A Homesteader's Garden: Making it Through the Year

Someone suggested that I plant an awfully large garden. I'm a homesteader. I plant enough to try to get through the whole year without buying vegetables from a grocery store. It has been at least 3 years in most cases since I purchased store-bought canned tomatoes, corn, green beans, lima beans, pickles, jams/jellies, fruit, turnips, peas, okra, or even wine. It's amazing how much one has to can to provide for a family. My family size increased to 5 this year so I have to have even more.

The Ball Blue Book, a canner's bible, has a canner's planning guide based on the US Dept of Agriculture's Daily Food Guide. This is for foods that may be canned and covers a one-year period. It allows for 4 servings of canned meat per week with the understanding that few families serve canned meat at all meals. It notes that 10 other servings of meat, poultry, seafood or eggs are needed weekly, that's 520 annually. This gives you an idea of just how much needs to be grown and preserved.

Amount to Can For a Family of Four for one year

Citrus fruits and tomatoes (includes juices)..............................................252 quarts

Dark Green & Yellow Veggies (spinach, carrots, sweet potatoes)...............144 pints

Other fruits & veggies (apples, peaches, pears, asparagus, green beans, lima beans, corn, green peas, squash, etc.)..........................................................608 pints

Meats, Poultry, Seafood..............................................................................144 pints

Soups.........................................................................................................72 Quarts

Jams/Jellies.........................................................................................160 half pints

Relishes..................................................................................................20 Pints

Pickles, vegetable..................................................................................52 pints

Pickles, fruit.........................................................................................104 pints

This is the amount I work toward. I reach it with the pickles, corn, tomatoes, green beans, and squash. Not with the tomato juice and other things. This does not include peppers and onions and fruit that I freeze.

Burpee, the seed company, claims that just a backyard garden can save a family over $1,000 per year. A small patio garden with a few containers of tomato plants and pepper plants are said to save around two hundred dollars per year.

More later....

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