November allowed me to slowly slow down after the crazy busy harvest season. Still, last month I had a lot of things left in the garden that weren't quite ready to harvest - especially the winter squash. But on November 28, we had our first hard frost, so they all had to come into the house. It was mostly a great winter squash season. (But a horrible summer squash year!) The butternuts did poorly; they were small and rodents chewed on them a lot. Still, I harvested some for fresh eating and canned the rest. The Cinderella pumpkin I planted produced all of one pumpkin. We haven't tasted it yet, but I did roast and puree it. I don't know if I'll grow it again; it was pretty (though not as pretty as many I've seen in photos) but also watery.

The buttercup, delicata, and acorn squash, as well as the Winter Luxury pie pumpkins, though, were quite abundant. I grew way more pumpkin than I needed - but it never hurts to can a little extra for a poor growing year.

I was a little bummed that I had to preserve a lot of the winter squash, though. Part of their appeal to me is that I can harvest them and then store them without processing and they will last many months. But this year, we had rodent problems. It started with a doe and her fawn who were managing to crawl on their bellies to get under my deer fence. To nip that in the bud, my husband installed a hot wire at the base of the fence. But this prevented our cats from hunting in the garden...which led to a lot of my winter squash having chewed rinds. And damaged rinds mean the squash won't last in storage. It made a lot of extra work for me, so hopefully we can come up with a good solution for next year!

Part of the winter squash harvest: Pie pumpkins, "Mashed Potatoes" acorn squash, and buttercup squash.

In addition to canning winter squash chunks and freezing winter squash puree, I dehydrated the last of the abysmal summer squash crop, canned tomatoes from the freezer, and canned some bone broth. 

Dehydrating yellow summer squash.

In December, I took a complete break from preserving and my only homestead work has been caring for the livestock and laying down organic matter on top of the garden beds - mostly leaves from the Brussels sprouts and other brassicas.

At this time, I have cabbage, Brussels sprouts, kale, and collards in the garden, which can be harvest fresh all winter long. There are also a few beets, which I'll harvest as needed. Otherwise, we are eating preserved produce.

We love our Brussels! Recipe here.

Which brings me to my produce totals for the year, which you can see below. BUT please remember, I will be cutting off the growing year when it truly ends, which will be in early 2025.

November & December Produce Totals:

To learn more about how and why I am keeping these totals, click here.

Cabbage 18 lbs 15 oz.

------------> $15.61 conventional; $28.32 organic  

Surprise! I grew some cone head cabbages. They must have been mis-packaged seeds.

 

Carrots 11.86 oz.

------------> $5.33 conventional; $8.30 organic 

Radish 11 oz.

------------> $3.41 conventional; no organic optional available

Some of the homestead-raised ingredients for stew, including black winter radishes.

Pie Pumpkins 33 lbs 1 oz.

My Walmart did not have any fresh pumpkins! So I used the price for butternut squash.

------------> $190 conventional; no organic option available

Freezing pumpkin puree.

Cooking pumpkins 11 lbs. 11 oz.

My Walmart did not have any fresh pumpkins. So I used the price for butternut squash.
------------> $64.22 conventional; no organic option available

 

Butternut Squash 7 lbs. 8 oz.

------------> $45.00 conventional; no organic option available

Canning butternut squash and pie pumpkins.

 

Buttercup Squash 7 lbs. 3 oz.

No buttercup squash at my local Walmart, so I used the price for butternut squash.
------------> $40.46 conventional; no organic option available

 

Acorn Squash 24 lbs. 6 oz.

My Walmart did not have any acorn squash! So I used the price for butternut squash.

------------> $142.18 conventional; no organic option available

I save the seeds from all my winter squash and roast them for an added nutritional boost to our diets.

 

Collards 2 lbs. 3 oz.
------------> $11.96 conventional; $15.96 organic

Zucchini 10.62 oz.

------------> $0.95 conventional; $5.39 organic

Yellow Squash 4.98 oz.

------------> $0.50 conventional; $1.85 organic 

   

Green beans 2 lbs. 15 oz.

------------> $4.32 conventional; $6.88 organic 

Brussels sprouts 9 lbs.
------------> $25.92 conventional; $36.00 organic

My homegrown Brussels sprouts are big, but not at all bitter.

Harvesting Brussels.

 

$549.86 if purchased conventional; $587.97 if I purchased the organic options available.

Saved in 2024 so far:

$2,684.43 if buying conventional and $3,610.55 if buying organic.

2024 Gardening Expenses

Walla Walla onion starts: $4

Cherry tomato start: $5.49 (a single plant and a hedge because the new-to-me-variety of cherry tomatoes I started from seed were looking less than robust)

Potting Soil: $47.96 (primarily for potting up peppers in the greenhouse; some will get used for flowers, too, but I won't try to parse that out.)

Organic snail bait $17.96 (I had to use more of this than is typical because we had such a cool, damp spring)

Total gardening expenses so far: $75.41

Total savings minus expenses in 2024: $2,609.02 if buying conventional; $3,535.14 if buying organic when available.