Welcome to the first posting on The Year Round Harvest. For my first post I thought it might be interesting to explain the statement “It’s Nothing New, It’s Just Old Fashion”.

When I began gardening several years ago I had three key sources for knowledge; my father, my grandfather and books. Early in my gardening experience my father and grandfather gave me lots of advice on the various aspects of gardening. It was my grandfather who introduced me to the concept of organic gardening. But even with this wealth of family knowledge I felt I had to learn something for myself. So I turned to books and magazines.

I started reading everything I could on gardening and farming, trying to learn all the latest ideas and concepts. After I would complete a book or read an article in a magazine I would go across town and tell my grandfather about it. Each conversation usually started the same way; I would tell him about the latest concept I had just read about and he would respond by saying “Yes, that’s how we did it years ago”. Sometimes he would even tell me stories about how my great-great grandmother would do it. We would discuss the topics in-depth, sometimes talking for hours. These are the moments I will never forget.

After this happened a few times, I began to realize something, everything that I thought was new was actually just the way it was done years ago. The only reason these ideas seemed new to me was because they had not been discussed in so many years. The reality is Its Nothing New, Its Just Old Fashion.

Just remember our parents, grandparents or even great-grandparents are a great resource for information about growing and preserving food for a year round harvest. They had to do did it for survival, we get to do it for fun.