Thinking of the Spring and Ordering Seeds

I am looking through our seed catalogs, figuring out what we want to grow this year. For those who don't know us, we have a large garden out back. Last year we ate a ton from the garden fresh and in the end did a lot of freezing and canning. We also harvested a bit of winter squash and cabbages to eat through the winter. We are expanding the garden this year so we can grow more corn, and potatoes (which we have not done). We also expect great things from our raspberries and apple trees this year.

For any of you interested, this is what we ended up with for winter consumption. The strawberries, apples and much of the corn were not from our garden (thanks Rose, Mary Jo and Don).

Froze or Canned:

12 pints of strawberry jam

1.5 gal strawberries

7 cups of rhubarb

10 cups of cherries

180 cups of zucchini

36 cups of green beans

5 pints of dilly beans

14 quarts of dilly beans

140 cups of corn

12 cups of Swiss chard

8 cups of kale

8 pints of pizza sauce

7 quarts "Italian" tomatoes

8 quarts spaghetti sauce

12 quarts diced tomatoes

5 quarts tomato sauce

3 quart bags of dried Roma tomatoes

14 quarts apple sauce

21 quarts apple pie filling

7 pints jalapeno jelly