What to Learn first??

[FarmerChick]

You should learn how to preserve, can and freeze your produce first?
Learn how to save all that harvest!!


or

should you learn to garden and plant a ton of stuff without knowing how to work the harvest to the best advantage.


Without knowing how to preserve, what good is that great garden...LOL?


or learn both at the same time?



If you learn how to can, preserve, etc garden produce, then you can easily get farmer market produce to experiment on and save the fresh harvest---all before planting that big garden and thus saving time and energy?


just throwing out stuff to chat about.

 

[hikerchick]

You are confusing me.

Too many questions.

 

[hikerchick]

Honestly, though, I had a pretty good garden this year; some years I had a great garden and no idea what to do with it all.

So, you have to at least have a plan to learn. I think now that I don't have a real garden any more, I am going to take advantage of the farmer's market, my ball blue books, the canner and jars I bought this year (unused) and learn how to do it.

That way, when I am in a place where I can have a real garden again, I won't waste so much.

 

[hikerchick]

FC your inbox is full!

 

[FarmerChick]

FC your inbox is full!

cleared some posts...ok now




I know it is confusing all those questions..HAHA


but it is like you posted----so many can garden and eat fresh, but if you don't know what to do with that full harvest, then it becomes waste right?
LOL


everyone here who wants to eat fresh should learn how to can, preserve, freeze, cool storage, etc. etc. all the produce out there.

makes sense I guess..HAHA

I was wondering who got caught like you.

I did. When I started gardening long ago we gave everything away to neighbors and anyone we could dump the produce on...lol...cause I didn't know how to store it. Well now I have tons of food in the pantry.
more for me, less to try to push on others..haha

 

[SKR8PN]

Ours has been a life long ongoing learning experience. I have gardened since I was a snot nosed kid, helping mom and dad in their garden. I also helped mom a lot in the kitchen and that's where I learned the basics of water bath canning. We just add to our experiences every year. Sometimes stuff works and sometimes it doesn't work out quite as well as planned..........
I'd say learn and practice both the gardening and the canning/preservation at the same time......just my $0.02 worth.

 

[Farmfresh]

I think preservation is a good thing to learn as a first assault.

It is usually fairly easy and cheap to get started water bath canning. It takes up little personal time. You experience quick results and easily measurable successes. You can take advantage of store sales and Farmer Markets and save lots of money.

As confidence grows so can your skills.

Pressure canning, proper freezing and dehydration easily follow on the success of a few jars of grape jelly or a couple jars of tomatoes or canned peaches!

Gardens can then follow and all will be put to the best uses.

Gardens are difficult as a beginning with so many things to go wrong. Plus a garden - even a patio pot - requires so much more time and investment to achieve a result.

As far as livestock. I don't think anyone could go wrong with a backyard chicken or three! Easy to care for, charming and produce a result with little work or time invested.

 

[TanksHill]

Great question FC. I think this is another case of store what you eat eat what you store.

I planted a larger garden this year because I received my pressure canner for Christmas. We ate as much as we could fresh and I learned how to pressure can veggies at the same time. I canned the surplus carrots, green beans and tomatoes. I now know I don't like canned green beans. I would hate to have paid cash for those beans just to figure this out.

Every year my garden gets bigger. So I am hoping every year I can fine tune things and can more and more.

I think water bath jams and jellies are something you can justify buying fruit for. Usually around here you can get fruit from the farmers marked pretty cheap. And jam is kinda fool proof.

Just my .02

gina

 

[freemotion]

If someone just starting out were to ask me that question, my answer would depend on the time of year. If it was right now, my answer would be....both! Start reading about and planning a reasonable garden, and buy some produce on sale now and practice preserving it. Buy some fresh herbs and dry them. Buy some brocolli on sale and blanch and freeze it. Buy or borrow a canner and make a batch of something. Then you'll have an idea of what you are in for.

I learned to can meat in part in preparation for raising my own. Now I am ready for turkeys in abundance and pigs.

 

[Beekissed]

I don't know about you folks but I learn best by first reading up on the subject and then I just jump in with both feet and take a bash at it!

It's really the only way I learn...hands on, making mistakes and learning from them and getting it right eventually.

So....which should come first, the garden or the knowledge of how to preserve it?

I'm with free....slam that garden in the ground and, once it is hilled, hoed, mulched, suckered and on its way and there isn't much to do but pick off bugs and smile smugly...that really short interim of "just growing"...that's when to get out the equipment, brush off the books, gather some lids, flats, salt, etc. and read up on the process once again.

So, you make a few mistakes and some of your harvest gets wasted.....who will know but you and the chickens?