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Post by daylilydude on Mar 21, 2018 4:13:38 GMT -5
I have noticed that there are those here that talk alot about beans, corn, taters and such, so I was thinking that it would be a great thread to hear about your main crop and why it is the main one in your garden... yes, a lot of us grow tomatoes, but to some it's not the first thing we make sure gets in the garden each year whether it's canning, dehydrating, freezing, seeds or whatever... what's your main crop each year, how do you use it, and let us know how you prep it for storage.
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Post by spike on Mar 21, 2018 5:32:12 GMT -5
Beans and peppers are probably tied. I grow several varieties of each. Green and wax beans are canned together and other beans are dried for soups and stew. Peppers are frozen, canned in soups, frozen stuffed etc.
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Post by paulf on Mar 21, 2018 7:29:24 GMT -5
For me it IS tomatoes. It went from trying out some strange sounding names to the obsession it has become. Mostly the harvest gets eaten fresh, given away or frozen to use during the winter in soups or casseroles,etc. Seeds are saved from some of the more obscure varieties to be regrown or even shared. The more common varieties when I need seeds I buy from several vendors who make a business of seed saving and selling
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Post by octave1 on Mar 21, 2018 8:58:40 GMT -5
I always grow more tomato plants than anything else, so that would be my main crop. Zucchini and beans are a close second. But: I am forgetting watermelon. So, actually in terms of space watermelon is my main crop.
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Post by brownrexx on Mar 21, 2018 9:14:30 GMT -5
I don't have a main crop. I usually grow 20 - 25 different kinds of vegetables.
I don't mean varieties, tomatoes only count as one, peppers are one, dry beans are one, etc.
With a few exceptions, I grow basically all of the vegetables that we eat and I use a variety of storage methods but freezing is the main one. Root crops and winter squash are stored either in my basement or refrigerator, beans are dried and stored in the pantry. Herbs and fruit slices are dehydrated.
Every couple of years I make some jam or sauerkraut and can that but I don't do much canning anymore.
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Post by farmerjack41 on Mar 21, 2018 9:22:32 GMT -5
Like Brownrexx, can not say I have a main crop for personal use. Potatoes, corn, carrots, etc. For the selling of produce, it would be hands down, beets. Seems not many folks grow beets, and some that due want big money for them.
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Post by brownrexx on Mar 21, 2018 9:26:35 GMT -5
farmerjack41 , do you sell any of the beet greens? Last year my hubby tried eating them and they have become one of his favorite greens. I think that they might sell well at a farmer's market. They are very nutritious with a mild beet flavor.
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Post by farmerjack41 on Mar 21, 2018 9:40:15 GMT -5
No, do not sell the greens. As I understand they need to be picked at a young age to be good. Not sure about that! As far as I know the beets are bought to be canned. They are sold by the pound, greens cut off and dirt washed off. (about an inch of stem left on so they don't bleed) Do have a couple wanting tops for goat feed.
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Post by ladymarmalade on Mar 21, 2018 9:49:12 GMT -5
Tomatoes would be my main crop. I grow at least 50 varieties every year- most of them ones I've never tried before.
I grow them for fun, because I enjoy the wondrous variety of all the different colors and sizes of tomatoes. I also grow them as favors to online friends- helping them trial new crosses and advancing them for the purpose of seed saving. Once I've logged my reviews and saved my seeds, the tomatoes are then destined for the canning pot to become salsa, sauce and straight up canned tomatoes. Green (not ripe) tomatoes become my favorite pickles at the end of the season!
A close second would be hot peppers. I grow SO many more of those than I will ever use, and my efforts to make hot sauce, while appreciated, yield so much more hot sauce than we could eat in a lifetime. I grow hot peppers simply because I can. I taste the hottest of the hot with my hubby and brother in one of our annual traditions, and I love to save and share the seeds.
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Post by pepperhead212 on Mar 21, 2018 10:45:35 GMT -5
Peppers would be my main crop, with close to 50 plants each season, with a dozen or so "must have" varieties. Tomatoes are a close second, with close to 40 plants each season, but most are eaten in the summer - I freeze some, but don't bother canning, as the tomatoes that taste so good fresh just aren't the same canned. And there is not a day that goes by all year that I don't eat something with peppers in them, either something I made that day, or frozen or other leftovers. I eat tomatoes in some way every day in the summer, once they are ripening, but not nearly as often as peppers in the off season.
I dry my early ripe peppers, then freeze the later ripe ones (that I use fresh - not all are used this way), and at the very end, I'll freeze green ones. Some, like anaheims, I roast and peel as they appear, then freeze them, and I pickle a lot of jalapeños, as escabeche, and fortunately, they are sort of a "determinate" pepper, producing a huge number at once.
And I forgot to mention the vegetables I grow large quantities of: GREENS! Before and after all those summer crops the brassicas are the main crop in my garden, along with some chard in the summer. However, I don't freeze any of it, unless it is in a soup, or something like that.
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Post by hairymooseknuckles on Mar 21, 2018 12:04:41 GMT -5
Gosh I dunno. Like brownrexx I grow a pretty good variety. Anything that hits my fancy really.
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Post by guruofgardens on Mar 21, 2018 12:25:28 GMT -5
We try to grow the same veggies every year, but this year we're downsizing in the community garden and I gave one of my plots to a young'un teacher. I'm hoping she will do well in her first garden ever! She will have lots of help with tilling, 'free' seeds, tomato cages, etc. I just want her to succeed.
