September 4, 2023 • 32 mins
This year my garden has sucked. Worst. Garden. Ever. It's been one of those gardening seasons that could make you want to quit gardening. Forever.
But, instead, I'm trying to learn some lessons. Some lessons that I hope will help me be successful in years to come. Hopefully it will inspire you to keep gardening even if things haven't gone well for you either.
Enjoy!!
Brian
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
I'm your host, Brian Wells.
And I'm a fourth generationhomesteader.
Since 2008, my family and I havebeen homesteading here.
Beautiful upstate New York.
In 2019, I launched thehomestead journey podcast.
To help people just like you.
Get started and find success ontheir journey towards
self-sufficiency.
(00:23):
Self-reliance andsustainability.
This is the homestead journey.
And this is season four.
Well, hello everyone.
And welcome back to anotherepisode of the homestead journey
podcast.
My name is Brian Wells.
I am coming to you from a threebeef ramen homestead here in.
(00:46):
Beautiful upstate New York.
This is season four, and this isepisode 100.
And 66.
No one today's episode, we'regoing to be talking about some
lessons I've learned from myworst garden ever.
But before we do that, I didwant to start by offering you an
(01:07):
apology about last week'sepisode.
I had promised you an episodelast week, that was a recording
of a chicken talk that I gaveduring the Southern Adirondack
homesteading festival back inmay.
But when I went to edit that,uh, episode, I realized that I
only had recorded half of theaudio.
(01:30):
While the file size said 60minutes.
And I thought that I hadeverything.
At about the 30 minute market,it chopped off for some reason.
And so I just had 30 minutes ofdead air.
So I opted not to release that.
Uh, I actually tried to pull anaudible and record an episode
with my brother-in-law Al Waymanas he was up here.
(01:51):
Uh, during the fair, um, but theaudio quality just wasn't that
great.
We did it at a table using justthe audio recorder on my phone
and there was just too muchbackground noise.
And so I just decided not torelease that either.
And then by the end of the fair.
I was just, I was, I was beat, Iwas bushed.
(02:12):
And, uh, so it is what it is.
As I said at the beginning ofthe season, I'm trying to have a
little bit more grace withmyself.
And so thank you very much forhaving grace with me.
As well, well, folks, it hasbeen a busy last couple of weeks
here on the homestead.
And so let me go ahead and bringyou up to speed with what we've
been doing here.
(02:33):
On three B farm and homestead.
So the first thing I did want todo is just give you a brief,
quick update with regards toBrian, Jay, he is off to college
successfully seems to besettling in very well, making
connections, making friends,getting involved in different
(02:55):
clubs and activities.
Hopefully he's not doing toomuch.
Um, but he really does seem tobe finding his way.
And so for that, we're verythankful.
He says he's enjoying hisclasses.
Uh, he got connected up withtheir jazz ensemble.
He's loving that.
And so we're very, very happyabout that now for Bonnie and I
(03:17):
getting used to the whole emptynest thing.
Well, really, to be honest withyou, I was.
I was bummed when I found outthat the.
Drop-off date for his collegewas the weekend before the
Washington county fair, becauseI knew it was going to kind of
cramp my style a little bit.
And I know it's selfish on mypart, but.
(03:39):
I really love the fair.
And so I was a little bit bummedthat it was going to kind of get
in the way of that.
But folks, I was so, sothankful.
That we had that week ofdistraction right after taking
him.
Where we dropped him off, cameback and it was just a busy week
at the fair to where we reallydidn't have much time to even
(04:00):
think about the fact that hewasn't here.
Now this week has been a bit ofa different story in that.
We've had a lot more time tothink about it.
We've been home a lot more.
This past week.
And so the reality, I think, isreally finally starting to set
in.
Bonnie I think is feeling it alittle bit more than me.
(04:22):
Uh, but certainly I am feelingit as well.
And, uh, here in the next coupleof weeks, we are going to record
one last episode with regards toempty nest homesteading.
As we share some of the lessonsthat we have learned now that he
is off to college and it's justher and I kicking around three B
farm and homestead.
(04:43):
But as I mentioned, we did havethe wonderful, wonderful
Washington county fair.
Uh, last week too.
Serve as a bit of a distractionfor us.
And I just love the Washingtoncounty fair.
You know that folks I'vementioned it multiple times.
Here on the podcast.
And while it was a bit of adifferent fair this year,
(05:05):
because we didn't have anylivestock there, no chickens, no
pigs, no rabbits, no geese.
No anything.
I still was able to keep mystreak of being an exhibitor at
the Washington county.
Fair alive by entering jams,jellies, pickles, uh, canned
goods of all shapes and sizes aswell as some vegetables.
(05:26):
And while I didn't do toohorribly bad, uh, I got five
blue, three red, two white andfour didn't place in the canned
goods.
And I got four blue, six red,seven white and five didn't
place in the veggies.
Unfortunately for me,fortunately for my mom and dad,
they both walked up on me thisyear, both getting purple
(05:47):
ribbons.
Now, if you aren't familiar withthat purple ribbons means best
in show.
So what they will do is theywill judge all of the entries in
one particular category and thenthey will choose the best of the
best and award it.
The purple ribbon and my mom gota purple ribbon for her apple
(06:07):
butter.
And my dad got a purple ribbonfor his honey products.
And I got zero purple ribbons.
So.
I got skunked beat.
Uh, I'm going to have to dobetter next year, folks.
It's so much fun.
We have so much fun.
Uh, just talking trash back andforth.
And in a good way, people lookforward to it every year.
(06:29):
And so I got bested this yearand I will have to do my best.
Next year to bring my a game andget back in the purple ribbon
category.
Now while we didn't have, uh,any livestock there, I still was
very active in the poultry barnthis year.
I helped, uh, do chores justabout every morning, help tear
(06:51):
down after the fair.
But the thing that was, uh, somuch fun is something that I've
never done before.
And that is, I had theopportunity to judge the youth
poultry show.
Uh, what happened is the youthpoultry judge.
I was not able to show up lastminute due to illness.
And so they were desperate.
And if I'm judging the poultrycontest and you know, they are
(07:14):
very desperate.
But I got called into action.
They wondered if I could do itduring the regularly scheduled
poultry show time slot, whichwas 10 o'clock I believe on
Wednesday morning.
But I had to work.
So we started judging, uh, theyouth poultry show at nine 30 on
(07:34):
Tuesday evening.
And we wrapped up at 1230.
Uh, on Wednesday morning,certainly it.
It made for a long day.
But it was just so much fun.
And then they had the poultryawards for the youth show on
Wednesday evening, just seeingthe pictures of the kids made it
(07:55):
all worthwhile because at theend of the day folks, that's
what it's all about while Ienjoy doing.
the jams, jellies things with mymom and dad, and I enjoy.
