Gardening
Home Garden
We always have a nice-sized vegetable garden.
We usually have around 50 tomato plants, including cherry, romas and different steak varieties.
I can the tomatoes and make salsa (recipes on the homemaking page). We plant different varieties of hot peppers including jabenero and jalapeno as well as bell peppers.
Last year we also tried peas, picking them when the peas are small and eating the pea pods in salads and stir fries.
We grow green beans that I freeze and pickle. Squash is one of my favorite foods and we grow several different varieties.
I freeze some vegetables, tomato sauces and loaves of zucchini bread.
We have a short growing season, being so far north and at a thousand feet elevation. Last summer was not very warm and we had a
less than normal yield of tomatoes, but a bumper crop of peppers. The reason for this is that we planted the peppers in black pots.
This year we are planting both the tomato and pepper plants in pots. We're also hoping for warmer weather. I didn't get
to can tomatoes or make salsa last year and our cucumbers never did come up. I'm looking forward to a better gardening season this year.
Ginseng
About a dozen years ago, we tried growing domestic Ginseng under shade cloth since ginseng needs 80% shade. Growing domestic ginseng is labor-intensive and should be thought out carefully. We would gather the berries every year and Robert planted them in suitable conditions in the woods behind our house. The price of wild ginseng, even wild-simulated ginseng is considerably more than domestically grown ginseng. The picture on the left is a very nice root that Robert dug up while searching for wild ginseng. Notice how its form is similar to that of a man. Robert loves being outdoors and hunting ginseng is a favorite pasttime. We also make a few dollars selling the roots.
Fruit and Nut Trees and Bushes
We planted several types of fruit trees, including different varieties of apples, pears, plums and cherries. Also nut trees, black walnuts and hazelnuts. We also have elderberries, raspberries and blueberries. The fruits on the trees are still small, but tasty. They are not grocery-store perfect, but they are quite edible. Time and patience is definitely needed when growing fruit trees.
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