Sunday at church the pastor talked a little about sowing and reaping, and he made the point that we reap more than we’ve sown.  To illustrate, he told about some of his family’s experiences this year as first time gardeners.  It seems they planted lots of zucchini seeds and have an overabundance of plants, each with their overabundance of zukes.  They’ve had zucchini bread, cupcakes, and fried and baked zucchini.  He offered bags of zucchini to anyone in the church if they would simply talk to his wife about it.

            We’re each bound to make mistakes as gardeners, whether new or experienced, and we live and learn.  A few years ago I grew more cucumbers than my wife cared for.  This year I’ve had a wonderful crop of green beans, much of which I’ve put into the freezer.  Frankly, I’d rather err on the side of having too much of anything than too little.  It is food after all and shouldn’t be allowed to go to waste.  So an overabundance is a good mistake and a blessing in my opinion.

            If you’re one of those new gardeners engaged in survival gardening this season, and you’ve got too much of something, get a copy of the famous Ball Blue Book.  It’s the resource you need when it comes to know how and what to preserve.  The table of contents includes the following items:

Learning About Canning

Acid Foods

Soft Spreads

Pickled Foods

Low-Acid Foods

Special Diet

Something Extra

Freezing

Dehydration

The Problem Solver

Appendix

Glossary

Index

The Ball Blue Book is your basic guide to canning, freezing, drying, pickling and making soft spreads with dozens of recipes, all packed into 120 pages.  If your survival gardening is producing the abundance it’s supposed to, you need this book right now.  It’s inexpensive and available from Lehman’s.  Click on their logo and type this number in the search box on their page: 021400.  The next page will show a picture of The Ball Blue Book.  Click on it for more info and to order.

            Lehman’s also has a canning kit for beginners, and Survival Sally wrote a post you can click here to read.