Grow, swap, eat

The before shot - what a mess!

Jersey garden plan

It’s easy to bite off more than I can chew playing around with Garden Minder and planning my summer bounty.  I did my best to restrain myself considering availability of equipment, time management, and growing zone.  The app made it easy to create my gardens in my mind but the app won’t do the work for me – just remind me what work I need to do.  So I already have a list of what needs to happen this week – let’s see how I do in getting it done.  I’ve also laid out a meal plan for the week trying to include as much of what I think should be available locally but filling in with organic and fresh from elsewhere for now.    I realize it will be a lot of good, hard work over the spring and summer to see results from the garden.  We should be eating pretty darn well by summer, though, if all goes as planned.  My concern is what to do once the garden is no longer yielding a crop.  Where will my veggies come from then?  I remember Grandma Emily canning and preserving many things when I was a child and she even taught me how to make strawberry jam albeit with a truckload of white sugar.   I tried canning tomatoes from last year’s garden but not sure I want to be opening those jars at this point – they look more like a science experiment at this point!  I figure a few classes in canning and preserving won’t hurt and will most likely be a lot of fun.  Lucky for me, Sport Hill Farm up the road offers just that during the summer.  (Note to self:  make room in summer schedule for canning classes.)  If I don’t yield enough for canning and preserving to last the winter months I can always hit the From Scratch Club swap – a homemade locally grown food exchange party.  I haven’t seen or heard of any in the immediate area but maybe by then I’ll organize my own!  If all else fails maybe I can swap with Aldo’s wife Edelweis – she canned 100 jars of tomatoes last summer.  I’m beginning to see many options as long as I plan ahead.  I’ll hit the farm stands again today to see if they’ve got anything new and make a plan as to where I’ll be getting my vegetable plants since seed starting is not on the agenda for me just yet (next year).   Planning, organizing, executing, working, sharing – I knew all those years in Girl Scouts would come in handy someday!