Giving away garden veggies

[forky]

I grow a large veggie garden every year. This year the garden grew larger with the L2501 and new tiller.
I share everything extra with my children and their friends normally, however this year the bountiful garden provided even more, and is not done yet with the Winter squash yet to harvest.

Today I stopped by the Amish neighbor to see if they needed anything...nope, but their daughter in law around the hill prolly could use some.

I shared over 10lbs of green beans, a large flat of grape tomatoes, and a ice cream pail heaped with broccoli.
She was a young wife and will be canning the beans. She wanted to pay me for the produce, but that's a no way for me. It's not about the money.....being blessed with a over harvest....priceless.

 

[skeets]

Dont forget the local homeless shelters

 

[RCW]

My grandma always said "Never leave your car doors unlocked during zucchini season.."

That's an admirable use for your excess product. Good on you!

 

[lugbolt]

oh yes you'll like this

I used to live closer to my mom and dad but have since moved further away. When I lived close we (as a family) had a 1 acre garden. Tilled by hand and with an old 5hp 26" garden tiller. WORK, but we had great veggies. Greens, beans, maters, melons, corn, dad even grew some cotton for a while. We always had more than we could use, I canned maters for a while but you can only can so much stuff, you run outta places to put it after while. So we'd just give it away. We gave a LOT away actually.

Well a number of years ago dad gave a basket full of maters to a neighbor who was very greatful. Several months later dad gets served papers, he had to appear in court to defend his case. The lady who he gave the maters to got choked up on one and had to go to the hospital. So she sued dad for the medical bills. Ridiculous ain't it?

 

[forky]

Sorry to here about that stupidity. The World is full of people like that....sad for sure.
Most folks really enjoy the harvest and are thankful for the veggies.....takes one person to ruin the intent.

 

[Magicman]

No more giving away veggies for this growing season. The wife and I shared our last tomato last evening. It was a very good but also a sad ending to a bountiful year.

 

[forky]

Slowing down here too, but have some late heirloom yellow paste tomatoes and another red heirloom variety just starting to yield. Gave 7 lbs of green beans and 8 green peppers to the office at church. At least the L2501 fel isn't full of tomato flats full of ripe maters.
Yep, truly a bountiful year.
More potatoes to dig yet....dug a bushel so far.

 

[skeets]

The weeds ate my onions !

 

[random]

The weeds ate my onions !

Same here

 

[Tornado]

I grow a large veggie garden every year. This year the garden grew larger with the L2501 and new tiller.
I share everything extra with my children and their friends normally, however this year the bountiful garden provided even more, and is not done yet with the Winter squash yet to harvest.

Today I stopped by the Amish neighbor to see if they needed anything...nope, but their daughter in law around the hill prolly could use some.

I shared over 10lbs of green beans, a large flat of grape tomatoes, and a ice cream pail heaped with broccoli.
She was a young wife and will be canning the beans. She wanted to pay me for the produce, but that's a no way for me. It's not about the money.....being blessed with a over harvest....priceless.

Nice to hear about your garden harvest forky. I have the same tractor as you, the good ol L2501. One of its many uses for me is to also grow a garden, and I also just acquired a new tiller for it. I didnt get the tiller in time for this years garden, but I cant wait to use it next year. Ive been making do with a disc harrow. It breaks the ground well but cuts trenches and such and leaves the ground very uneven, so i will be glad to start with a nice even garden bed next year!

This year I planted only a few items but went heavy on them. I am in Florida. I planted red pontiac potatoes, crimson spineless okra, crookneck squash, Husky cherry tomatoes, Rutledge (I think?) regular tomatoes, bell pepper, jalapeno pepper, sweet potatoes and 2 varieties of watermelon: Crimson sweet and Jubilee.

I ended up with a bumper crop. This was my first year planting a full garden in this new spot, where I have so much more room and full sun. I gave away so many 25, 26, 27 lb. crimson sweet watermelons. I had several 40 - 45lb jubilee watermelon monsters I gave away. I was so surprised how well the melons did this year, just huge, and you couldn't get them any sweeter if you poured sugar on them. I had so many people reach out to me and say that it was the best melon they had eaten in their life, and watermelon is popular down here! Makes you feel good to know you were able to put all that time and effort into something and watch others enjoy it. Hats off to you for also giving freely the fruits of your labor. My biggest worry with giving, especially with melons, was the fear that it wouldn't be sweet or good enough. Watermelons can sometimes look gorgeous and be big and beautiful but not be very sweet. I was glad they seemed to work out this year.

 

[forky]

I would give you two likes if they would let me Tornado! It's the same thing with the Winter squash here. I wait until I know they are ripe before I share them. I'll prolly have over 70 squash to share with others....just makes you feel good to share the harvest doesn't it? It's amazing how much produce one can grow, when they love what their doing!
Love the L2501....I can run the tiller in 2 wheel drive with no issues......amazing how much time this new equipment saves me too.

 

[Tornado]

I would give you two likes if they would let me Tornado! It's the same thing with the Winter squash here. I wait until I know they are ripe before I share them. I'll prolly have over 70 squash to share with others....just makes you feel good to share the harvest doesn't it? It's amazing how much produce one can grow, when they love what their doing!
Love the L2501....I can run the tiller in 2 wheel drive with no issues......amazing how much time this new equipment saves me too.

My garden spot right now is about 50 x 170 or so. I have room to expand it if I want to but this is a lot of room so far. Half of my garden was dedicated to nothing but the watermelons. I had 18 crimson sweet, and 6 jubilee. I planted them at a 10-12 foot spacing on mounds. By the time they were done, they had covered every centimeter of that whole end of the garden in vines. I had some 20-30 foot long vines. I picked dozens of melons. My wife and I are still eating melon. We will have melon all the way into October to finish up. My investment in all that melon was 2 little packets of seeds, and a little fertilizer which I only did twice. Hundreds of pounds of watermelon for about a $5 investment. Gardening is so exciting for this reason. The same was the case with my Okra. I did two plantings, about 6 or 7 weeks apart. I still have okra producing in the garden now in mid September. Some of the plants are now about 7 foot tall.

I've done very little fertilizing. I use drip irrigation on a timer that works well. I've had many people ask me for the "secret" to the big sweet melons and such this year. If anything, this year has highlighted the benefit of organic matter in soil. My wife and I have 2 horses. I use the L2501 to bucket up all their poop locations and dumped many many bucket loads of horse manure into the garden and tilled it in. That is ultimately what grew these nice melons. I am planting into very poor sandy soil.

L2501 has been a real blessing for sure. The disc harrow I use is a 72", 800lb one, so it is at the top end of what the L2501 can deal with id say. It will bury the discs on the heavy harrow in 2 wheel drive all the way up to the most aggressive settings on the harrow. If you go full aggressive angles on the harrow I do have to drop into 4WD as the rear tires will start to just spin down. That is a lot to pull through sandy soil for a 25HP machine. In 4wd it doesn't miss a beat.

 

[forky]

Good to hear you are feeding the soil Tornado. In my case I have two chicken coops that provide all my organic fertilizer, and I do side dress my potatoes with 10-10-10. They love the extra feed and really go crazy when we get a good rain shower.
Good to hear the L2501 works well for you too.