This year when the growing season was approaching I had visions of growing enough crops to fill our freezer full for the winter. Being the professional amature gardener that I am, my ideas are always bigger than my capabilities. I did manage to get one crop into the freezer. My broccoli was a huge hit and I put 12 gallon ziplocks of broccoli in the freezer. I think I gave my sister about the same for her freezer too. That isn't counting all the fresh broccoli we got to munch on during the growing season. If I would of been a little more on top of it I would of had more but it got away from me and bolted. Oh well, it made the bees happy. After all , they need to eat too.
Another crop that was successful was my cabbage. I harvested 11 heads and they all weighed in at 10 pounds or more. Once again my sister was the recipient of some and we ate cooked, slawed and fried cabbage for a couple of months. I'm sure glad cabbage will last a long time in the fridge. It gave us many a side dish.
This year I tried brussle sprouts and they grew fairly well but not as good as the broccoli. I got a few meals out of them but that was about it. Miranda cooked some for me one night and boy were they delicious. She poured maple syrup over them after they had been sauteed. Talk about melt in your mouth.
I had grown some cauliflower in the past but this year was a total flop. For some reason it bolted on me right away and the weather was perfect for growing them. Maybe I didn't water them properly or something. Anyway it was a bust.
My bush beans grew great but I didn't plant enough of them. Next year I will compensate for that.
I tried sweet spuds for the first time and and they never matured big enough. We ate what was there but it wasn't much.
Usually my tomato crop is overflowing and we end up freezing a ton. This year I started them to late and now I am paying the price. A few are ripening but not nearly enough. Looks bad for them as this is October already.
My pepper plants always give me high yields. This year was no different. I need to send a box of them off to my friend in Alaska. This year I want to pickle some. That is a good way to keep them for extended periods of time. The corn I planted was also late like the tomatos. It won't get full grown and I am contemplating picking them for baby corn. Bigger than the baby corn in the can but just as tasty. I might try pickling some with the peppers. I bet that would be good.
So you can see that my big dreams this year did not pan out. Most every year my dreams don't pan out. That doesn't mean I won't keep dreamin' though. After all, what would I do if everything went perfect. I would have to quit gardening and that is something that I get great pleasure out of doing. So as long as I am dreaming, my garden will continue to be a work in satisfying progress.
The other half
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