Uh, entering chickens in theopen show.
At the fair.
At the end of the day, it'sabout the kids and making sure
that they have a good time.
And hopefully if they have agood time at youth level than
(08:16):
they will grow up.
To want to continue to exhibitat the open level.
That's the only way we're goingto be able to keep a fair going.
And so being able to have a partin that certainly was a
privilege and honor, it was somuch fun.
Glad to do it.
Uh, and, uh, yeah, it was just alot of fun.
(08:37):
And then one other thing that Igot to do this year at the fair
was some canyon demonstration.
So this was the first time we'dever done anything like this at
the Washington county fair.
At least.
Uh, that I'm aware of.
What I ended up doing wascanning some strawberry jam.
I did that twice on Friday.
And as I did that, I talkedabout Canon and the different
(08:58):
styles of Canon and so on and soforth, and really had some very
positive, uh, feedback andinteraction with folks and just
really, really enjoyed.
Doing that.
But this past week has been arecovery week.
So I get to the end of the fairand folks.
Well, I enjoy every minute ofit.
I'm there every day onSaturdays.
(09:19):
Usually I'm there almost allday, Sunday, all day.
Uh, I'm there every evening.
I was there all day on Monday,helping getting things set up.
By the time the end of the faircomes around, I am fared out and
I don't want to smell or seeanother corn dog and other
fritter I don't want to smellthe smells.
See the sites I am fared out andit's unfortunate because the
(09:42):
last couple of weeks, and Ithink going into next week is
the state fair over in Syracuse.
And I'd like to go see thatSunday, but folks, I just am.
Fared out.
I am done.
Fared out.
Uh, so.
I enjoy it.
I love to see it come.
And it usually in about June.
(10:03):
I, I literally, if I startthinking about it, I like start
getting shaky.
Like I'm almost Jones and forsome of that fair food and some
of those fairs, sights andsmells and all of the things.
But boy, by the end of thatweek, I am so done.
So done.
And so this past week here, Onthe homestead certainly has been
a week of recovery, bothphysically, emotionally,
(10:26):
mentally, and then really tryingto play catch-up with some of
the things that kind of gotpushed to the side.
As we were ramping up, gettingBrian, Jay, ready to go to
college.
And then while we were at fairweek, During fair week, just the
world stops and it is what itis.
And so this week, I spent sometime finally getting caught up
(10:47):
in the garden.
Doing some weeding, embarrassingto say that I brought out a
wheelbarrow load of weeds, likeheaped, heaped, heap up.
Of weeds out of my gardens.
a bit embarrassing to say, we'lltalk about some more, later on
how we got to that point.
but that was something that Iwas able to get done this week.
(11:09):
Pick some tomatoes.
I wouldn't say it's all of mytomato harvest.
But it's a lot of it and it'spretty slim Pickens.
We'll just say it that way.
Um, but it is what it is.
Um, I picked what I could pick.
We've got a few more up there,but it's certainly not going to
be anything like I'm use to.
(11:31):
Uh, harvesting.
Today I finally was able to getour pullets moved.
That's something else that hasnot gotten done.
Like it normally did.
Normally by now, my pulletswould have been outside on
grass, for weeks and just thisyear due to the rain and due to
other obligations.
I finally was able to get thingsmoved around today.
(11:53):
And make it so that they can getoutside and enjoy some of the
sun, the sunlight.
I feel really bad about it.
Um, but again, because of howrainy it's been this summer.
Um, it's been the third rainiestsummer in recorded history.
So since they started keepingtrack of those statistics, uh,
(12:14):
they've only had two othersummers that were as rainy as
this summer.
And both of those were in thelate 1800.
So this has been the rainiestsummer in over a hundred years.
And that certainly has put akink in my plans many times.
Um, because either.
Uh, I had time to do somethingand I couldn't because of the
(12:36):
rain.
And then when there was a breakin the weather, I would have
other obligations that I neededto fulfill.
And so I wasn't able to do someof the things that I really
needed to do.
Uh, and that's just life on thehomestead sometimes.
Something else that was fun thathappened this week.
As I found a really cool kitchengadget, I'm a sucker for cool.
(12:59):
Old vintage kitchen gadgets.
And I, I found one, it's arival.
Uh, P shucker and bean cutter.
So one side of it, as you.
Turn the crank and you feed thepeas or the beans into it.
It actually pops open the podand the beans or the peas are
released.
And then the other side, as youfeed the beans through it, it
(13:21):
cuts them into long.
Strips kind of that French cutstyle, green bean.
And so I brought that homeyesterday because I have a lot
of Lima beans that I need toprocess as well as some shell
beans that I needed to process.
And I wasn't sure if this wasgoing to work.
It's billed as a P shocker, butI thought I'm, this might work.
(13:42):
And so it did seem to workpretty well.
Uh, as I ran both some shellbeans through it.
As well as some Lima beansthrough it.
And, uh, then when I ran some ofthose flat Roman style pole
beans, That I I've discoveredthat I really, really like
through it.
It seemed to cut those up intonice little strips.
(14:02):
And so I think I'm going toreally like this a little
gadget.
Uh, it's going to be more thanjust a novelty to have around,
but it does seem like it's goingto work well for me.
As I kind of wrap up this year'sgarden.
The last thing I wanted to sharewith you is that yesterday,
Bonnie and I spent quite a fewhours washing our camper.
(14:23):
We have a small fiberglass,camper from 1977 that, uh, we
absolutely love it.
It's perfect for the two of us.
And we can pull it with ourvehicle.
But, uh, we had some lichen thatwas starting to grow on the
outside of that.
And so we gave it a good bathyesterday in preparation for
next weekend's event, over inGreenfield, New Hampshire next
(14:48):
weekend is going to be the fallgathering to the homesteaders of
new England.
And you are not going to want tomiss that.
I am so excited about it becauseI'm going to have the
opportunity to meet some peoplethat I've talked with online.
I've actually had on thepodcast.
Um, but I've never met them inreal life.
Troy McClung from the pasturepig podcast is going to be
(15:10):
there.
I'm going to get to meet Alalumna from lamina acres.
I'm going to get to see DonBradner from little mountain
life.
Again, going to get the hangoutwith Jack and Jackie from, uh,
the mindful homestead again.
And, uh, I'm just so excitedabout that.
Going to get to see richGiordano.
He is such a hoot, such a greatguy.
Looking forward to seeing him.
(15:32):
But beyond all of that, what I'mso excited about?
Focus on.
Excited about seeing you again.
I got to meet so many of youlast year at that event.
And I'm just excited to be ableto see some of you again this
year.
And to make new connections withothers that maybe I've not had
the pleasure of meeting.
(15:53):
In real life.
