As the last of my 400 plus pounds of tomatoes are ripening on my kitchen window sill (I gave away about half and eat all I can from June til about now and seldom buy them the rest of year) and the first deep freezes have arrived-- I am getting philosophical and evaluating my years efforts. As my daughter , son in law and grandson moved out in Feb, I have had to adjust growing for what I really like to eat or is easy to give away. (It is easy to have more lettuce or green beans than possibly gather times but seldom do raspberries go unpicked). Every variety in every catalog is lauded but trick is to find ones suitable for your microclimate and soil. For example have tried about 8 pepper varieties with Hungarian Hot Wax being by far the most prolific and happy here as I average about 100 peppers per plant. immature they are mild and slowly get hot as they age. Also found two new great tomato varieties-- a chech yellow, again at least 100 per plant. earlyand tasty, and the best yellow have grown, and a soldaki red prolific, large and much earlier than other large heirlooms. But again suitable for my situation.
Some crops really pay and others don't. Obviously tomatoes do, but for the effort I put into winter squash and corn there is little payback. We had the driest summer in about 50 years so had to give up watering them but for all my effort grew about 3 dollars worth of winter squash compared to buying a bushel for 7 at a local farmstand. Planting and germinating fall greens in late summer takes effort and care but does pay off. I preferred and entirely ate a crop of fall spinach over a large bed of lettuce that went untouched until I now cover with a quilt and pick on warm afternoons. So overall a great gardening year. sorry to ramble but haven't written in awhile. vann southern NH
