ottawa foodies

Gang,

I sometimes I find myself with excess veggies in the summer that we can't use or keep up with. Thought about doing the CSA but that is all about commitment from both sides and maybe is a poor deal for the buyer due to many reasons.

So I thought about doing a custom/excess veggie offer. I have one friend who wants to buy this summer. No commitment, just take what you want/need at a reasonable market price. Last summer sold a lot of cukes. Ideally you pick.

Ideas on what veggies I should include in such an offer to be available?

K,

Tomatoes, preferably heirloom ones.

Tomatoes, corn, different varieties of peppers tomatilos. Pretty much any veggie. Except zucchini, it always seems that people are trying to get rid of giant zucchini bats.

How do you envision it would work? A subscriber list?
And whoever wanted would pay a fee and show up to pick? Or would you post here?

Agree with lovetoeat about the peppers (non-green), jalapeños and Scotch Bonnets would be nice. Also corn.

I am always interested in tomatoes, tomatoes, basil, sweet red peppers, corn, squash, and, of course, tomatoes.
Would be happy to bring you stuff you might want from 'town' in trade, including Rizak's vanilla and my bitters :)

Last summer with the heat it was a great veggie year. Wish they were all like that but I irrigated with swamp water to keep things growing and could not keep up to how dry it was.

Things that worked out so far: sweet potatoes, kohlrabi, corn, carrots, peas, cukes, popcorn, beets, squash, pumpkins, basil, tomatoes, peppers, okra.

I never plant kale, lettuce or zucchini! Will type up a proposed list in the next week and post it. The real question comes down to varieties of things such as tomatoes and peppers. My red ones last year were large and ripened well.

I'm interested in all of it except the pumpkin. Can you explain a little bit about the popcorn? Are you growing just the red beets or other varieties?

You can do so much with zucchini, if someone gave me a bunch you can put them in anything-in muffins or cupcakes, parmesan, breaded served w sour cream, steamed w sour cream and lemon.

You can probably freeze the extra veggies if your freezer has the space.

Felinefan......

I am wide open to suggestions. Have tried a few different beets and never found much difference but it is easy enough to throw a pack or two of different in. It is more the peppers and tomatoes than need planning. Am a huge fan of san marzanos plus some cherries for the kids. Oh and maybe a beefstake or two for lunches but the rest I would need input on.

Popcorn. Was an experiment this past year. You buy the variety and it grows like regular corn and you harvest it when dry. Did not water the popcorn as much as other things so the kernals were not huge but they pop fine. I do find the taste a bit nuttier which I like.

In many countries child labour is frowned upon but where I am it is encouraged ;)

Krusty, I'm happy with all the stuff you grow. Brandy wine tomatoes are terrific if you can find the seeds. My SIL and her husband have a hobby type farm and they grow lots of stuff and all their tomatoes are of the heirloom variety. What all they are escapes me but if you are interested I can ask her to save me some seeds if you wanted to try growing some next year. Meanwhile, I'm perfectly fine with the tomatoes that you are growing. As for beets, we love the golden ones and the candy cane (Chiaggo?) ones, the Reds not so much. If you can grow some Scotch Bonnets (not habaneros) I'd consider that a bonus. I should mention that there are just the two of us.

I hear they grow some very nice garlic around your parts of the woods :) All the suggestions above are excellent. Some type of grilling peppers always go over well, and poblano's are easy to find a home for (they make excellent smoked salsa).

Nice idea.. san Marzano would be good and different peppers but have not had that much successful with sweet pepper but better luck with hot peppers.

Lebanese cukes are nice when fresh.

@Krusty What is happening with this idea? I'm hoping ut is still on.

Good question....last summer I hauled in 1000 - 2000 gallons a week to water my garden and it prospered. This year I think I need to pump out the equivalent. The moisture in the ground is crazy and to walk in it this past week you would sink 4 - 6 inches in mud. We will see how things do in the end. I dont have high expectations. Other folks I have spoken with had to reseed many things as the initial germination rotted.

We'll hope for the best. If things do work out and you have a surplus, I'm in for some.

Switch to rice?
:)

Oh man....my own wild rice patch would be delightful.

Yes, the rain is really something this year. We've got greens, more than we can handle, but the other produce is suffering. And forget about cutting hay.

I agree, wild rice is the way forward.