My pleasure always. My big weakness is a lack of canning skills. I should have learned years ago when my Mom was alive, as she was an expert.
Yes, "doing" is a lot different than "talking." When I hear people saying "I will live off the land if there is a collapse." I tell them that they should have started a decade earlier. It's like compound interest growing over a long period of time.
Certainly this pandemic year proves my point. I could not get many gardening supplies for months! In fact, I'm still waiting for Mason jars.
There is so much of garden learning, and mistakes can be crippling. I speak for me, as I destroyed my first tomato garden. Forgot all the things my Grandma taught me! After that first failure year, I became known as the tomato king! So I kept growing tomatoes yearly along with peppers and cucumbers. What happens? In 2009, New England had a severe tomato blight. In 2010 and up to now, my producing garden is ten times larger with mixed gardening. I spread the risk over many crops of vegetables, herbs, and aronia berries.
That old Dutch adage of "We grow too soon old and too late smart" is applicable to me and many others. We can often be our biggest enemy. We need to look at mirrors to solve our problems, at least as a beginning.
Take care, my friend.
sumi