And the good news.
I kind of give you the bad news.
The bad news is that the, theticket prices did go up as of
September 1st.
So they're now$35 for theweekend.
But folks what a steal of adeal, what a great opportunity
for you to get together andspend time with other
like-minded individuals andlearn some great information
(16:17):
along the way.
And for$35.
I mean, that's a cheap ticket tobe able to meet me.
Right.
No folks.
I really, really am so excitedabout this event.
I look for, I've been lookingforward to it since, since last
year's event.
Ended.
The other thing that's really,really great about it is if you
(16:38):
have a camper, if you got a 10or whatever, There's a
campground right across the roadfrom the park Oak park where
this event is held.
So it's just a really convenientway for you to be able to spend
a weekend.
And, and enjoy great fellowship,make community learn some
wonderful things.
(16:59):
So folks tickets are stillavailable.
So head on over to new Englandhomesteaders.com.
New England homesteaders.com.
To buy your ticket.
You're not going to want to missthis event.
It's going to be great.
I'm looking forward to it.
I hope to see you there.
All right.
All of that said, let's jump onover to this.
(17:20):
Week's charting the course.
So as I went out to pickvegetables, to put them in the
fair this year, it reallyconfirmed to me what I had
suspected, what I really knew inmy heart of hearts.
And that is that this isprobably my worst gardening
(17:42):
season.
Ever.
My first couple of years ofgardening.
We're far better than this year.
Of gardening this year.
For many, many reasons.
But it has not been up to thelevel of production that I have
been used to in the past.
(18:03):
And when you have a gardeningseason, like I've had this year
where it seems like your entiretomato harvest is going to fit
into two stainless steel bowls.
Uh, that's very disheartening.
And when other things thatyou've been used to growing
almost with, with little effort,I didn't grow at all.
(18:27):
That's very, very discouraging.
And when you look at a situationlike we've had this year, a
gardening season, like this yearseason, You can very easily
become discouraged.
Disheartened, disillusioned.
I guess I could throw, I don'tknow what other word you want to
throw in there.
But to the point to where youjust want to throw your hands up
and say, screw it.
(18:47):
I'm done.
I'm not going to garden anymore.
It's not worth the time.
Effort, energy, the money.
Uh, It's just not worth it.
Um, and it, you could easilyjust throw your hands up and
quit.
But even with a bad gardeningseason, like I've had this year.
I've actually learned some veryhelpful lessons.
(19:09):
And I think these are somelessons that will help me.
As I move forward in mygardening career.
Call it career, but whatever.
As I gardened into the future.
These I think are lessons thatwill help me be more successful.
Um, as I learned from what tookplace this year, So the first
(19:31):
lesson that I learned is perhapsa very simple and obvious one,
but that is that you can havetoo much of a good thing.
Namely, you can have too muchwater now.
In the past I've had, I'vestruggled with a bit of the
opposite, uh, situation wherewe've had some very, very dry
gardening seasons.
But what I found is that it'smuch easier to add water.
(19:55):
Than it is to take water.
You can go out and you can do alot of things in your garden to
either, um, a put moisture intothe soil, to hold moisture in
the soil with, with a mulch andso forth.
But again, to take that moistureout of the soil is very
difficult, but more than that,To be able to get out into work
(20:17):
in your garden when it is rainyand nasty, and it's a downpour
and it's a monsoon and it'slike, you don't really want to
be out there.
And there's certain things thatyou really shouldn't be touching
when they're wet.
For example, beans, you reallyshouldn't mess with those when
they're wet.
It really does put you in a bitof a bind.
And then when you have otherthings that are going on in your
life, Then you find yourself ina situation where, as I
(20:41):
mentioned before, you might havea window of opportunity to work
in the garden and the weatherisn't cooperative.
And then when the weather iscooperative, you don't have that
window of opportunity.
And so I discovered this yearthat it certainly is possible to
have too much of a good thing.
Irrigated the garden, a handfulof times at the beginning of the
season.
I didn't have to pull hoses outthere.
(21:03):
Uh, from probably mid June on.
Uh, I have not watered my gardenone time haven't needed to, um,
because we've had so much water.
The second thing that I learnedis that perspective is.
Important.
It's important to understand.
The reason why the gardenseason.
(21:25):
Has been so poor.
Now, some of that certainly hasbeen because I didn't do some of
the things that I could havedone or should have done in
order to be as successful as Ipossibly could have.
But then there were reasons whyI didn't and there were reasons
why I couldn't do those things.
And so having that perspectivealso, it's not making excuses.
(21:48):
It's just being real and honestand understanding.
Okay.
Yes.
Maybe these things didn't do aswell as, as they should have,
but there were reasons why thathappened.
Uh, one of those was.
That I had a late start.
You might remember that.
Back in early April, I went toa.
(22:09):
Alaska to visit my brother.
And so that just put me behindand it felt like I was behind
from day one in the garden.
And.
I never felt like I really evercaught up.
Do I regret going on vacation upthere?
No, it was the right decision.
(22:31):
Was it poor timing.
Yeah.
But it was a timing that wecould do it.
So it is what it is, but thatcertainly was a contributing
factor.
The rainy weather, as Imentioned, another huge
contributing factor, probablythe biggest contributing factor.
Because I couldn't get up thereand we'd like, I should have, I
couldn't get up there and prunetomatoes, like I should have, I,
(22:51):
I couldn't get up there andharvest things in a timely
fashion.
Like maybe I should have.
And I had things that ended uprotting on the vine and things
that got too big on the vinebecause I couldn't harvest them.
I couldn't get to them.
Because again, the way the rain.
Um, was falling and the windowsof opportunity that opened up.
(23:12):
My schedule just didn'tnecessarily.
Sync up.
But the other thing that I foundas I got to the fair and I was
starting to put my entries in.
I wasn't the only one that had adifficult time this year with
gardening.
And in fact, there are a numberof people that I know who are
very experienced gardeners,people that have been doing this
(23:32):
for longer than I've been alive.
And they, this year have had ahard time with a lot of the same
crops that I've had a hard timewith this year.
At the fair, we probably had theleast number of tomatoes ever
entered.
At least since I've beenputting.
Uh, vegetables and cucumberswere way down zucchini.
Was way down.
People were having a hard timegrowing those things, just
(23:55):
because of how wet and rainy ithas been this year.
And it's not that misery lovescompany, but it's also one of
those things.
Again, giving you that properperspective to understand.
Hey, wait a minute.
I'm not the only one in thisboat.
Other people are struggling too.
And there are just certainthings that are outside our
(24:15):
control.
And, you know, what.
We'll give things a try nextyear.
But not everything was bad.
I had some things that did verywell this year.
I tried a couple of new polebean varieties.
