[greeneyes]

We do a little more each year. We also plant a few more perrenials each year. Bluberries, Blackberries, grapes, fruit trees, etc.

We probably won’t ever go totally off grid until we need to, but each year we experiment a little so that if we have to we are not facing a huge learning curve.

During the winter, is when I like to dehydrate and can stuff that is on special-usually meats. When we get cool fall days, that’s a great time to dehydrate some of the summer’s crops.

[Marcella]

In the mail was Sun King Hybrid broccoli seed from Burpee. Why did I get that? Because it says, “Beat the heat. The choicest, tastiest broccoli - and with unrivaled heat tolerance. Large blue-green variety with heads 6-8 inches in diameter, is a standout for its great leaf cover and abundant side shoots. Harvest the nutrition loaded, health-giving beauties from spring until fall. Harvest in about 71 days.”

“unrivaled heat tolerance” and to get it to produce here in this heat that starts for earnest in June, and produce until fall, it has to have asbestos shorts on. It even says, “In deep south , Gulf and Pacific Coast area, sew from fall to early spring.”

This is the only broccoli I found that might survive and produce in my heat of 100-107 summer. Since it takes from 10-21 days for the seed to sprout and then they have to get to the point to be outside, and take 71 days to harvest and then keep producing, the poor plants are going to get hot.

So, I will experiment with these.