Jesse Glessner
JayGee
Male, 76, Somewhat Retired, but I find lots of things to keep me busy.
I grew up on a farm. We had around 100 dairy cattle on 50 acres back in the 50's, one of the larger dairies in IN at the time. We also had a large family so had lots and lots of garden space. We planted sweet corn, beans, and some peas with a 4 row corn planter. We punched tomato plants in with our hands. And one of our grunt jobs was hauling water back to the garden in old 8 gallon milk cans.
We canned until we almost couldn't take it any more. Three walls of our cellar were both left over and new quart jars of corn, beans, tomatoes, peas, and in bulk lots of potatoes and apples.
After 3 years of Army service, I went to California. I wasn't totally out of gardening as all the places I lived I took care of flowers, rose bushes, and did container gardening. After 35 out of 37 years in CA I moved back to IN and have around 1 acre total. I usually have lots of tomato plants growing, pickles, summer squash, pop corn, peas, and other incidental crops. I have 6 blueberry bushes that should start producing some small crop of berries this year. I also have fruit trees and blackberry and gooseberry plants.
I dump ALL of my kitchen scraps and all of my cut grass into a huge compost pile. In fact last year it turned into 2 piles as I cut grass more often. I did get back into canning and when it isn't absolutely necessary it is a lot of fun to try and get jams to "set" and veggies "just right" to have good food in winter. I bought the Ball Blue Book and found that many things had changed since the 50's about canning. My brothers think I'm crazy for doing all of this, but I enjoy giving a lot of the produce away to friends and neighbors and the local Senior Center. It is also emergency food stored on shelves that will take a lot of bouncing before something drops on the floor and it is in a somewhat controlled environment, although not the best.
I grew up on a farm. We had around 100 dairy cattle on 50 acres back in the 50's, one of the larger dairies in IN at the time. We also had a large family so had lots and lots of garden space. We planted sweet corn, beans, and some peas with a 4 row corn planter. We punched tomato plants in with our hands. And one of our grunt jobs was hauling water back to the garden in old 8 gallon milk cans.
We canned until we almost couldn't take it any more. Three walls of our cellar were both left over and new quart jars of corn, beans, tomatoes, peas, and in bulk lots of potatoes and apples.
After 3 years of Army service, I went to California. I wasn't totally out of gardening as all the places I lived I took care of flowers, rose bushes, and did container gardening. After 35 out of 37 years in CA I moved back to IN and have around 1 acre total. I usually have lots of tomato plants growing, pickles, summer squash, pop corn, peas, and other incidental crops. I have 6 blueberry bushes that should start producing some small crop of berries this year. I also have fruit trees and blackberry and gooseberry plants.
I dump ALL of my kitchen scraps and all of my cut grass into a huge compost pile. In fact last year it turned into 2 piles as I cut grass more often. I did get back into canning and when it isn't absolutely necessary it is a lot of fun to try and get jams to "set" and veggies "just right" to have good food in winter. I bought the Ball Blue Book and found that many things had changed since the 50's about canning. My brothers think I'm crazy for doing all of this, but I enjoy giving a lot of the produce away to friends and neighbors and the local Senior Center. It is also emergency food stored on shelves that will take a lot of bouncing before something drops on the floor and it is in a somewhat controlled environment, although not the best.
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