I've mentioned this before onthe podcast.
That have been wonderful for me.
They've been very prolific.
They are very tasty.
(24:36):
And they're very versatile.
And so I have been very, veryhappy with those pole bean
varieties.
My root vegetables have donesurprisingly well.
In the past, I've had problemswith my root veggies, rotting on
me.
Turnips.
Uh, in particular have rotted onme and folks.
(24:57):
They just absolutely wreak whenthey rot, but my turnips have
done very well.
Cauliflower did well for me.
I've struggled to growcauliflower in the past this
year.
I've grown several good heads ofcauliflower.
I grew a wonderful head.
Of broccoli this year, mycabbages have all done very
(25:17):
well.
Although some of them are splitbecause I didn't harvest them in
time, but they still did producevery, very well.
Um, and so there have been a lotof things that have, uh,
produced.
Much better this year than theyever have another great example
of that on my line will beans.
I'm going to have a bumper cropof Lima beans this year.
(25:39):
Totally shocking to me.
Um, but they have produced.
Very very well.
Another thing I discovered thisyear is that pelleted carrot
seed.
Is worth it, at least to me.
I actually did a bit of anexperiment.
I planted some Malcolm M.
Oh, K U M carrots.
(26:00):
As both non pelleted andpelleted side-by-side.
And the pelleted did far better.
Not only were they easier toplant, but they seem to have
germinated much better.
And so definitely for me,that's.
A positive lesson that I'velearned.
That it seems like pelletedcarrot seeds.
(26:21):
Are worth it for me and aresomething that I'm going to, uh,
continue to buy.
In the future now.
In the past I've experimentedwith pelleted tomato seeds
versus non pelleted tomatoseeds.
I didn't find a whole lot ofdifference there.
I felt like my germination rateswere just as, just as well with
the non pelted as the pelletedvariety.
(26:41):
But it seems to me like, atleast with carrots and maybe it
was just this year, I don'tknow, but I planted the same
variety, Malcolm.
Right next to each other.
And my germination rates weremuch better with the pelleted
versus the non pelleted.
And certainly it was way easierto plant the pelleted varieties.
(27:04):
Another thing that I've learnedis that not having, uh, things
to, uh, preserve.
He's actually been a good thingfor me.
Maybe I'm looking for the silverlining in the cloud, but not
having to stress about canningup a bunch of things.
Um, has, is certainly been nicewith the exception of the one
(27:27):
night where I was Kenyan upgreen beans and I was turning
off canners at two 30 in themorning.
I have not had.
Anything like that.
This canning season.
Now I did have several days in arow.
I was canning up jams andjellies and I did beats and a
whole bunch of things.
It was one weekend.
And seen canning.
But it hasn't been thatpressure.
(27:49):
That I've experienced in otheryears where my garden was
producing so much that I had todo something with that crop and
I had to do it right then.
In fact, there have been someyears where during the fair.
I would go over to the fair andthen I would get home at nine
o'clock at night, and then Iwould start preserving things
and I wouldn't turn canters offtill two, three o'clock in the
(28:11):
morning.
Um, which is crazy.
I don't think I'd be able to dothat now.
Uh, I was much younger when Iused to do stupid stuff like
that.
but certainly not having thepressure of having to preserve a
bunch of things all at once.
Has been, uh, a blessing indisguise, we'll say.
The last thing I would say isthis.
(28:31):
Uh, prioritizing.
Other things over the gardenthis year certainly was the
right thing for me to do thisyear.
As I mentioned, there were timeswhen I would have a window of
opportunity to go up to thegarden to do things like weed,
like harvest, like.
(28:52):
Uh, prune my tomato plants,whatever.
And.
I had all the things that Ineeded to do, whether it was
helping Brian, Jay with certaintasks to get ready to go to
college, or just all the thingsthat were going on during the
summer.
And I prioritize those thingsover the garden.
I don't regret that.
I don't regret that at all.
(29:12):
No.
I understand that I come at thisfrom a bit of a place of
blessing and privilege and, andI, I hesitate to use the term
privilege because I feel likethat word has been almost
weaponized.
Um, to guilt trip people.
And I don't, I don't want to dothat at all.
Um, but I also understand.
(29:34):
That I don't have to rely on thefood out of my garden in order
to be able to survive.
I'm very blessed in that regard.
I know there are some peoplethat, that is the case.
And I don't take that forgranted at all.
Uh, But I I'm in a spot.
(29:56):
Where if.
I don't have a tomato harvest.
Number one, I've got a lot oftomatoes still in the basement
from last year.
So I'll be all right.
Be able to eat those.
And probably it's a good thing.
I'll be able to kind of get someof the old stuff out.
And then bring in some new stuffnext year.
Hopefully.
But if I don't have it in thebasement, I'm blessed enough
(30:19):
that I can go get it.
You know, it's, it's readilyavailable.
I've even thought about maybegoing and buying some canning
tomatoes from some of the pick,your own farms that we have
around us.
And, and canyon up some stewedtomatoes and canyon up some
sauce.
And.
I'm not sure if I'll do that orif I won't, I haven't made up my
mind.
But again, I am very, veryfortunate in that.
(30:42):
I don't have to rely on mygarden to keep body and soul
together.
And so I keep that inperspective as well.
I would certainly have approachthings a lot differently if that
were the case this year.
And so I want to just kind ofkeep that.
Um, in mind as well.
Understanding that I am very,very blessed.
(31:05):
I'm very privileged in thatregard.
And so I had.
I had the opportunity.
To make those kinds of decisionswhereby.
Uh, other people might not beable to do that.
And, and I want to.
Just be cognizant of that.
'cause, I don't want anybodyelse to feel like you have to
(31:26):
make the same decisions that Idid.
Um, because your situation mightbe different.
And, and I, and I realized that.
So anyhow, those are some of thethings that I did learn this
year from having probably theworst garden that I've ever had
in my years of gardening now,going on, I don't know, 15, 16
(31:48):
years of gardening.
Um, Not, not a good one.
Um, but there's always next yearand we'll see.
What, what takes place?
I certainly hope your garden hasperformed much better than mine
has, but if it hasn't.
You know, there's always nextyear.
Don't lose hope.
(32:08):
Try to learn.
What you can, the best you canfrom what went wrong and what
things you can correct.
Try to correct them.
And what things were outside ofyour control?
I'll give them to God.
There's nothing you can do aboutit.
Anyhow.
All right folks, that's it forthis episode.
I hope you found it helpful.
If you've got any questions,reach out to me, Brian, at the
(32:30):
homestead journey.net.
Or you can reach us on all ofthe socials.
The links are in thedescription.
Don't forget about the fallgathering of the home setters of
new England happening thiscoming weekend.
In Greenfield, New Hampshire.
