It is sad but...

Howdy Folks:

I talked to one of my co-workers today who has been given a complete row garden ready to be picked. As row gardens go this one sounded about as perfect as one of those old fashioned gardens can get. Lots of humus built into the soil, weed barrier used, very few bugs, and lots and lots of fresh veggies ready for the picking. The only problem is my co-worker has no idea what to do with the veggies once picked or how to tell when they are ready. She asked, "What do I do with the beans after I pick them? How do I harvest the okra and then what? etc. It is a sad time in America when we have lost so much knowledge about gardening that we don't even know how to tell if a tomato is ripe or how to cook a pot of fresh picked beans.

God Bless, Ward and Mary.

LOL - don't beans come out of a bag in the freezer section? - I had a similar issue in that one of my good friend's parents grow zucchini. ALL they have ever used them for is in baked goods so they let them get to be the size of caveman clubs! No sauteing, no steaming, no eating raw, no stuffing...nothing. Now they are not making baked goods and I'm getting them - which is great! Except that I'm trying to tactfully let them know that now that I have over 7 quarts of grated zucchini in my freezer and a sore grating arm, perhaps they could pick a few when they are small enough to prepare in other ways... All kidding aside, at least she is asking the right questions and wanting to know, so that's awesome! You sound like a great teacher!

I've been thinking about this a lot. Not knowing when to pick certain veggies can be intimidating. When we get fresh produce from the store, it was picked when immature and therefore does not look much like it would if it has been ripened in the garden.

As for how to put up a bountiful produce? I froze a bunch of beans last year using advice from an old cookbook and was really disappointed at how they cooked up later. If you aren't used to having a large harvest, I can see how it would be overwhelming.

But not knowing how to cook the produce for a single meal is a pretty sad commentary on our disconnect from food.

It reminds me when they asked a group of city kids how many legs a chicken has. One child replied, "It depends on how big of a package you buy."

We have failed miserably to TEACH our children these simple things.

My neighbor & I are going to take online classes on canning, freezing, drying, preserving. Our mothers never did ANY of this, so we are stumbling around (well it doesn't take a genius to freeze, but canning scares me).

My oldest son (28) can't wait for me to learn so that I can teach him.

Ksroman, look into dehydrating as well. You can store finished foods in something other than breakable glass, finished foods weigh less and store longer, much less chance of contamination, etc. I don't can anything anymore but tomato sauce (and that in great quantity) but dry everything else.

I am looking forward to dehydrating a bunch of apples this year for snacking this winter.

Ha! Funny thread. I suppose she could always throw them into the compost.

We've eaten snap peas off the vine until we're pretty much sick of them, now there's a bunch still out there that I have to bag & freeze. A lot of my stuff still isn't ready yet tho - when they all come in at once, then yeah, it will get a little overwhelming, but I'm pretty much a throw-it-in-the-freezer person, eat a little now, try to make it last as long thru the winter as possible. Someday I'd like to try dehydrating it, just to mix it up.

It's one thing to grow veggies. It's another to make them into an appetizing meal. haha.

That is funny but sad!

I have to admit, though, that when I first started gardening, I had no idea how or when to harvest some of the veggies I planted. When should I cut my head lettuce? When are the peppers big enough to pick? When are the onions ready to be dug up? I had no experience and no one to ask. I'm still learning, but I have a few years of experience under my belt at least and a great community to answer my questions.

As for not knowing how to prepare the food, well, that's just ridiculous. You kind of have to think of these things before you plant the veggies. Either eat them fresh, blanch and freeze them, or can them for the winter. I don't think most modern people want to spend that much time on their food though!

I find it so sad that some young children do not know that milk comes from a cow, and potatoes and carrots grow in the ground.

I am lucky that I had a dear foster-father to teach me by helping me plant a potato in the ground (I was four at the time) and that from it came several pounds of pots which was used for one meal for the family. I was so proud, it kind of sticks with you as you grow up even though I never took up veggie garding until a couple of years ago. A few flowers and mow the lawn but that is all I ever did.

Now when I cook with my own produce I feel it is almost a ritual as I prepare my food, instead of bunging a frozen dinner into the microwave.

I used to believe the saying "America started going down hill when we stopped building front porches", but I heard someone say the other day that it actuall started when we stopped being responsible for feeding ourselves. We now depend on the stores, or fast food restraunts for our main source of food. Hearing this reinforced my determination to daily drag my kids outside to pull the squash bugs off of the squash and water the tomatoes, and what ever else needed to be done!

Our community garden has two beds that are used for the Grow UR Grub program as an extension of the library's summer reading program. While using the SFG spacing and grid method, we cannot use Mel's Mix due to restrictions of the garden. I assist the local Master Gardener in working with a small group of kids ages 6 thru 14 that participate and it is amazing when they harvest something, how excited they become. Most have never been in a garden before and did not know where produce came from. They did not know what grew underground and what grew aboveground. This is the larger of their cheddar cauliflower and behind them is their snow and sugar snap peas.

They have planted and harvested broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower. They enjoyed the various colors of carrots (red, purple, white, yellow and orange), beets (red and yellow), lettuce (various shades of green and red). The kids are looking forward to yellow, purple and green bush beans. First tiny beans were about 1 inch long this past Saturday, so hopefully we will have some to harvest when we meet next Saturday.

The all blue potatoes are still huge green things trying to shade out the plants around them, but each plant has grown Potato Berries (True Potato Seeds) so another thing of interest for them.

I really am happy to be a part of a program that teaches the kids and gets them interested in growing their own.

YAY FB!!!

Way to go, Furballsmom.



We MUST pass on our knowledge to the next generation. They are going to need it.