If you could, would you...?

Question

can and process your own vegetables? I have found that by buying produce at a farmer's market or a roadside stand, I can get much fresher food and support local farming at the same time. By processing the food myself, I can control what goes into the food that my family eats and save money at the same time. Would you do the same thing if you could?

Answer 1

Where do I sign up!?!?!

I've always thought that would be cool and I think it would also be cool to grow your own food in a garden.  I mean I could drop 10 tomatoe plants in my front lawn and they will grow like crazy with just some water and compost... but what do I do with all those tomatoes!?!?

I suppose I can look up how to do it and make an initial investment in the supplies - hey thanks for the idea!

Answer 2

We do it at my house, two adults, and we have eight tomato plants, bunch of peppers, and other stuff.  Last year we made a lot of chili sauce, and the year before we just canned tomatoes.

The start up cost of doing this is actually pretty cheap, is it more efficient than buying canned tomatoes from the store probably not, but at least you know your stuff was organically grown if that's the way you choose, no preservatives, make the stuff how you want it.

If you can't grow your own vegetables like you say you can buy from local farms, or in your community they may support a place where you can rent out a plot of land to grow your own food.  I just graduated from college and on their property they rented out a plot to people in the community to grow their own vegetables and I believe there is a place in my city but I'm not sure as we have two gardens 8x10 and 1.5x40.

Answer 3

I did when I was a kid.  As an adult with a full time job, I didn't have time.  I've thought about starting again, but I have not.  I do not have good access to a farmers' market.

Answer 4

We haven't actually ever produced enough 'excess' food to enable us to bottle. If a foodstuff is ripe we eat that single food(s) until they have finished cropping. We can store some fruits and vegetables a long time, for example apples and pumpkins which are stored without processing. My issue with bottling foods is:

Firstly: you should not take the entire crop of anything, it is stealing from other life forms, from the soil, from the future

Secondly the processes of preserving food are very energy expensive, take into account all that extra power needed,  the food would best be eaten fresh from a power consumption and nutritional viewpoint.

Thirdly: Excesses of production should be shared with your community or at least bartered.

Fourthly: Animals in a Permaculture system are integrated into the system. They have many functions. One is to store 'summer crops' as flesh/protein for consumption in winter. This is an effective way of storing calories over winter for people who eat meat. A diet of mainly stored/canned fruit and vegetables for a Vegan is not very appealing.

Lastly: Each time you have to spend time bottling food you are wasting human time as well as consuming power. Much better in my opinion getting an outside space and growing as much of your food as possible. If you plant perennial food producing plants then this becomes less and less work each year as they grow and produce a yield.  Eat your fruits and veggies in season and picked locally where-ever possible.