You're not going to want to missthat new England
homesteaders.com is where youcan find more information.
(32:50):
And buy your I definitely don'tmiss out on it.
Until next time, everyone.
Keep up the good work.
I'm your host, Brian Wells.
And I'm a fourth generationhomesteader.
Since 2008, my family and I havebeen homesteading here.
Beautiful upstate New York.
In 2019, I launched thehomestead journey podcast.
To help people just like you.
Get started and find success ontheir journey towards
self-sufficiency.
(00:23):
Self-reliance andsustainability.
This is the homestead journey.
And this is season four.
Well, hello everyone.
And welcome back to anotherepisode of the homestead journey
podcast.
My name is Brian Wells.
I am coming to you from a threebeef ramen homestead here in.
(00:46):
Beautiful upstate New York.
This is season four, and this isepisode 100.
And 66.
No one today's episode, we'regoing to be talking about some
lessons I've learned from myworst garden ever.
But before we do that, I didwant to start by offering you an
(01:07):
apology about last week'sepisode.
I had promised you an episodelast week, that was a recording
of a chicken talk that I gaveduring the Southern Adirondack
homesteading festival back inmay.
But when I went to edit that,uh, episode, I realized that I
only had recorded half of theaudio.
(01:30):
While the file size said 60minutes.
And I thought that I hadeverything.
At about the 30 minute market,it chopped off for some reason.
And so I just had 30 minutes ofdead air.
So I opted not to release that.
Uh, I actually tried to pull anaudible and record an episode
with my brother-in-law Al Waymanas he was up here.
(01:51):
Uh, during the fair, um, but theaudio quality just wasn't that
great.
We did it at a table using justthe audio recorder on my phone
and there was just too muchbackground noise.
And so I just decided not torelease that either.
And then by the end of the fair.
I was just, I was, I was beat, Iwas bushed.
(02:12):
And, uh, so it is what it is.
As I said at the beginning ofthe season, I'm trying to have a
little bit more grace withmyself.
And so thank you very much forhaving grace with me.
As well, well, folks, it hasbeen a busy last couple of weeks
here on the homestead.
And so let me go ahead and bringyou up to speed with what we've
been doing here.
(02:33):
On three B farm and homestead.
So the first thing I did want todo is just give you a brief,
quick update with regards toBrian, Jay, he is off to college
successfully seems to besettling in very well, making
connections, making friends,getting involved in different
(02:55):
clubs and activities.
Hopefully he's not doing toomuch.
Um, but he really does seem tobe finding his way.
And so for that, we're verythankful.
He says he's enjoying hisclasses.
Uh, he got connected up withtheir jazz ensemble.
He's loving that.
And so we're very, very happyabout that now for Bonnie and I
(03:17):
getting used to the whole emptynest thing.
Well, really, to be honest withyou, I was.
I was bummed when I found outthat the.
Drop-off date for his collegewas the weekend before the
Washington county fair, becauseI knew it was going to kind of
cramp my style a little bit.
And I know it's selfish on mypart, but.
(03:39):
I really love the fair.
And so I was a little bit bummedthat it was going to kind of get
in the way of that.
But folks, I was so, sothankful.
That we had that week ofdistraction right after taking
him.
Where we dropped him off, cameback and it was just a busy week
at the fair to where we reallydidn't have much time to even
(04:00):
think about the fact that hewasn't here.
Now this week has been a bit ofa different story in that.
We've had a lot more time tothink about it.
We've been home a lot more.
This past week.
And so the reality, I think, isreally finally starting to set
in.
Bonnie I think is feeling it alittle bit more than me.
(04:22):
Uh, but certainly I am feelingit as well.
And, uh, here in the next coupleof weeks, we are going to record
one last episode with regards toempty nest homesteading.
As we share some of the lessonsthat we have learned now that he
is off to college and it's justher and I kicking around three B
farm and homestead.
(04:43):
But as I mentioned, we did havethe wonderful, wonderful
Washington county fair.
Uh, last week too.
Serve as a bit of a distractionfor us.
And I just love the Washingtoncounty fair.
You know that folks I'vementioned it multiple times.
Here on the podcast.
And while it was a bit of adifferent fair this year,
(05:05):
because we didn't have anylivestock there, no chickens, no
pigs, no rabbits, no geese.
No anything.
I still was able to keep mystreak of being an exhibitor at
the Washington county.
Fair alive by entering jams,jellies, pickles, uh, canned
goods of all shapes and sizes aswell as some vegetables.
(05:26):
And while I didn't do toohorribly bad, uh, I got five
blue, three red, two white andfour didn't place in the canned
goods.
And I got four blue, six red,seven white and five didn't
place in the veggies.
Unfortunately for me,fortunately for my mom and dad,
they both walked up on me thisyear, both getting purple
(05:47):
ribbons.
Now, if you aren't familiar withthat purple ribbons means best
in show.
So what they will do is theywill judge all of the entries in
one particular category and thenthey will choose the best of the
best and award it.
The purple ribbon and my mom gota purple ribbon for her apple
(06:07):
butter.
And my dad got a purple ribbonfor his honey products.
And I got zero purple ribbons.
So.
I got skunked beat.
Uh, I'm going to have to dobetter next year, folks.
It's so much fun.
We have so much fun.
Uh, just talking trash back andforth.
And in a good way, people lookforward to it every year.
(06:29):
And so I got bested this yearand I will have to do my best.
Next year to bring my a game andget back in the purple ribbon
category.
Now while we didn't have, uh,any livestock there, I still was
very active in the poultry barnthis year.
I helped, uh, do chores justabout every morning, help tear
(06:51):
down after the fair.
But the thing that was, uh, somuch fun is something that I've
never done before.
And that is, I had theopportunity to judge the youth
poultry show.
Uh, what happened is the youthpoultry judge.
I was not able to show up lastminute due to illness.
And so they were desperate.
And if I'm judging the poultrycontest and you know, they are
(07:14):
very desperate.
But I got called into action.
They wondered if I could do itduring the regularly scheduled
poultry show time slot, whichwas 10 o'clock I believe on
Wednesday morning.
But I had to work.
So we started judging, uh, theyouth poultry show at nine 30 on
(07:34):
Tuesday evening.
And we wrapped up at 1230.
Uh, on Wednesday morning,certainly it.
It made for a long day.
But it was just so much fun.
And then they had the poultryawards for the youth show on
Wednesday evening, just seeingthe pictures of the kids made it
(07:55):
all worthwhile because at theend of the day folks, that's
what it's all about while Ienjoy doing.
the jams, jellies things with mymom and dad, and I enjoy.
Uh, entering chickens in theopen show.
At the fair.
At the end of the day, it'sabout the kids and making sure
that they have a good time.
