Well, I just retired from running a commercial greenhouse and nursery. Twenty one years, and several years before that as a grower at another concern. Also used to live in Missouri.........you made me homesick. LOL. However, gardening, and especially food production I was doing before I ever started growing professionally. It was my first love. The canning came as a result. I am also not a fan of processed food, and cook almost entirely from scratch, preferrably with home grown produce. I also raise chickens, have an orchard and bramble patches and grapevines, and nut trees. Dollars count here too. We live as plain as possible and it's a good life.

Hi Ellen and welcome to the forum. Wife and I are just across the border from you in Arkansas and gardening and home food preservation has been our passion for almost 50 years now. Retirement only increased the amount of time we have to do both.

Our sons bought into the gardening but took a pass on learning to preserve the food. Fortunately they both married good farm-raised women devoted to gardening and canning too. So now we and our daughters by marriage all work together to raise the next generation of penny-pinchers to understand the importance of hard work and self-sufficiency.

Dave

Very nice to meet you both! Two very well respected profiles on Gardenweb. Calliope, I remember you from many years ago on the Professional forum. You have the greatest candor about you, professional, right to the point, and you rise above any dispute. Ironically, just after reading your kind response, I get my Park Seed Wholesale catalog and right on the front page is a photo of a new Geranium called 'Calliope'. I remember you saying that you raised children of your own, then took in foster children, all the while operating your business! Wow! You and Dave both have a lifestyle I aspire to. SIMPLE. Making something out of nothing. No wasting, recycling, reusing everything, and making every hard earned dollar stretch. A life where a frill truly is a frill. I've learned that you can have daily frills, at home, just by preserving Mother Natures bounty. People can argue the costs and hard work involved in gardening and canning. Those people just don't understand the difference between home grown corn and store bought stuff. Or a vine ripened tomato versus a hot house one. You CANNOT replicate home grown flavor! And my children's interest and excitement in this is the icing on the cake for me. :-)