Planted too much, now what?

My belief is that is you have the room and the time to care for your garden, there is no such thing as planting too much. Most of your veggies can be stored for long periods of time after you harvest them. There are only a handful that do not store very well, but still, you can never plant too much.

Quickly, if you planted too many of something that does not store well, like radishes, you can give them away to family members, friends, or maybe try to sell them at a farmers market or something similar. I found that giving them to friends and family helps encourage others to start a garden, which is always a goal of mine.

Now, when it comes to storing your produce, you have a couple options to choose from. Many people will simply freeze their produce. This is a good way to keep most veggies for up to one year. I will get more specific in a later post, but there are ways to keep the freshness for several months or even a year when freezing.
Maybe you already knew this, but things with a tougher skin can actually store without any preparation. One good example is squash. Squash can be kept in a dark cool place for 6 months to a year and still be very fresh tasting. Actually, we just cooked a squash from last year that was kept in the pantry for about 9 months now. It was delicious.

My favorite way to keep my produce is canning. It is a bit more work than freezing, but the time it will last is increased greatly, maybe indefinitely. I will cover how to can fresh veggies when the harvest season gets a little closer.  

I was trying to find the article I read a few months ago but was unable to locate it for a link. Somewhere in the U.S. there was a home canned mason jar of mushrooms found from the 1920's. I can't recall who or why they did it, but they had scientists test the canned fungus to see if it was still safe to eat. Surprisingly, it was reported that there would be no harm done if they were consumed. That's 80+ years later and they are still edible.

I don't think I would have the guts to eat something that old, but it goes to show that canned goods can stay for a very long time. I am sure they would lose some flavor over all the decades, but what are the chances that yours will be stored that long?

Don't worry about planting too much because you can enjoy this years garden for years to come, if you have enough. I know they wouldn't last that long in this house. Plant away and just store the extras for later.

Remember, Mother Earth smiles when you garden!