Feeling bummed about this years' harvest....or lack there of...

[Bettacreek]

You got something out of your garden, so you did a good job. We put about $100 into our garden, and got one tiny roma tomato. Animals were constantly destroying the garden and the fencing. We just ripped the last of the tomato plants out. They would've produced a LOT, had it not been for the birds. I put a TON of work into it, shoveling and hauling compost to shovel it back out and spread it on the garden, tilling with a machine that was almost too much for me to handle, etc. Even the chickens did pretty poorly. Although I have plenty of eggs, my meat birds are just now to an acceptable butcher size, and they're four months old! I am not pregnant and I don't work, so I REALLY failed miserably, lol. Now, I'm banking all of my hope on getting venison and butchering out this lamb, and some more chickens. My rooster that I plan to keep is about 10lbs now though, so hopefully he makes it at least another three months and is capable of reproduction.

Anyways, long story short, maybe you could barter for some things? I've been selling chickens and chicks off to try to make up for my lack of a garden (although, honestly, I mostly put that money towards the lamb, lol). For $0.68/15oz can of any veggies, I'll suck it up and buy some canned veggies this year.

 

[baymule]

We had a bad garden also...it seems to be a pretty wide spread problem this year and some are attributing it to the change in the soil acidity and possibly due to the chemical spraying going on...anyone reading anything about chemtrails lately?

Said to be a geoengineering attempt to protect the Earth from the global warming trend....

We get chemtrailed several days a week. And we have record breaking droughts.........and we have forest fires that burn hotter........don't get me started....it just pi$$es me off to see the haze in the sky, criss-crossed.........and we are breathing that stuff

What in the World are They Spraying? (worth watching)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jf0khstYDLA

 

[Beekissed]

Let me see if I can remember....aluminum, barium and strontium...yeah, that was it. Supposed to reflect the sunlight back from the Earth to protect us from those harmful radiation rays.

Gardeners all over the world are reporting too high acidity in the soils, ponds and streams to support normal life and the levels of these chemicals measuring off the charts.

 

[heatherlynnky]

We all get a turn at terrible harvests and when that happens I tell myself " There is always next year". You did get some things canned up and thats a plus. You can find green tomato recipes you might like and give them a try. The small ones done the same way as dill pickles are tasty. Green tomato relish and salsa perhaps?

Look up green tomato chow chow. I don't normally even like the stuff but its pretty good. I don't eat it regular though. I cook up my chicken and then saute it a bit in a little jar of my chow chow and we have what the kids call chow chow chicken. YUMMY and the veggies are all right in there already. I think it was in the ball cook book. YUM

 

[Marianne]

Eh, it was a lousy gardening year in Kansas, too. For me, it was another heavy bug year. sigh.

I just picked a bunch of green tomatoes right before the first freeze last night. I put them in a box in the dark, check 'em every couple of days, pull out the ripe ones and do my thang with 'em.
They aren't as good as when they ripen on the vine, but they're a lot better than the ones in the store.

Because of all the bugs, I got four guineas, three ducks and 10 more chickens... charge!!! The war is on! Every critter is free ranging and hopefully eating bugs.

oh! I also have four little goats now for my organic weed control in our back couple of acres. Yay!

 

[Emerald]

Don't feel bad. this summer just was too hot and dry here and my garden did okay but not good.. I planted less due to some early surgeries this year, worried that I wouldn't be able to keep up.. then the tomatoes did well(with some watering) but my pole beans got tough so I let most of them just go to soup beans. the potatoes were small(but tasty) and I just started getting summer squash and tonight it is a Hard Freeze!
But.. lucky for me a friend of the family had a very good year for a few things.. like tomatoes and peppers. He called us to pick up about a bushel of tomatoes and about a bushel of assorted hot peppers and sweet peppers and I am so happy about having friends who over plant!!!!