This summer was going to be my summer to finally start my “big garden”.  I’ve always planted lots of herbs and tomatoes but I wanted more veggies so that I could can my own spaghetti sauce, ketchup, and pickles.  This garden project turned into a little like the book “If you give a mouse a cookie”.  Just when I thought I had an idea on what I was going to do–the garden changed all of that.  Garden should be predictable–my garden acted like a 3 year old–it knew what it was supposed to grow in rows but chose not to.

Over the past year I have written several articles on saving money, the first, the second, the third, the fourth, and the fifth.  I’ve also put together some meal plans.  As I wrote these articles I was very mindful of what my family enjoyed eating vs. what was on sale.  I also kept in the back of my mind what could I plant and then can.   Could I really save money by canning my own food.

I decided that I could make my own salad dressings with oil and vinegar.  I planted some cucumbers for pickles, tomatoes for sauce, and some herbs that I could dry.

This is the humble beginning of my container garden.  Last summer we moved into this home in May so gardening was not a priority–yet I was able to put in the first 4×4 space.  But I watched how the sun fell around the yard and found this nice spot for my raised bed garden.  We play lots of soccer in our yard so the sides would protect the garden.

So this year I started my cukes, tomatoes, and herbs . . . but then something started to grow and grow and grow.

And now I have baby pumpkins!

I’m not sure how many baby pumpkins are living underneath this gigantic patch.  I’m not sure how much damage to the lawn.  We also have lots and lots of tomatoes.

We will harvest the pumpkins later next month.

A friend invited me to pick raspberries–so I made some jam.  On the way home there was a farmers stand with apples from the farm so I picked up a bushel.

Oh, I did buy some pickling cukes at the Farmer’s Market and made some bread and butter pickles.  I also made some apple sauce.  I cooked the apples in the crockpot!  It worked great.  Lots of raspberry jam and 5 quarts of tomato sauce (I picked the tomatoes from a local farm and supplemented from my garden).

I’m not sure that I would make tomato sauce again.  I would make pickles, jam and applesauce.  My plan for next year is to go to the U-Pick strawberry farm and make some strawberry sauce for homemade ice cream.  I have spent the last few weeks canning off and on and the process has challenging and fun.  I will once again be mindful of what we use and how we use it to better plan for next year.  I know that it is worth the effort.

Canning brought back some great memories of being a kid and working on the farm.  The best part of the entire experience was working with my kids in the kitchen.  The picking was pretty fun too!