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One Hundred Dollars a Month

I am your typical housewife living in high maintenance suburbia. I have a handsome husband, 2 kids and a flock of pet chickens. I try and feed my family with $100 a month. With the help of coupons, gardening and bartering I am able to squeeze the most out of our grocery budget and still manage to have a little fun along the way.

Giveaway – 3 Autographed Copies of The Four Season Farm Gardener’s Cookbook

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By on ·

Eliot Coleman Barbara Damrosch Four Season Farm Cookbook

We recently took a trip to the East Coast and one of the places we stopped was Harborside, Maine the home of Eliot Coleman Barbara Damrosch and their Four Season Farm.

eiolt coleman four season farm maine

We were lucky enough to meet Eliot Coleman and he graciously signed 3 copies of The Four Seasons Farm Cookbook for us to giveaway to 3 lucky readers.

All you have to do to enter this giveaway is leave a comment below and let us know: What is your favorite fruit or vegetable to grow.

four season farm eliot coleman maine

Rules

1 entry per person/ip address. If you cheat, you will totally be disqualified.

Three people will win one autographed copy of The Four Season Farm cookbook.

This giveaway ends Sunday, April 28th, 2013 @9 pm PST and the winner will be announced in the April 29th, 2013 edition of Mornings with Mavis. You will be notified via email and have 48 hours to claim your prize. If the prize is not claimed within 48 hours it will be forfeited.

Good Luck, I hope you win.

♥ Mavis

This post may contain affiliate links. These affiliate links help support this site. For more information, please see my disclosure policy. Thank you for supporting One Hundred Dollars a Month.

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Comments

  1. So hard to decide! I would have to say Kale, because it has so many uses and grows so well in our climate 🙂

  2. I love to grow lettuce because we eat so much of it. Love fresh grown tomatoes too and my favorite fruit to grow is grapes.

  5. My favorite vegetable is beet greens! But really, I have too many favorites to pick one. I’m about to plant some cutting celery and lovage, which may be my new favorites.

  7. Lately it has been cucumbers. I love fresh cucs! We preserve a really yummy sweet relish that we can’t get enough of and those cucumbers come in handy. This year, along with our regular cucumbers, we’re trying sour gherkins too. Excited to see how they turn out!

  10. Oh my goodness…so inspired by your post about them! I love growing anything, but right now, my pepper seedlings have me smiling 🙂

  14. I have Eliot’s Four Seanon Harvest book & Barbara’s Garden Primer;both excellent resources containing much, much farming wisdom. I most enjoy eating (er.. a growing) tomatoes

    Wish me luck 😉

  15. I am just starting a garden this summer, so I am looking forward to growing rhubarb. I love anything made with rhubarb!!!!

  16. Narrowing it down to one favorite is difficult. I’d have to say beets, plain or pickled, they’re delicious!

  17. For the last year or two my favorite vegetables to grow have been anything heirloom! It’s really pretty to see all the unique colors and shapes!

  22. Poll green beans and tomatoes. I container garden now since I no longer have space for a garden.

  23. Artichokes are my favorite right now! My favorite fruit to grow is strawberries. There is nothing like a sun warmed strawberry plucked right out of the garden and because my granddaughter loves to pick and eat them as soon as she walks out the door to the garden.

  24. I am thrilled to have Arctic Kiwis growing well here in Ohio and love these tasty little “greenies”!!!

  29. It is so hard to decide which I like best to grow! I’ll say Potatoes. When they are ready to harvest it’s like hunting for easter eggs! Thanks for a chance to win!

  30. My favorite vegetable to grow is heirloom tomatoes. I have 18 plants (9 different varieties) in my raised boxes right now. My favorite fruit to grow is any kind of berry – strawberry, blackberry, blueberry. 🙂

  32. Love tomatoes…nothing beats that fresh flavor straight from the garden. My favorite lately has been the grape tomato varieties and popping out at lunch time for a quick snack of them is the best.

