By golly, it's nice to know I'm one up on somebody. My wife won't work in the compost, do the planting, water or work the weeds...but she will PICK! LOL.

I'd probably pull a rant in your case, too.

She picks???????? Dang you found a good one!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

;)

Yep, pickin' and a' grinnin'! She cooks, too (gosh, is that 2 up?) - really good with roasted garlic and fried onions. Alliums forever! Just go broke and maybe your DW will get hungry enough to figure it out! Don't have the room for spuds but envy you...

Hilarious!

Give her a free tour of the garden !

"Give her a free tour of the garden !"

I've tried that, she doesn't want to go out there no matter how hard I try!

I even asked her to look at the nectarines on the tree that is 10' away from her car and she said no, there will be bugs over there!

Some are gardeners and outdoors people, some are not. A lady who I worked with has a husband who does a lot of cooking. He drove 10 miles one way to buy potatoes for stew rather than use "dirt potatoes", his name for ones from their garden. I'm not sure if he realized that their pantry was usually stocked with "dirt potatoes" that his wife dug and hosed off. And who knows how he thinks the store potatoes were raised. I guess maybe as long as he didn't need to see or touch the dirt it was all okay. Maybe like me eating meat but not wanting to butcher it myself.

^^^^ this is true.. It takes all kinds! lol
My wife is the same though, not partial to the garden.. On a good day though I could get her to take a stroll through.. But she does relish the tomatoes on a good note!

My wife thinks potatoes from the store don't grow in the dirt also.. and she will buy tomatoes from the store when we have fresh ones sitting on the counter!

"eating meat but not wanting to butcher it myself."

I can understand that! When I was growing up we had hogs, cattle, and chickens. Mom would butcher the chickens, but the beef and pork went to the local slaughter house.

When she does do that rare thing of cooking, she will not touch the raw meat. So it doesn't get washed or even rinsed off...........

This is hillarious!!! My husband is the same. Is always surprised that something he bought is growing in the garden. He will stand on the deck sometimes and watch me digging and planting, then waves goodbye but never comes down. He does like eating the produce though. I call him an NGS - non gardening spouse.

Come on, folks! Everyone knows that non-dirt potatoes come from 3-D printers!

Ok, feeling better about my Great-Indoorsman husband. No interest in the Outside, and I'm only 2 1/2 years into being a gardener, but he does love my tiny strawberries and occasional lettuce leaf, as well as the odd tomato and chili pepper. HE went out to get the green onions this week, planted for him, for his own dinner.

He'll like this thread, make him feel better about his culinary courage.

Sorry everyone these stories about NGS (love that term) make me appreciate my farm-raised DH more! He finished building my last 2 raised beds (each 2x12) today while I took DD and her friends to the movies. AND he filled them with composted manure! Definitely not afraid to get his hands dirty. He loves telling the kids each summer "If we raised our own meat then everything on this table would be from our land!" - though we're getting chickens, I draw the line at butchering them (once they get too old to lay I told him I would cook them into soup if he did the dirty deed, though).

Now if I can only get him to understand things like brown/green ratios, nitrogen-robbing soil amendments (like wood chips and leaves), and soil compaction. And that not everything small and growing outside a perfectly straight row is a weed (why I try to do lettuce transplants) - the man can't stand "weeds"! He does recognize cucurbit and bean seedlings, though.

My niece is a city girl though, hates getting hot/sweaty, won't get dirty, is afraid of bugs so I sort of understand. She loves coming here for the summer and picking the berries near the house and having them for breakfast though. Don't know how she and my DD can be best friends when they are so different (we call DD "Pigpen" b/c she attracts dirt just like the Peanuts character).

In this house, we hate to buy produce from the grocery store b/c we don't know how it's been raised, how old it is, and even organic fruit (just bought organic nectarines, I would love to have your trees!) rots before it ripens b/c it's picked green. We like FRESH produce.

My wife is a walmart gardener:
She wants the vegetables/fruit clean wrapped & on the counter, before she will touch them.
I have blueberries & raspberries ripe on the bush& no one to pick them. EAT yes, Pick NO.

jolj, at least they will eat them!

I realize I am a tad late. But this is a hilarious thread! My NGS is somewhere in the mid-range. She does appreciate having produce from the garden, and provides suggestions about what to grow, but she doesn't want to get too involved in the details of seasons and work that must be done ahead of time and so-on.

McKenzie

This is such an entertaining thread. I'm so lucky that DH shares my philosophy of living off the land (gardening, butchering, fishing, etc.)

The story that really makes me shake my head is I had a bunch of my relatives over for lunch about ten years ago. I said "OK, I have to pick lunch, so who wants to walk up to the garden (it's a rather steep uphill walk) and help?"

My niece came with me. I opened the gate, we went in, and she pointed at the first row of plants "What's THAT?" Note: Niece has a master's degree in education, but obviously not in the sort of education that I find beneficial.

Me: "Um, THAT is broccoli". Her: "Wow. REALLY? We love broccoli, but it looks...REALLY different when I buy it at [insert grocery store name and/or brand of frozen food here]."
Lettuce - "Ewww, it has, ick, bugs on it." Me: "A little extra protein is good for you."
Kohlrabi - "Wow, what's THAT?"
Beets - "I thought those only came in a can. I didn't know that you, like, hafta GROW them."
Shallots - "What are THOSE THINGS?"
Garlic - "THAT doesn't look like the stuff in the store". Me: "No, hon, it's still underground and hasn't finished growing yet." Her: "Eww, they grow in DIRT???"
Tomatoes - "How come your tomatoes are green - the ones in the store are red!"

At that point, I gave up and continue to despair at the products of "higher" education.

My wife and kids insist on buying seedless watermelon when I have 20 of them out in the garden all ripening at the same time. They just can't deal with seeds.

Well screw them. I put chunks of mine in the blender and blend on low, which doesn't chop up the seeds. Strain, add vodka, and I'm on the patio while they are inside watching TV.

Hahaha I like that.. ^^^

malna - My nephew's son once asked, "Watermelons have seeds?" It wasn't a surprise though since his mom only eats processed foods...

It's funny... I went on vacation out last Dec-Jan and thought it was odd that my cousins would ignore perfectly good sponge gourds growing in their yard and would rather spend money and buy a plastic one... They'd rather ONLY eat canned food too... All the time there I was wishing to eat fresh veggies. I was getting the feeling that they have the idea in their heads that fresh veggies is poor people food... Another cousin said, "We dont eat tomatoes... Those are for the animals.." What!? I wanted to slap somebody for them having that in their heads... They also got it in their heads that livestock grade corn is good eating because it's a "modern" hybrid... That stuff is hard as hell an it sticks to your teeth... Grow some real corn to eat! Sheesh!

Sorry for venting... I just got in the moment... lol