Farming....

[Kosar_For_President]

Mainly for Cal here.

I think I told you I am moving back to the OBX. The house I am at has a lot of fenced in land and next spring looking to plant a sizable garden. I know it is a ways away, I was wondering if there is anything I could read over the winter to get me educated on what to do, plant, etc.

After canning your veggies, how long do they last?

See I am interested in planting some stuff that will also be easy to store and have protein as well as the other stuff. ie, making salsa, maybe sunflower seeds, beans, etc.

What is good to plant and what is easily storable over the winter, for the WHOLE winter. How should I store it?

How much land would I need to get up to speed for feeding 2 people for the winter (obviously not everything) but to be able to add this and that to meals, etc.

I know you could talk about this for weeks or months, but as an amature I just need a good place to start.

Any other advice from the people here (maybe T cause he lives in the same climate)?

Thanks

[calfoxwc]

I know it is a ways away, I was wondering if there is anything I could read over the winter to get me educated on what to do, plant, etc.

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There are a lot of books out there. You can go to your local bookstore or Tractor Supply, and buy "Hobby Farm" and "Mother Earth" on gardening...

Of major importance, is a copy of "Ball's Blue Book". They make the canning jars and lids, and their canning recipes and instructions

are safe and dependable.

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After canning your veggies, how long do they last?

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It depends on which veggies, I think. But if you canned tomatoes (accurately... they sealed, that is), we have used canned tomatoes

up to a year and a half. After that, the food texture and taste starts to decline too much.

But canned tomatoes in the winter, making a big batch of chili? Or, making your own tomato sauce? Your own bruscetta sp? priceless.

I will send you some good links next post....

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See I am interested in planting some stuff that will also be easy to store and have protein as well as the other stuff. ie, making salsa, maybe sunflower seeds, beans, etc.

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One of the easy things to grow... is dried beans. I haven't found a good way to store green beans. I want to freeze them, but they get soggy, lose taste... I heard I should cold pack them. I have to research that. But dried beans, like navy and pinto beans... store in a dry jar indefinately I think.

Cranberry beans, which may also be called horticultural beans. are very, very excellent in taste. I have some from last year, and they are

perfect, stored in zip loc bags. High protein, excellent for lowering cholesteral, excellent food.. Another dried bean is "Jacob's Cattle". With

tan and dark brown coloring like Herford cattle. I don't care for sunflower seeds, but they are easy to grow, and you'll have to put netting over them...

to keep the birds away. Like pantyhose works well for that. You could grow your own owns, harvest them by hand, and get a grinder and grind your own

oatmeal for cookies. @@ I'm going to try that next year.

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What is good to plant and what is easily storable over the winter, for the WHOLE winter. How should I store it?

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Consider planting your favorite dwarf or semi-dwarf apple or pear tree. It'll be a few years before you get fruit, but you will love it.

Tomatoes can excellently, peppers do, some things, like apples and pears? You can buy yourself a dehydrator and go to town.

Bags of dried tomatoes, peppers, apple and pear slices easily last 6 - 9 months, if not longer. I've had dried apple slices

over a year old, and they were excellent.

Fruit freezes and dries terrific. Plant what you enjoy eating. Some heirloom tomatoes will give you fits all too easily getting blights and other

diseases. But they are some of the best tasting tomatoes out there. And you can save seed. If you are or know somebody that can't take

the acid in tomatoes... grow some Golden Girls. They are gold, low acid, high taste.

The best tasting tomato, imho, is the Early Girl, a hybrid. They grow great, produce great. You will want to learn to trim the suckers off

tomato plants for bigger, healthier tomatoes. If your soil has too little calcium, you can easily get "tomato blossom end rot".

You can buy "copper fungacide", which is an organically approved disease water soluable spray.

I don't spray to kill insects anymore... but I hope to figure out a good organic way to kill tomato hornworms. They are about 2.3 - 3 inches

long, and they eat a lot of plant. They don't come out at the beginning of the year, but when they do, you will be shocked at seeing them

in your garden the first time. They are the same color of the stems, and about over 1/4 of an inch around. No kidding.

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How much land would I need to get up to speed for feeding 2 people for the winter (obviously not everything) but to be able to add this and that to meals, etc.

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It depends. Just depends on what you want to grow to have... A couple of zuchinni plants will give you a lot of zuchinni... a dozen Early Girl plants

will give you a lot of great tomatoes to eat all summer....

That's a hard question. I'll have to think on that.

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I know you could talk about this for weeks or months, but as an amature I just need a good place to start.

Any other advice from the people here (maybe T cause he lives in the same climate)?

*************************************************

T will be able to give you a ton of great info and help. I know that I planted expensive sets of big candy onions... and they didn't grow.

Sweet corn didn't grow much last year, because it takes a LOT of nitrogen in the soil.

BTW, I froze a whole bunch of zip lock quarts of tranparent cooking apples I blanched/cooked up ... and a year later, I love them.

You should check the PH of your soil for some certain plants that are harder to grow. Like, blueberries need a non acid soil. Or was that

the opposite. Crap. I forget. I think they need lime........

We love our gardening, and there is always things to learn. Ask me and T and anyone else about it... we'll be here and be glad to share info !

[Mr. T]

@kosar_for_president said:

Any other advice from the people here (maybe T cause he lives in the same climate)?

Thanks

Start early, we have a longer growing season but it is wise to beat the blistering heat.