EAT YOUR VEGGIES

Ragkitty, I like em all. The problem is, the avocados and artichokes have gotten so expensive I have stopped buying them, Terry

If the name begins with A you get a treat : asparagus, avocado, and artichoke.

dblay, I haven't noticed a lot of shortages out here, but increased prices are very apparent. Wages have really increased this past year. All the fast food places in town now have their starting pay between $14.75 and $17.00 an hour. That has really raised restaurant prices. We went to a chain restaurant last month. Their menu price for the same meal we ate just before Covid, has now gone up 40%. I am guessing everything this year will go up a minimum of 5%, except for our Social Security Benefits. Terry

I love Artichoke DIP with some chips of some kind. :-)) I guess I've never seen the bloom since I've never "grown" them but the bloom is very lovely. It seems that just about EVERYTHING has gone in price since they can't get drivers to deliver stuff anymore after this Virus started. It is hard sometimes to find stuff at the grocery store because it is gone and it seems to take a LONG time for them to get anymore. Beautiful shot, Terry, and thank you for sharing the photo and the comment above.

Abjab: Ann, by contrast, tomatoes were our best crop. We have more tomatoes than we know what to do with, Terry

Woops, sorry I have just read back over other people's comments and see that you have already given artis. a go.

Oh dear, what a depressing year in the garden, it does make you wonder at times if it's worth the effort .
We have had quite a good year except with tomatoes...we even have a few ears of sweet corn
It sounds as if you have the space , so next year perhaps try your own artichokes .
Best wishes with that and thanks for the puzzle.
Ann

seagirl, your troubles in the garden is why I don't garden anymore. Haven't for nearly 20 years. Fortunately, we have an excellent farmer's market in this area. Have you tried lady bugs? Heard they eat aphids (not that I would know). Good luck next year!

hunter, we had our first bad season with garden pests. First we found ground squirrels in there for the first time. They ate of our new squash plants coming up, plus all of our beets that were an inch or so high. We trapped six ground squirrels that got rid of the whole family. I replanted both crops. They got up the same height and almost all of them disappeared overnight. This time I found birds in there. Something also was eating some of our tomatoes. I found tiny ants on some half eaten tomatoes but I think the ants only got to them after they were half eaten. I did plants more beets in a cattle watering tank filled with dirt. They didn't get eaten off at the ground but as they matured, something has eaten more of their leaves off than they left. This our 11th year gardening in this spot and none of that stuff has happened before. Terry

Earwigs! Yuck!. Never could figure out how to keep them out of the artichokes. Loved the plant before they were attacked.

olando: Vips, We tried to grow them once but the heads didn't get all that big and the earwigs got to them before we could eat them, Terry

dusty and Sharon, I ate them for a number of years before I knew that. They do have some thorns on the end of some of the petals, opposite of the end you eat. That fluffy white stuff you scrap off of the heart and throw away would turn into the thistle downs that carry its seeds, Terry

I didn't know they were a thistle plant and I didn't know they had such beautiful flowers. I've only seen them in produce sections :)) Thanks for the puzzle and the information.

It is such a beautiful flower. I had one in a pot years ago, and think I will try again, not to eat, but enjoy looking at. Vips

I had no idea that artichokes were related to thistles!