so it sits on top of a cake rack over the salad spinner bowl.
I sieved out the seeds this time before bottling it all.

Yesterday I did a whole heap. Not too sure but think it was around 10lb- filled my big bowl twice over.
From that I got 3 quarts of juice and another of pulp.
Both are sitting in the fridge. I was going to 'can' the juice but it seems to be disappearing pretty quick.

 

[flowerbug]

I discovered that I love tomato juice!
So, I have been letting the Beefsteak toms get really ripe, then slice them thinly and salt.
My salad spinner basket works better at draining them than my colander, so it sits on top of a cake rack over the salad spinner bowl.
I sieved out the seeds this time before bottling it all.

Yesterday I did a whole heap. Not too sure but think it was around 10lb- filled my big bowl twice over.
From that I got 3 quarts of juice and another of pulp.
Both are sitting in the fridge. I was going to 'can' the juice but it seems to be disappearing pretty quick.

it's really good cold but i also love turning it into soup too in the winter...

 

[Trish Stretton]

I was thinking that maybe, I should 'can' the jars I have as well...especially seeing as there are another 8lbs to process right now and still more going to be ready soon.
I had to put the pulp in the freezer from what I have done so far.