We grow for fresh and freezing. I usually make 4-5 soups during the winter with a variety of veggies, calling it 'dump soup'.
Tomatoes are my favorite, followed by hot peppers, then the rest. Whatever grows is the best.
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Post by spacecase0 on Mar 21, 2018 14:04:47 GMT -5
butternut squash is likely my main crop, easy to store, just put it on a shelf (not touching each other) and don't let it freeze but I really do cycle through what is a main crop as I grow corn and/or sorghum, squash, potatoes. whatever one the conditions that year did not take out is my main crop. the bunching onions are likely the next largest crop, and they grow year round, so no storage needed. everything else I grow is not in large quantity (unless you count crops only grown for seed)
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Post by meandtk on Mar 21, 2018 16:05:15 GMT -5
Corn can be planted earliest here, along with taters. We can taters and sell taters. Last year we gave away 500-600lbs of taters too. Sweet corn for the freezer and also for a sweet 90 y/o widow from church. Field corn for meal. Then comes squash, oeas, and beans. Then winter greens. All else follows in importance.
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Post by mgulfcoastguy on Mar 21, 2018 17:50:01 GMT -5
The main crop varies. For several years it was winter squash, other years it was beans or sweet potatoes or peppers. I tend to go in cycles though some things get voted off the island permanently. This year there will be an abundance of peppers, cucumbers, a single variety of sweet potatoes, some summer squash, and more tomatoes than last year thanks to 100%germination of seed dated 2012.
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whistech
Pro Member
Posts: 300
Joined: April 2013
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Post by whistech on Mar 21, 2018 21:18:25 GMT -5
I'm another that does not have a main crop. I grow in raised beds and plant sweet peppers, tomatoes, potatoes, green beans, okra, summer squash and onions this time of the year. In the fall and winter I grow broccoili, cauliflower, cabbage,snow peas and carrots. Also grow purple hull peas after the onions and potatoes are harvested in late May or early June. There's also others that I'm sure I missed.
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Post by september on Mar 21, 2018 22:37:26 GMT -5
Veggies that take up the most space in my freezer are pint bags of sweet corn and green beans. I try to have enough to last til the next summer. Both are briefly blanched then cooled in cold water and bagged. Broccoli, sugar snap peas, and chopped frozen peppers also end up in the freezer in lesser quantities. I try to grow enough good salad onions that also store decently, Ailsa Craig are favorites and also a red variety. Pinetree had a pink onion this year that sounded good, looking forward to trying that.
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Post by hairymooseknuckles on Mar 21, 2018 22:46:22 GMT -5
september, Would you tell me the name of the pink onion. Mom loves red onions. I'll surprise her this fall with a package
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Post by september on Mar 22, 2018 9:46:04 GMT -5
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Post by Laura_in_FL on Mar 22, 2018 10:18:18 GMT -5
Those blush onions are pretty. They are long day onions, though. So, no good for me. Back to the original question, I don't have a single main crop. However, I grow more sweet peppers and tomatoes than anything else. I eat lots of fresh peppers and tomatoes, give away some (my in-laws love them), and freeze quite a few peppers in a good year. I also make tomato sauce when I have enough tomatoes at once, pickle jalepenos, and freeze some tomatoes, but not many because my freezer space is limited. But I like to grow a lot of different vegetables at the appropriate times of year. Most other things I grow are in small quantities so I mostly eat them fresh; occasionally I have enough greens, green beans, carrots, or eggplants to freeze some. One other thing I grow to store is garlic - hopefully I have enough garlic growing now to keep me in garlic all year, plus if I have some really nice heads I will keep the best ones for fall planting. My blueberry bushes are still small, and I plan to add at least one or two more bushes. Maybe in a few years I will have enough blueberries to freeze a bunch.
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Post by Gianna on Mar 22, 2018 10:44:05 GMT -5
Joe E. Parker (Anaheim type) numex peppers are a priority. They get flame roasted just as they are at the cusp of turning red, then frozen in packets. Those that make it to fully red get dehydrated and either turned into powder or flakes, or larger pieces, for cooking.
Tomatoes are a given, but not as many as previous years when there were simply too many. I no longer can them, but do dehydrate slices for later cooking. I tried grinding some to a powder, but it was too sticky. I also give lots away, as well as many young plants.
The past few years winter squash, kabocha types, were a staple. But it seems I've had my fill, so won't grow nearly as many, if any at all this year. Guess I over-did a good thing.
This year a main player is flowers, which goes against my father's tradition of 'if you can't eat it, why grow it', lol.
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Post by hairymooseknuckles on Mar 22, 2018 13:24:47 GMT -5
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Post by brownrexx on Mar 22, 2018 13:58:46 GMT -5
This year a main player is flowers, which goes against my father's tradition of 'if you can't eat it, why grow it', lol. Gianna, their beauty feeds the soul.
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Post by Gianna on Mar 23, 2018 23:15:10 GMT -5
This year a main player is flowers, which goes against my father's tradition of 'if you can't eat it, why grow it', lol. Gianna , their beauty feeds the soul. I've always loved flowers, though not always grown them. I especially like true wildflowers in natural situations. Those especially feed the soul.
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