There comes a time in the life of every garden when the head gardener is just so overloaded with produce that she has to make tough decisions. The tomatoes --- yes, we'll preserve every ounce of those. But maybe that huge basket of okra and sweet corn would be better off visiting another household?

I figured if I sweetened the pot with some fresh carrots and peppers and hazelnuts and scarlet runner beans and zinnias, Mom wouldn't realize I was just trying to foist off my unwanted children on her.

In exchange, my kind mother filled the back seat of our car with found cardboard. One man's trash is definitely this woman's treasure! Thanks, Mom! Seems like a pretty fair trade.

Want more in-depth information? Browse through our books.

Or explore more posts by date or by subject.

About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.



Want to be notified when new comments are posted on this page? Click on the RSS button after you add a comment to subscribe to the comment feed, or simply check the box beside "email replies to me" while writing your comment.

Powered by Branchable Wiki Hosting.