Growing our own!!

We grow our own and are just beginning to see the fruits of our labours!

We've got cucumbers and lettuce, toms beginning to ripen, cabbage, courgettes, mange tout, broccoli, spinach and potatoes!

Later we'll have sweetcorn, squash, leeks, onions, carrots, parsnips, celeriac...oh...a bit of everything!

We try to grow for succession throughout the year, but the winter really scuppered that plan last year, but it's a real delight to do the weekly shop and not have to buy veg!

I live in an efficiency at this time but when i do get a place of my own (or just a bigger one) i will def start growing my own! I would love to grow corn, cucs, tomatoes, strawberries, carrots, & peas! Best of luck with yours!

yep, see my profile pic

We too have a garden this year. I love watching it grow and showing the kids that not all food comes from the store. We have tomatoes, cucumbers, hot and reg peppers, green beans, snap peas, watermelon, pumpkins, romaine lettuce, and broccoli.

I do and i love it...I have greens beans out the wazoo
now just gotta figure out how to can them before its to late!

My family is from Poland and we have been gardening for years. I am so glad to see everyone else getting on the wagon! Fresh is so much better. My Grandfather would never eat any foods with preservatives and lived to be 93!

A couple of lessons learned: mulch with grass clippings!! This helps keep moisture in and weeds out, not to mention help fertilizing the crop as well.

Another one is to Can or freeze what you grow. pickyourown.org is a very helpful site for instructions and recipes. A book by Ball can be found in the canning section at wal mart, is also very helpful! I reference both frequently.

I also keep a notebook, and keep exact notes each year on what I grown, and can(some recipes turn out better than others). Two years ago I inherited my grandmother's pickling crock, I am still learning how to make pickles and notes help year to year.

Have fun! My kids do eat more, not everything and not always, but definitely seasonal!

I do and i love it...I have greens beans out the wazoo
now just gotta figure out how to can them before its to late!

oops, forgot the post!
some veggies need a pressure canner, beans is one of them. Invest in a pressure cooker or canner, it's the same thing, just different size. freezing is definitely the easiest, don't forget to blanch them first, (dipping in boiling hot water for the specified time, them ice water for the same) Again I recommend investing in The Ball Blue Book, and checking the Pickyourown.org website as well.

A couple of canning short cuts I have learned over the years:

invest in a good rubber coated gloves.
http://www.kaboodle.com/reviews/medium-blue-rubber-gloves I found these in the local grocery store. I used them to handle the hot jars, lids and/or hot food. Can't tell you how helpful these have been!

I no longer use a hot water bath to presterilize my jars, instead I wash them and place them in my oven at 215 degrees fahrenheit(the same temp as boiling water) for 10min. When you are canning 2-3 dz jars or large ones this really helps too! I still boil my lids.

Depending on the recipe I use a boiling water canner or pressure canner. It also helps to have an electric hot water kettle going on the side.

Also, buy your jars early in the season, when it get's busy they sell out fast! Good places to find jars: grocery store, wal mart, ace or aco hardware. Message or friend me if you have any questions. I have been canning for over 25 years, and my family has for 3 generations.

And again, keep a notebook. You won't know if you like the recipe until you open the jars! My grandma used to say they couldn't open this years canning until the first snow flake. My kids run for the peaches when the first snow flake flies! lol

Oooo, one thing I forgot to tell you was two years ago we tried growing our own mustard and got a fantastic crop making our own wholegrain mustard. We still ahve quite a bit left but will have to grow some more next year.
You'll be surprised what we can grow in this weird English climate.

I have tried peanuts as well, but they didn't crop too well. It was a fun experiment though!

When I lived in Germany I found canning jars(yes glass) at the Real store. Do you have those in the UK? Also, the lids in Europe were one piece, they worked just as well for me. Good luck!