And hopefully if they have agood time at youth level than
(08:16):
they will grow up.
To want to continue to exhibitat the open level.
That's the only way we're goingto be able to keep a fair going.
And so being able to have a partin that certainly was a
privilege and honor, it was somuch fun.
Glad to do it.
Uh, and, uh, yeah, it was just alot of fun.
(08:37):
And then one other thing that Igot to do this year at the fair
was some canyon demonstration.
So this was the first time we'dever done anything like this at
the Washington county fair.
At least.
Uh, that I'm aware of.
What I ended up doing wascanning some strawberry jam.
I did that twice on Friday.
And as I did that, I talkedabout Canon and the different
(08:58):
styles of Canon and so on and soforth, and really had some very
positive, uh, feedback andinteraction with folks and just
really, really enjoyed.
Doing that.
But this past week has been arecovery week.
So I get to the end of the fairand folks.
Well, I enjoy every minute ofit.
I'm there every day onSaturdays.
(09:19):
Usually I'm there almost allday, Sunday, all day.
Uh, I'm there every evening.
I was there all day on Monday,helping getting things set up.
By the time the end of the faircomes around, I am fared out and
I don't want to smell or seeanother corn dog and other
fritter I don't want to smellthe smells.
See the sites I am fared out andit's unfortunate because the
(09:42):
last couple of weeks, and Ithink going into next week is
the state fair over in Syracuse.
And I'd like to go see thatSunday, but folks, I just am.
Fared out.
I am done.
Fared out.
Uh, so.
I enjoy it.
I love to see it come.
And it usually in about June.
(10:03):
I, I literally, if I startthinking about it, I like start
getting shaky.
Like I'm almost Jones and forsome of that fair food and some
of those fairs, sights andsmells and all of the things.
But boy, by the end of thatweek, I am so done.
So done.
And so this past week here, Onthe homestead certainly has been
a week of recovery, bothphysically, emotionally,
(10:26):
mentally, and then really tryingto play catch-up with some of
the things that kind of gotpushed to the side.
As we were ramping up, gettingBrian, Jay, ready to go to
college.
And then while we were at fairweek, During fair week, just the
world stops and it is what itis.
And so this week, I spent sometime finally getting caught up
(10:47):
in the garden.
Doing some weeding, embarrassingto say that I brought out a
wheelbarrow load of weeds, likeheaped, heaped, heap up.
Of weeds out of my gardens.
a bit embarrassing to say, we'lltalk about some more, later on
how we got to that point.
but that was something that Iwas able to get done this week.
(11:09):
Pick some tomatoes.
I wouldn't say it's all of mytomato harvest.
But it's a lot of it and it'spretty slim Pickens.
We'll just say it that way.
Um, but it is what it is.
Um, I picked what I could pick.
We've got a few more up there,but it's certainly not going to
be anything like I'm use to.
(11:31):
Uh, harvesting.
Today I finally was able to getour pullets moved.
That's something else that hasnot gotten done.
Like it normally did.
Normally by now, my pulletswould have been outside on
grass, for weeks and just thisyear due to the rain and due to
other obligations.
I finally was able to get thingsmoved around today.
(11:53):
And make it so that they can getoutside and enjoy some of the
sun, the sunlight.
I feel really bad about it.
Um, but again, because of howrainy it's been this summer.
Um, it's been the third rainiestsummer in recorded history.
So since they started keepingtrack of those statistics, uh,
(12:14):
they've only had two othersummers that were as rainy as
this summer.
And both of those were in thelate 1800.
So this has been the rainiestsummer in over a hundred years.
And that certainly has put akink in my plans many times.
Um, because either.
Uh, I had time to do somethingand I couldn't because of the
(12:36):
rain.
And then when there was a breakin the weather, I would have
other obligations that I neededto fulfill.
And so I wasn't able to do someof the things that I really
needed to do.
Uh, and that's just life on thehomestead sometimes.
Something else that was fun thathappened this week.
As I found a really cool kitchengadget, I'm a sucker for cool.
(12:59):
Old vintage kitchen gadgets.
And I, I found one, it's arival.
Uh, P shucker and bean cutter.
So one side of it, as you.
Turn the crank and you feed thepeas or the beans into it.
It actually pops open the podand the beans or the peas are
released.
And then the other side, as youfeed the beans through it, it
(13:21):
cuts them into long.
Strips kind of that French cutstyle, green bean.
And so I brought that homeyesterday because I have a lot
of Lima beans that I need toprocess as well as some shell
beans that I needed to process.
And I wasn't sure if this wasgoing to work.
It's billed as a P shocker, butI thought I'm, this might work.
(13:42):
And so it did seem to workpretty well.
Uh, as I ran both some shellbeans through it.
As well as some Lima beansthrough it.
And, uh, then when I ran some ofthose flat Roman style pole
beans, That I I've discoveredthat I really, really like
through it.
It seemed to cut those up intonice little strips.
(14:02):
And so I think I'm going toreally like this a little
gadget.
Uh, it's going to be more thanjust a novelty to have around,
but it does seem like it's goingto work well for me.
As I kind of wrap up this year'sgarden.
The last thing I wanted to sharewith you is that yesterday,
Bonnie and I spent quite a fewhours washing our camper.
(14:23):
We have a small fiberglass,camper from 1977 that, uh, we
absolutely love it.
It's perfect for the two of us.
And we can pull it with ourvehicle.
But, uh, we had some lichen thatwas starting to grow on the
outside of that.
And so we gave it a good bathyesterday in preparation for
next weekend's event, over inGreenfield, New Hampshire next
(14:48):
weekend is going to be the fallgathering to the homesteaders of
new England.
And you are not going to want tomiss that.
I am so excited about it becauseI'm going to have the
opportunity to meet some peoplethat I've talked with online.
I've actually had on thepodcast.
Um, but I've never met them inreal life.
Troy McClung from the pasturepig podcast is going to be
(15:10):
there.
I'm going to get to meet Alalumna from lamina acres.
I'm going to get to see DonBradner from little mountain
life.
Again, going to get the hangoutwith Jack and Jackie from, uh,
the mindful homestead again.
And, uh, I'm just so excitedabout that.
Going to get to see richGiordano.
He is such a hoot, such a greatguy.
Looking forward to seeing him.
(15:32):
But beyond all of that, what I'mso excited about?
Focus on.
Excited about seeing you again.
I got to meet so many of youlast year at that event.
And I'm just excited to be ableto see some of you again this
year.
And to make new connections withothers that maybe I've not had
the pleasure of meeting.
(15:53):
In real life.
And the good news.
I kind of give you the bad news.
The bad news is that the, theticket prices did go up as of
September 1st.
So they're now$35 for theweekend.
