Oh My Gosh, Vegetables Everywhere!

Now I'm it trouble! This happens every June when my 2000-plus square foot garden comes into production.

Trouble you say, why trouble? Well, the problem is twofold. Problem #1 is just having vegetables scattered everywhere - in refrigerators, and on counter-tops, and sometimes in ice chests. The second problem is having to deal with freezing or canning the vegetables. This chore is easily not a one-man task; I need help. And my wife Brenda is not always enthusiastic about the "mess" and about the helping part. Some of her comments are: "This is your hobby, not mine." "Why do you grow so much?" "Who is going to eat all of this stuff?" "It wasn't my idea to grow corn in the first place." "Do we NEED to grow all of those tomatoes, corn, eggplant, etc."? "Why do we make so many jars of pickles; you don't even eat the pickles?" "Our house looks like a produce market." ...etc..

Needless to say many of her points are entirely valid. But the answer to her concern about why I grow so much is simply that it DOES get eaten, perhaps not by she or I, but by our grown-up children and their families, and also our friends. Much are consumed while fresh and some are canned or frozen. During the months that follow harvest, we seem to have a fairly steady flow of frozen vegetables going from the freezer to our kids, mostly Mitsie, but sometimes April and Mark. Now our grandchildren 4-year-old Benjamin and 2-year-old Carter are also delving into the frozen produce. Every one seems to have a favorite - Mitsie loves sweet corn, Benjamin loves broccoli and Carter loves green beans. Brenda likes the frozen strawberries in strawberry daiquiris. (So I try to keep the frozen strawberry daiquiri container in the freezer from going empty.)

So for now we have quite a "mess" - if you call it that. If we can only tolerate and get beyond the next 4 weeks then vegetable production will subside (and so too will my "being in trouble"). But for now we seem to be "drowning" in cucumbers, eggplant, tomatoes, and sweet corn. (The photo at the left is just the morning harvest.) The squash, peppers, blueberries, and asparagus beans are coming in at a "controlled rate". All will be put to a good use. Much will be given away, much will be eaten, and much will frozen or canned. Time will be needed for the latter.

I saw a recent post on a gardening forum stating the opinion that it costs MORE to grow vegetables than it does to get them from the produce market. I guess this might be the case if you are planting just one plant, but once the economies of scale take over then the economics are overwhelmingly in favor of planting vs purchasing. Be aware that economics aren't the whole story. Surely there is fun, exercise, gratification for a successful harvest, the reward of fresh vegetables, the good feelings from sharing, etc. etc. But also what comes with this is an element of disorder and work associated with a bountiful crop and thereby resulting in ample opportunity to "get into trouble."