More Vegetables!

We have an opportunity this year to use a friends land to grow a good sized garden.  Now, we've gardened for years, or perhaps it'd be better to say my wife has gardened for years, and I had always thought of our garden as a good size.

Until my wife canned and froze produce last year.

It hit about January of this year.  The grocery bill seemed to be growing.  I asked my lovely wife about it (very gently...12 years of marriage has taught me something) and she dropped the bomb.

We had run out of the food we had produced ourselves.  We had also run out of the food we'd purchased at the farmer's markets for canning and freezing.

Suddenly that bit of soil in the backyard didn't seem so large.  Suddenly I realized how much food we consume in a given month.  Suddenly I realized that if we wanted to eat what we grow all year long, we were going to need more space.  A lot more space.

I had planned on just putting in a another raised bed in our yard, but that would dramatically reduce areas available for the kids.  So what's a displaced farming family to do then?

You wait on God.

That's when our friends offered up their garden.  They won't be able to grow this year, so they asked us if we'd tend it.  Yes!  In square footage, the plot is bigger than our house (which isn't really saying much) and perfectly situated for us.

So, both garden spots have now been cleared and some cool weather vegetables planted.  Next weekend we'll add compost.  One more step on the road to freedom from industrialization.