But folks what a steal of adeal, what a great opportunity
for you to get together andspend time with other
like-minded individuals andlearn some great information
(16:17):
along the way.
And for$35.
I mean, that's a cheap ticket tobe able to meet me.
Right.
No folks.
I really, really am so excitedabout this event.
I look for, I've been lookingforward to it since, since last
year's event.
Ended.
The other thing that's really,really great about it is if you
(16:38):
have a camper, if you got a 10or whatever, There's a
campground right across the roadfrom the park Oak park where
this event is held.
So it's just a really convenientway for you to be able to spend
a weekend.
And, and enjoy great fellowship,make community learn some
wonderful things.
(16:59):
So folks tickets are stillavailable.
So head on over to new Englandhomesteaders.com.
New England homesteaders.com.
To buy your ticket.
You're not going to want to missthis event.
It's going to be great.
I'm looking forward to it.
I hope to see you there.
All right.
All of that said, let's jump onover to this.
(17:20):
Week's charting the course.
So as I went out to pickvegetables, to put them in the
fair this year, it reallyconfirmed to me what I had
suspected, what I really knew inmy heart of hearts.
And that is that this isprobably my worst gardening
(17:42):
season.
Ever.
My first couple of years ofgardening.
We're far better than this year.
Of gardening this year.
For many, many reasons.
But it has not been up to thelevel of production that I have
been used to in the past.
(18:03):
And when you have a gardeningseason, like I've had this year
where it seems like your entiretomato harvest is going to fit
into two stainless steel bowls.
Uh, that's very disheartening.
And when other things thatyou've been used to growing
almost with, with little effort,I didn't grow at all.
(18:27):
That's very, very discouraging.
And when you look at a situationlike we've had this year, a
gardening season, like this yearseason, You can very easily
become discouraged.
Disheartened, disillusioned.
I guess I could throw, I don'tknow what other word you want to
throw in there.
But to the point to where youjust want to throw your hands up
and say, screw it.
(18:47):
I'm done.
I'm not going to garden anymore.
It's not worth the time.
Effort, energy, the money.
Uh, It's just not worth it.
Um, and it, you could easilyjust throw your hands up and
quit.
But even with a bad gardeningseason, like I've had this year.
I've actually learned some veryhelpful lessons.
(19:09):
And I think these are somelessons that will help me.
As I move forward in mygardening career.
Call it career, but whatever.
As I gardened into the future.
These I think are lessons thatwill help me be more successful.
Um, as I learned from what tookplace this year, So the first
(19:31):
lesson that I learned is perhapsa very simple and obvious one,
but that is that you can havetoo much of a good thing.
Namely, you can have too muchwater now.
In the past I've had, I'vestruggled with a bit of the
opposite, uh, situation wherewe've had some very, very dry
gardening seasons.
But what I found is that it'smuch easier to add water.
(19:55):
Than it is to take water.
You can go out and you can do alot of things in your garden to
either, um, a put moisture intothe soil, to hold moisture in
the soil with, with a mulch andso forth.
But again, to take that moistureout of the soil is very
difficult, but more than that,To be able to get out into work
(20:17):
in your garden when it is rainyand nasty, and it's a downpour
and it's a monsoon and it'slike, you don't really want to
be out there.
And there's certain things thatyou really shouldn't be touching
when they're wet.
For example, beans, you reallyshouldn't mess with those when
they're wet.
It really does put you in a bitof a bind.
And then when you have otherthings that are going on in your
life, Then you find yourself ina situation where, as I
(20:41):
mentioned before, you might havea window of opportunity to work
in the garden and the weatherisn't cooperative.
And then when the weather iscooperative, you don't have that
window of opportunity.
And so I discovered this yearthat it certainly is possible to
have too much of a good thing.
Irrigated the garden, a handfulof times at the beginning of the
season.
I didn't have to pull hoses outthere.
(21:03):
Uh, from probably mid June on.
Uh, I have not watered my gardenone time haven't needed to, um,
because we've had so much water.
The second thing that I learnedis that perspective is.
Important.
It's important to understand.
The reason why the gardenseason.
(21:25):
Has been so poor.
Now, some of that certainly hasbeen because I didn't do some of
the things that I could havedone or should have done in
order to be as successful as Ipossibly could have.
But then there were reasons whyI didn't and there were reasons
why I couldn't do those things.
And so having that perspectivealso, it's not making excuses.
(21:48):
It's just being real and honestand understanding.
Okay.
Yes.
Maybe these things didn't do aswell as, as they should have,
but there were reasons why thathappened.
Uh, one of those was.
That I had a late start.
You might remember that.
Back in early April, I went toa.
(22:09):
Alaska to visit my brother.
And so that just put me behindand it felt like I was behind
from day one in the garden.
And.
I never felt like I really evercaught up.
Do I regret going on vacation upthere?
No, it was the right decision.
(22:31):
Was it poor timing.
Yeah.
But it was a timing that wecould do it.
So it is what it is, but thatcertainly was a contributing
factor.
The rainy weather, as Imentioned, another huge
contributing factor, probablythe biggest contributing factor.
Because I couldn't get up thereand we'd like, I should have, I
couldn't get up there and prunetomatoes, like I should have, I,
(22:51):
I couldn't get up there andharvest things in a timely
fashion.
Like maybe I should have.
And I had things that ended uprotting on the vine and things
that got too big on the vinebecause I couldn't harvest them.
I couldn't get to them.
Because again, the way the rain.
Um, was falling and the windowsof opportunity that opened up.
(23:12):
My schedule just didn'tnecessarily.
Sync up.
But the other thing that I foundas I got to the fair and I was
starting to put my entries in.
I wasn't the only one that had adifficult time this year with
gardening.
And in fact, there are a numberof people that I know who are
very experienced gardeners,people that have been doing this
(23:32):
for longer than I've been alive.
And they, this year have had ahard time with a lot of the same
crops that I've had a hard timewith this year.
At the fair, we probably had theleast number of tomatoes ever
entered.
At least since I've beenputting.
Uh, vegetables and cucumberswere way down zucchini.
Was way down.
People were having a hard timegrowing those things, just
(23:55):
because of how wet and rainy ithas been this year.
And it's not that misery lovescompany, but it's also one of
those things.
Again, giving you that properperspective to understand.
Hey, wait a minute.
I'm not the only one in thisboat.
Other people are struggling too.
And there are just certainthings that are outside our
(24:15):
control.
And, you know, what.
We'll give things a try nextyear.
But not everything was bad.
I had some things that did verywell this year.
I tried a couple of new polebean varieties.
I've mentioned this before onthe podcast.
That have been wonderful for me.
They've been very prolific.
They are very tasty.
(24:36):
And they're very versatile.
And so I have been very, veryhappy with those pole bean
varieties.
