I really appreciate your articles, and I would love to get excited about planning a large garden, as we did in the past with six children. But the kids are all gone now, and my wife finds it so much easier to pick up groceries on her way home from work. I would do all the gardening, but I have a job too, so I can't do all the cooking. I'm not exactly welcome in her kitchen anyway :). But I'm am discouraged to see my produce going to rot in the root cellar. Besides that, we're avoiding corn, potatoes (high carbs) and other nightshades (tomatoes and peppers), which eliminates some of the most productive crops. I want to keep gardening in order to maintain the soil, and to exercise the skills and tools I have collected over the years, because growing our own food is so much healthier, and it's a skill I want to preserve. I also see it as a stewardship of the land, using the resources available, but my wife doesn't share my enthusiasm for gardening. She gets exasperated with me if she thinks I am planting more than she wants to use. I also have several fruit trees, berries and grapes, but without doing any preserving, we can only use a small portion of the yield. I'm reluctant to try selling produce, because 1) the returns don't seem to cover the investment, 2) people don't want to pay for anything less that "Grade A", and 3) we have a limited rural market exposure, but that may be my best option. Do you have any suggestions for me?
I really appreciate your articles, and I would love to get excited about planning a large garden, as we did in the past with six children. But the kids are all gone now, and my wife finds it so much easier to pick up groceries on her way home from work. I would do all the gardening, but I have a job too, so I can't do all the cooking. I'm not exactly welcome in her kitchen anyway :). But I'm am discouraged to see my produce going to rot in the root cellar. Besides that, we're avoiding corn, potatoes (high carbs) and other nightshades (tomatoes and peppers), which eliminates some of the most productive crops. I want to keep gardening in order to maintain the soil, and to exercise the skills and tools I have collected over the years, because growing our own food is so much healthier, and it's a skill I want to preserve. I also see it as a stewardship of the land, using the resources available, but my wife doesn't share my enthusiasm for gardening. She gets exasperated with me if she thinks I am planting more than she wants to use. I also have several fruit trees, berries and grapes, but without doing any preserving, we can only use a small portion of the yield. I'm reluctant to try selling produce, because 1) the returns don't seem to cover the investment, 2) people don't want to pay for anything less that "Grade A", and 3) we have a limited rural market exposure, but that may be my best option. Do you have any suggestions for me?