Like your life depends on it....

I grew up around farming and gardening. Memories of grandma hoeing in the garden. My father running the rototiler to work up the garden beds in spring and maintaining the walk ways during the season. My grandfather set up by the road selling his sweet corn. My mother in the kitchen canning tomatoes. Those are just a few of the many recollections. I was as ignorant child. I picked up on a few things, I did not know a whole lot. I was basically asked to do something and I did it. When it came to gardening, I dreaded picking rocks and weeding. I knew it had to be done, but did not like it. We had separate gardens from our grandparents, but when it got rough on my grandmother to work in the garden, my dad decided to combine the garden at their house. That way my grandma could go out and do some work, but my dad would go after work to do whatever needed to be done. Our family planted a variety of vegetables.

I never knew the varieties. I just knew the basics. I knew we have slicer tomatoes and paste tomatoes. I knew we had fresh eating cucumbers and pickling cucumbers. I did know that grandpa grew peaches and cream and silver queen sweet corn. Peas, beans, peppers, onions and squash were just a few things they grew.

One of our jobs was to help picking the ripe veggies. We were taught what was considered ripe and what was not. He even helped with pest management. A little seven dust on the potato plants to keep away the potato bugs.

Us girls were involved with preserving the harvest as well. Mom would cut up the peppers, put them on a cooking sheet and throw them in the freezer. After they were frozen, she would put them in a zip loc bags. We spent many of times bagging up sweet corn into freezer bags. We all would shuck the corn, mom and grandma would blanch and ice bath. They then did the dangerous job of using the mandolin to remove the corn. When it came to canning, we helped fill jars, but we did not know the rules and regulations for processing time.

As a young adult. I fumbled my way through gardening and preserving. I was proud of what I did. I went through spells that I just didn't do much of any of it. When Rick came into my life, that changed. Shortly after his heart attach and stroke, we took a real good look at our lifestyle. We wanted a future together, and taking care of our health had to be priority one.

Let me tell you. We fell down the rabbit hole. The more we researched, the more we became disgusted with the broken system. It makes one wonder how our lives would have been different, it we had been eating real food this whole time.

We planted our first garden 4 seasons ago. It wasn't huge, but it is what we had. We set up a cinder block raised garden in the back yard. Rick ran to the landscaping store with his truck and bought good gardening soil. The garden was filled up. We planted seeds and added some starts. We had no huge thought on varieties, we just stuck something in the ground. We tended to that garden. It was a success to us. Although, our carrots never grew and some of the items were stunted.

Year two, we tried growing our own starts. We did try the year before as well. Our systems were broken so they were a bit of a failure. We bought some more starts and seeds and put them into the garden. We added fertilizer and watered. We even mounded random hills along the back off our property to grow melons and pumpkins. No matter how hard we tried, our garden was an epic fail. There was not much harvest. We pondered why it was such a bad year. It was a hot one, but we watered regularly. The mulberry tree dropped it discarded fruit on one end. Then there were the flies swarming the dropped fruit. Ultimately we came to the conclusion the city water was the culprit. With the chemicals they add to it. Found out a few years later, our water was also contaminated with other chemicals as well.

The following season we were selling the house, so no garden. We cleaned up the garden and tarpped it to keep out weeds until it was listing time. What we did do, is research. We wanted our garden to be the best it could be once we got to Tennessee. We would be on a fixed budget and wanted real and clean food. Especially with the transitioning from living in the camper for eight months and living in an unfinished cabin for 3 months. With most of our kitchen gear in storage, we have not been eating clean and it shows.

While we were still back at the house and in the camper, we worked on our preservation skills. We were fermenting vegetables. We had a good sour dough starter. I finally made a decent loaf of bread. We froze bulk items from the store. We got into water bathing banana jam and other things. We studied up on amish canning and felt that was a good fit for us. Yes, I am a rebel canner. We canned meat, potatoes and green beans. We tried our skills at canning dried beans.

I have been stockpiling knowledge on the different categories of veggies like tomatoes and peas. I have been researching what nutrients those plants need. I have been purchasing seed packets and filing them into my binder. Only choosing the seeds that lend us to seed saving at the end of the season. I have been gathering seeds to add grow future trees and medicinal herbs. Which most people call them weeds.

We found a style of gardening that we want to work with. Anne of All Trades lazy garden. It really should be called smart gardening. If built right, the weeds are kept at bay. The ones that do pop up ate easy to pull. The water retention in these beds is amazing. Unless you are in a drought, you shouldn't have to water. We built our beds with what we have on the land. Some nutrients we had purchased before we packed up all of our belongings. And our 55 gallon cart of compost we made before we left Michigan. A good garden takes time to establish. With future inputs and collected knowledge, it will be a food making machine. Our version of a victory garden.

Thank you for taking the time to read the blog. I hope you feel inspired to get out and grow, or at the very least do some research. Take care and we will talk soon.