My root vegetables have donesurprisingly well.
In the past, I've had problemswith my root veggies, rotting on
me.
Turnips.
Uh, in particular have rotted onme and folks.
(24:57):
They just absolutely wreak whenthey rot, but my turnips have
done very well.
Cauliflower did well for me.
I've struggled to growcauliflower in the past this
year.
I've grown several good heads ofcauliflower.
I grew a wonderful head.
Of broccoli this year, mycabbages have all done very
(25:17):
well.
Although some of them are splitbecause I didn't harvest them in
time, but they still did producevery, very well.
Um, and so there have been a lotof things that have, uh,
produced.
Much better this year than theyever have another great example
of that on my line will beans.
I'm going to have a bumper cropof Lima beans this year.
(25:39):
Totally shocking to me.
Um, but they have produced.
Very very well.
Another thing I discovered thisyear is that pelleted carrot
seed.
Is worth it, at least to me.
I actually did a bit of anexperiment.
I planted some Malcolm M.
Oh, K U M carrots.
(26:00):
As both non pelleted andpelleted side-by-side.
And the pelleted did far better.
Not only were they easier toplant, but they seem to have
germinated much better.
And so definitely for me,that's.
A positive lesson that I'velearned.
That it seems like pelletedcarrot seeds.
(26:21):
Are worth it for me and aresomething that I'm going to, uh,
continue to buy.
In the future now.
In the past I've experimentedwith pelleted tomato seeds
versus non pelleted tomatoseeds.
I didn't find a whole lot ofdifference there.
I felt like my germination rateswere just as, just as well with
the non pelted as the pelletedvariety.
(26:41):
But it seems to me like, atleast with carrots and maybe it
was just this year, I don'tknow, but I planted the same
variety, Malcolm.
Right next to each other.
And my germination rates weremuch better with the pelleted
versus the non pelleted.
And certainly it was way easierto plant the pelleted varieties.
(27:04):
Another thing that I've learnedis that not having, uh, things
to, uh, preserve.
He's actually been a good thingfor me.
Maybe I'm looking for the silverlining in the cloud, but not
having to stress about canningup a bunch of things.
Um, has, is certainly been nicewith the exception of the one
(27:27):
night where I was Kenyan upgreen beans and I was turning
off canners at two 30 in themorning.
I have not had.
Anything like that.
This canning season.
Now I did have several days in arow.
I was canning up jams andjellies and I did beats and a
whole bunch of things.
It was one weekend.
And seen canning.
But it hasn't been thatpressure.
(27:49):
That I've experienced in otheryears where my garden was
producing so much that I had todo something with that crop and
I had to do it right then.
In fact, there have been someyears where during the fair.
I would go over to the fair andthen I would get home at nine
o'clock at night, and then Iwould start preserving things
and I wouldn't turn canters offtill two, three o'clock in the
(28:11):
morning.
Um, which is crazy.
I don't think I'd be able to dothat now.
Uh, I was much younger when Iused to do stupid stuff like
that.
but certainly not having thepressure of having to preserve a
bunch of things all at once.
Has been, uh, a blessing indisguise, we'll say.
The last thing I would say isthis.
(28:31):
Uh, prioritizing.
Other things over the gardenthis year certainly was the
right thing for me to do thisyear.
As I mentioned, there were timeswhen I would have a window of
opportunity to go up to thegarden to do things like weed,
like harvest, like.
(28:52):
Uh, prune my tomato plants,whatever.
And.
I had all the things that Ineeded to do, whether it was
helping Brian, Jay with certaintasks to get ready to go to
college, or just all the thingsthat were going on during the
summer.
And I prioritize those thingsover the garden.
I don't regret that.
I don't regret that at all.
(29:12):
No.
I understand that I come at thisfrom a bit of a place of
blessing and privilege and, andI, I hesitate to use the term
privilege because I feel likethat word has been almost
weaponized.
Um, to guilt trip people.
And I don't, I don't want to dothat at all.
Um, but I also understand.
(29:34):
That I don't have to rely on thefood out of my garden in order
to be able to survive.
I'm very blessed in that regard.
I know there are some peoplethat, that is the case.
And I don't take that forgranted at all.
Uh, But I I'm in a spot.
(29:56):
Where if.
I don't have a tomato harvest.
Number one, I've got a lot oftomatoes still in the basement
from last year.
So I'll be all right.
Be able to eat those.
And probably it's a good thing.
I'll be able to kind of get someof the old stuff out.
And then bring in some new stuffnext year.
Hopefully.
But if I don't have it in thebasement, I'm blessed enough
(30:19):
that I can go get it.
You know, it's, it's readilyavailable.
I've even thought about maybegoing and buying some canning
tomatoes from some of the pick,your own farms that we have
around us.
And, and canyon up some stewedtomatoes and canyon up some
sauce.
And.
I'm not sure if I'll do that orif I won't, I haven't made up my
mind.
But again, I am very, veryfortunate in that.
(30:42):
I don't have to rely on mygarden to keep body and soul
together.
And so I keep that inperspective as well.
I would certainly have approachthings a lot differently if that
were the case this year.
And so I want to just kind ofkeep that.
Um, in mind as well.
Understanding that I am very,very blessed.
(31:05):
I'm very privileged in thatregard.
And so I had.
I had the opportunity.
To make those kinds of decisionswhereby.
Uh, other people might not beable to do that.
And, and I want to.
Just be cognizant of that.
'cause, I don't want anybodyelse to feel like you have to
(31:26):
make the same decisions that Idid.
Um, because your situation mightbe different.
And, and I, and I realized that.
So anyhow, those are some of thethings that I did learn this
year from having probably theworst garden that I've ever had
in my years of gardening now,going on, I don't know, 15, 16
(31:48):
years of gardening.
Um, Not, not a good one.
Um, but there's always next yearand we'll see.
What, what takes place?
I certainly hope your garden hasperformed much better than mine
has, but if it hasn't.
You know, there's always nextyear.
Don't lose hope.
(32:08):
Try to learn.
What you can, the best you canfrom what went wrong and what
things you can correct.
Try to correct them.
And what things were outside ofyour control?
I'll give them to God.
There's nothing you can do aboutit.
Anyhow.
All right folks, that's it forthis episode.
I hope you found it helpful.
If you've got any questions,reach out to me, Brian, at the
(32:30):
homestead journey.net.
Or you can reach us on all ofthe socials.
The links are in thedescription.
Don't forget about the fallgathering of the home setters of
new England happening thiscoming weekend.
In Greenfield, New Hampshire.
You're not going to want to missthat new England
homesteaders.com is where youcan find more information.
(32:50):
And buy your I definitely don'tmiss out on it.
Until next time, everyone.
Keep up the good work.
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