Life in the Empire

Grow Your Own

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Grow your own fruit, vegetables, grain and anything else you might like to have. Organic, of course.

Members: 9
Latest Activity: Jul 29, 2010

Many farms offer produce subscriptions, where buyers receive a weekly or monthly basket of produce, flowers, fruits, eggs, milk, meats, or any sort of different farm products.

A CSA, (for Community Supported Agriculture) is a way for the food buying public to create a relationship with a farm and to receive a weekly basket of produce. By making a financial commitment to a farm, people become "members" (or "shareholders," or "subscribers") of the CSA. Most CSA farmers prefer that members pay for the season up-front, but some farmers will accept weekly or monthly payments. Some CSAs also require that members work a small number of hours on the farm during the growing season. A CSA season typically runs from late spring through early fall. The number of CSAs in the United States was estimated at 50 in 1990, and has since grown to over 2200.

Home Canning - reminds me of Grandma's place

Great Depression Cooking with Clara

Clara's YouTube Channel

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Comment Wall

Comment by littleoldme on August 28, 2009 at 8:49am: I have a question for you guys. This is the first year I've grown egg plant.
When ya grow your own are you suppose to leave them on the plant until they are as big as the ones in the store or will they only get so large (about 3 times the size of my fist and roundish)? How long can I let them on there before they'll get rotten? Dumb huh?

Comment by pan on August 28, 2009 at 9:46am: I've only grown the Japanese variety of eggplant so I don't have much to base any feedback upon.

Comment by curt on August 28, 2009 at 10:56am: Experience is one thing, and I don't have any firsthand when it comes to growing eggplant, and knowledge is another. I know that whith many vegetables, it's better to harvest the smaller, younger ones. The answer can be found at the supermarket, if it has an above average veggie dpt. The ones in the store may be big, but do they taste good? Harvest a small one and compare the taste and texture. Remember to be objective.

Comment by curt on August 28, 2009 at 1:12pm: So, we grabbed up the rest of the green beans, plucked the white beans from the shells and layed them out to dry. Did the same with the "butter" bush beans. Plucked the remaining black currents and don't know what to do with them as they're as ripe as they can get. Might better freeze them. Tomorrow, we'll pluck the remaining tomatos. My hanging plant is still alive and has three red ones and four or five green. With that, the hanging tomato plant has outlasted all other produce plants in the garden.

We've decided to plant more beans next year. Beans of various sorts, easy to tend, harvest, store and cook. We still have fennel, carrots and chiccori salad to go. Oh, onions and garlic too. Small amounts of each, just a few handfuls. Sitting there, cleaning the beans it occurred to me we used to do this kind of work each fall, back in the 60s when I was a kid. Canning time.

Comment by littleoldme on August 28, 2009 at 5:34pm: thanks guys

Comment by curt on August 29, 2009 at 2:53am: Here I am at the tender age of 1 (?) trying to bite into a cantelope while an unidentified family member spoon feeds me vanilla icecream at my grandparents place in Ark City, Ks. 1961, maybe '62. I can't quite remember. LOL

Lots of fond memories of that kitchen. Canning was done right there. The garden our back was huge.

Comment by waldopaper on August 29, 2009 at 9:43am: You can grow potatoes in a trash bag.

I haven't tried it yet-- but know some people who have done it.

Comment by pan on August 29, 2009 at 10:19am: Reminds me of the method a friend uses to grow tomatoes on her patio. She just buys a big bag of soil and plants a tomato in it. When the season is over she uses the soil in her garden.

Comment by littleoldme on August 29, 2009 at 7:53pm: I never would have thought of that idea Waldo,Pan. Great ideas.

Comment by pan on October 4, 2009 at 7:59am: Hard frosts have ended the season here. We covered the tomato bushes with plastic in the hope that the hundred of green fruit would survive the night but the forecast is for a week of below freezing lows. Probably will pick green tomatoes today. Very happy with how many and how good the tomatoes have been.

The pear and apple tree were very abundant but the infestation of fruit flies after bringing the fruit into the house makes it very unappealing. Does anyone have any suggestions for an organic spray or other treatment to minimize the insect invasion for next year?

Need to prune the fruit trees as they have been seriously neglected by previous owners and are more shade trees than for growing edibles.

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