Looking thru this thread, thought I'd posted here about my gardening past. My father was an "organic" gardener before the term was used. We had a rather small yard, but Dad gardened most of it & grew an incredible variety of fruits & vegetables. We always had a small area set aside for composting. This would be added to the garden every spring, when we were getting ready to prepare to plant. We grew Tomatoes, potatoes, cukes, different peppers, peas, okra, a variety of beans, carrots, lettuce, broccoli, cabbage, and more that doesn't come to mind. We had grapevines across our back fence, Raspberry, Currant, Blackberry bushes , a strawberry patch, Pear & Apple trees.. We ate good. Parents canned & froze stuff. I As a young person, I was "slave" labor. I Hated gardening, I wanted to be off hanging out with the neighborhood kids that didn't have a garden . Too bad for me, I was like an indentured servant.
Wasn't until many years later that I'd return to my "roots" Our oldest son had a crush on a pretty redhead but she wasn't interested in him. Our son hung out some with the girl's father, "Bob".. maybe thinking this would be an in with his daughter. Bob was a "master gardener" he told me. Bob had a bad heart & couldn't work too hard. He asked if we'd like to garden with him. My wife was excited about this, and being the supportive guy I am, I went along with it. I remembered some of what I'd done with my parents..but Bob had different "methods". I followed his instructions ( mostly) . I did the heavy work, roto tilling, raking, preparing to plant. My wife, I'll admit, worked hard at it as well. Bob had good soil & a large yard. Over the next few years, his (our) garden increased in size. The last year ,we planted 100 tomato plants ! ( different varieties) In addition to other vegetables. Any idea how many tomatoes 100 plants grow ? A LOT.
We'd take boxes of picked tomatoes to church & give them to our congregation. Wife started making homemade salsa.. never knew it took so many tomatoes to make salsa.. We grew jalapenos too, but making the salsa was a lot of work. We'd determined that we liked Heritage Brandywine tomatoes the best.. Lots of pulp, few seeds, not a lot of moisture, and most importantly, the best flavor. The salsa made with those tomatoes was the best salsa I've ever eaten..wife made it & gave it to some select friends. Toward the end of the season I got wise & decided to try selling some of our tomatoes. Went to neighborhood restaurants & let them sample our tomatoes, then offered them to them @ a below their usual market price. Many that chose not to buy them for their restaurant, bought them to take home for personal use. Unfortunately I thought of this @ the end of the season, so didn't have many to sell, made enough to cover most the cost of the plants we planted. Unfortunately, Bob's heart gave up on him & he passed. We lost a good friend & a great place to garden.
added: I have some pics, somewhere from the garden. I'll post them when i find them..they're around here, somewhere.