Throwing in the Towel…
August 13, 2007 by lavendercreek
..well, at least for this year. I’m talking about our garden…our first vegetable garden. So far this year it has been a dismal failure due in large part to our inexperience but not only that. The soil hasn’t been worked in decades and was used mainly as a garbage dump. You name it, it got dumped here and we’ve been digging out the remains for years. We’ve also had very wet, cold and dark weather which didn’t help. I think we planted a bit too late as well.
All in all, it just didn’t work this year and we are jumping ship… saying Uncle…throwing in the towel..and the trowel…we know when we are beat. We have so many other things to concentrate on before winter sets in that trying to save our sad, fruitless veggie plants would be a total waste of time…they’ll make good compost.
So we will chalk this up as a learning experience. We did harvest a few things, a few peas, some cabbages, some onions and some potatoes…. All in all we didn’t even get 10lbs of potatoes, they just weren’t there…the plants looked great and died like they should, but there just weren’t any potatoes to speak of… I’m thinking alien abduction…that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
But here is a picture of what we did get. We planted Linda white potatoes and some red and blue potatoes, I have no idea what variety they were, they were a gift from a friend. We like the reds but the blues we weren’t particularly impressed with.
We spent part of the weekend pulling up the failed plants and turning the soil. We left the corn and the fava beans. The corn has a few small ears on it and the fava beans are drying. My herb garden on the other hand did very well, so at least there’s that 
I did some more baking over the weekend. I wanted to test a new crusty white bread recipe, here’s what I got.
I can’t tell you how yummy this bread is
Since the garden is a bust, I am going to focus a lot on learning to can, make jams and butters, work on the baking, and start dreaming and planning for next year. ..oh…and cheese, I want to learn to make cheese. I bought several pounds of green beans at the store and I am going to salt them this week for winter storage. This is done pretty much the same way you make sauerkraut….layers of fresh green beans and salt in a large ceramic crock which is set aside to ferment. These beans taste fantastic if they are done right. I haven’t made them before so I want to practice on store bought beans first, that way if it doesn’t work, I won’t feel like crying because I wasted so many beans from our own garden. In another month or so I’ll also make sauerkraut, I’ve made it for the past 2 years now and it is a wonderful winter food. Tastes fantastic and is so good for you, it is also easy to make.
So that’s all the latest…oh yeah, I’m conveniently forgetting that tomorrow is my birthday…well gee, I’m excited… the big 4 5….wow,look at me go…can you feel my excitement?
Sorry to hear about the veg garden - mine was flooded so hasn’t been too productive either.
Wanted to say happy birthday for tomorrow.
Sara from farmingfriends
Happy Birthday! That bread does look absolutely yummy! The potatoes are pretty as well. I’ve never seen the blue potatoes. Maybe next year your garden will do better. Happy canning!
Hey, thanks a lot for the birthday wishes, I appreciate it!
Oops, I meant to add that, Yes! I agree. Next year will be a better year. I’m feeling really positive about it…let those happy green garden vibes flow!
Happy Birthday!! You know, we had the same problem with our potatoes this year. The plants grew beautifully, we hilled and mulched, they flowered and died as they should, we thought we were going to have a great crop. There’s hardly any there!! And what is there is small. I’ve been growing potatoes for 5 years and I’ve never seen anything like it. Perhaps your aliens are doing studies on potatoes grown around the world, eh?! Perhaps we should be grateful for being the “chosen ones” huh?!
Happy Birthday. If it is any consolation this year has been the very worst yet veggie wise for me too - thanks to the first drought - then the floods and cold dark weather - but things are looking up a bit - with lots and lots of courgettes now and the climbing green beans at last making an appearance - oh and the early spuds were good - and the rabbits loved and ate most of everything first and second time around of planting.
Can you post a blow by blow picture account and recipe when you make your sauerkraut - haven’t tried it before - so might give it a whirl. My only concern is all the salt used. We don’t put salt in things for health reasons.
Love reading you blog - don’t get as much time as I would like to leave comments alas
Hi Farm Mom, I’m kinda relieved to know that we are not the only ones with mysterious disappearing potatoes! Now I don’t feel like such a complete failure.
Hi there Allotment Lady, thank you for the Birthday wishes! Yes, knowing that you also didn’t have the best growing season IS a huge consolation, I think we just picked a bad year to start….at least that is what I am going to keep telling myself!
About the sauerkraut… I already have a write up on it with lots of pictures. I wrote it last year and was planning to just move it over here when I make sauerkraut this year. But if you want to see it before then you can find it on this page:
http://www.lavendercreek.de/downonthefarmarchivepg1.html
Scroll down to around the middle of the page to the entry dated Sunday, November 5 2006.
Your bread looks amazing…mind sharing your method/recipe, and the type of camera that you have?
I’m curious about the salted beans — I have a bumper crop of beans this year (because I finally, by pulling up the hollyhocks, got rid of the flea beetles that had been killing the bean seedlings the past 3 years). Because I’ve never had any luck in this garden with beans, I sort of overplanted and now I’m awash … I just went to look at your sauerkraut recipe — how similar is the bean method? Do you have to stamp them, or just layer them? how much salt? I’m also going to experiment with blanching and freezing some of my beans … I have an upright freezer in the basement where I store a lot of my summer veggies (sorry about your bad season — we’re in the opposite boat — drought, forest fires, etc …
Just a quick note to say that I’d be happy to post the bread recipe and go into more detail on the green beans. I’ll write up a few posts tomorrow.
Thanks for the comments
Don’t feel too badly - we are on our third season of our veggie area, and it is a work in progress. This year, my beans were pathetic. Beans! Man, anyone can grow beans, I mean I used to grow them in my weed beds in my old house - so, we do SO much wrong, and learn…each season it seems like something does way better and no rhyme or reason, at least to us…
Blue potatoes can be very delicious, nutty and creamy, when eaten young. Later they become floury and taste quite different. At least this go for the variety Blue Congo (Blaue Swede). But they are not big croppers.