Inge Leonora-den Ouden

L Anderson wrote:Inge:
Thank you for this list of easy vegetables! It will help me to expand what I grow.
By the way, I wonder if your sweet beet is related to parsnip? I

Thank you. No, that beet isn't a parsnip, it is related to chard and beets. It might be a kind of  'mangelwurzel' or 'fodder beet'.
How I know? I have parsnips too, but their leaves are totally different. The leaves of this plant look exactly like a green Swiss chard.

I hope to find the time (and my body allows) to get the compost out of my compost heaps and to spread it over empty spaces in garden beds.
In fact my gardening season never ends. There are perennial vegetables, year-round-crops and vegetables to be planted in autumn for a crop next year. Most of my garden beds are never totally empty.

My compost heap is where everything goes I weed out. I first need to take off the upper layer and then I find the nice compost in the lower layers. I do my best to use three different heaps ... it doesn't always go as planned.

L Anderson wrote:...
Hence, my question: how to define staple crops?
...
Bottom line:  my staple crops will be:
1. those which provide the greatest variety of vitamins and minerals and antioxidants and all that other good stuff that others take pills for but I’d rather get from my food. So: maximize variety for good nutrition.
2. Those that I can find space for, or create space for, that I can manage (physically) while aging in place.
3. Those that are good for the ground and the air and help support birds and bees etc. And don’t require crazy amounts of water (it no longer rains here in summer), and can tolerate ever increasing heat.
...

Thank you, Paul.

Thank you L. Anderson too. I think my conclusion about staple crops is much like yours.

In my garden(s, front and back yard, and allotment) the three Paul mentions are already growing and doing well. Because I like more variety, and I have plenty of garden space (it's all for me, to give away and for 'biodiversity'), I have lots of edible perennials, berry bushes and I experiment with all kinds of (annual) vegetables.

I found out there are some very easy vegetables, doing extremely well in my climate. They aren't high in calories, but in vitamins and minerals.
The first one I want to mention is a 'leaf beet'; I think it started as 'Swiss chard', then reseeded and reseeded and got back to its roots (pun): it gives me edible leaves / leaf stems AND an edible 'beet' (a thick white-ish root with a sweet taste). The original chards, in rainbow colours, grow very well too; for sowing once I get several years of leaves with colourfull stems, during most months of the year.
Last but not least are the 'greens' I never sowed but they came 'as weeds', together they grow year round (not all year the same green vegetable, but always at least one of them): purslane, miner's lettuce, lambs lettuce and lamb's quarters (including 'tree spinach' or other Chenopodium species).

photo of my harvest not so long ago, including the 'leaf beet'

The beans I eat as 'dry beans' are all pole beans. Most of them Scarlet Runner Beans, they are the kind that grows best in my garden.
I am happy to see I can also make hummus with those beans!

In my opinion it is not the rain that is the problem. Getting wet isn't bad, as long as the temperature is not too low.
When you are working (hard), you keep yourself warm from inside. So outside temperatures can be lower.
But too low temperatures, together with the rain getting you wet ... that's why we need clothing to keep us dry. If it's just 1 degree above the freezing point (no matter if it's Celsius or Fahrenheit), you just can not work and get wet from the rain! You need all-over waterproof gear. But it needs to ventilate too, otherwise you'll get wet from transpiration.

I want to add to my answer here before: I can harvest from my garden year round. But not all the time the same vegetables.
F.e. in Summer there is Purslane, it has died now (in Autumn), but at the same time the Miners Lettuce starts to give its first harvestable little plants. And during Winter there will be an abundance of that Miners Lettuce and Lambs Lettuce! That will go on until in Spring the Purslane starts again. Those are all self-seeders too.

Steve Thorn wrote:What are your best veggies that give a continuous harvest?

Green beans and cucumbers are my two biggest ones I think. They seem to just keep producing and producing. The more I pick, the more I get!

In my opinion that depends on your climate, soil, etc.
In my garden that gives a harvest during the longest time is what in English is called Swiss Chard (or Leaf Beet). And it's a self-seeder!

Hi (does someone read this to answer questions?).
I think I'm almost finished, at least with the weaving.
Now I have a question:
it must have two pockets ... what does this mean exactly? Do I line it with whatever (natural) fabric and sow two (small) pockets on that lining? Or do I make the lining in such a way it divides the inside of the bag in two? Or do I have to weave a sort of panel to divide the bag in two?
Or is it up to my own choice?

I wanted to share with you some photos of the fruits and vegetables I harvested today. Maybe this is a way to get back to this thread (sorry I forgot it for a while).

From the allotment garden: kale and 'tiny broccoli' (from a large broccoli plant I picked for the third time, the first one was 1 large broccoli), parsnips, carrots, New Zealand spinach and a 'leafbeet' with root (that's edible too).  

On the allotment plot I rent were already 2 apple trees. One of these trees* is too high, even with a ladder. Every time I go there I watch the fallen apples carefully, about half of them are for the compost, but the other half is okay. Here they are (and some autumn raspberries):

*this is an unknown apple variety (or maybe they are called Gloster), they are very red and are have a strange shape.

Here's the photo I promised. Four jars of 'flowering quince marmelade'. The fruits are growing in my gardens (front and back yard and allotment plot) since I bought 1 bush a few years ago that had fruits on it. I planted the seeds (from those fruits), and they did very well! They are the red-flowering kind. I don't know how large the bushes will become, now they are only a meter high.