  34. Gosh, how to choose a favorite?! Tomatillos are up there for me – easy to grow, easy to preserve (pop ’em in a freezer bag whole, they don’t stick together or anything), and taste sooooo much better than store-bought (which tend to have a weird funk I can’t stand).

  35. I love to grow jalapenos. It’s fun to watch them get bigger and bigger and then turn bright red.

  36. I love growing cilantro and arugula because i eat them so often! i’m trying sunchokes this year and they are growing like gangbusters! might be a new fave!

  39. Basil because I can — though I’m not sure it qualifies as a vegetable . . . ? Anyway, I’d love to learn to grow more!

  40. Asparagus – plant it once and it keeps coming back. Could say the same for strawberries, but the asparagus wins because it is harvested the earliest in the growing season.

    Thanks!

  41. I LOVE to grow tomatoes. They are a must in MN, they get you through the winter. I have 72 seedlings growing this year.

  42. I love to grow tomatoes. I try to grow a new type every year. This year I am growing Wapsipinicon Peach, Carbon, Blondkopfchen, Hillbilly Potato Leaf, and Black Cherry.

  43. Oh how exciting! I first started watching them on PBS! I love gardening and my favorite thing to grow is food….lol! But I will have to say Oregon sugar snap peas because once my Gramma gave me one from her garden I was hooked on learning all I can about gardening!

  45. I like growing sweet peppers the best. They are delicious and seem to survive the Texas heat pretty well.

  46. Strawberries

    They go hand in hand with childhood. We have them growing in our front and back yards. The children enjoy picking and eating them for snacks. I remember doing the same in my parents garden growing up. 🙂

    Thank you for hosting this giveaway.

  49. What a great book. Read a book by his daughter about growing up with his philosophies. Very interesting. But for me, herbs, berries & tomatoes.

  50. Edemame is my new favorite after growing them for the first time this year. Wowzer…i am planting a whole bed of these little blissful pods of nuttiness next year. I love to see my kids fighting over a bowl of vegetables…ha.

  51. Salad greens! I think I have 12 different kinds of greens planted now and another 6 to add through the season, we are pretty serious about salad greens at our house!

  52. It has to be cucumbers! I love anything pickled and I pickle my cucumbers in about 5 different ways. Delicious.

  55. I love growing tomatoes. There is nothing like a fresh tomato, picked straight from the garden. This year, I’m canning for the first time – we’ll see how it turns out!

  58. I love growing lots of things but my favorite right now at 34 wks pregnant is rhubarb…because I don’t have to do anything…it just grows 😉

  59. I love everything I’ve been able to grow, but tomatoes are by far my favorite. Nothing can compare to a freshly picked tomato straight from my own garden.

  62. I love to grow peaches almost as much as I like to see my grandsons eat them (they’re so juicy that they soak they’re sleeves when they eat them). My 8 year old grandson loves the peach cake that I make so I love to use our fresh peaches to make cakes & freeze some for later in the year. There’s nothing as rewarding as growing chemical-free foods for your kids and grandkids!!!!!!!!!!

  67. I love to grow winter squash and all kinds of beans…all heritage and open-pollinated. Have been a fan of the Coleman’s for many years. Jealous of you Mavis for having a visit at their garden and greenhouses! (Just kidding)!!! Hope you brought back lots of tips to share with us. Love your site girl!

  68. I love everything that grows in my garden,but I have a soft spot for the different squashes.
    I’m glad you loved Maine! There is an incredible old farm near me that just came up for sale,near the ocean!! Hint! Hint!

  70. In Texas I love to grow Brussell Spounts and Tomatoes! For me the easiest to grow are Cumcumbers. But Blueberries and Strawberries are grown in my back year too. Love to plant and grow, it heals my soul.

  73. Sugar Snap Peas. Grow like crazy and the kids, including my OMG won’t eat a veggie, picks them off and eats them.

  74. Basil. I love being able to walk out the back door and pick fresh basil. And I freeze some to use in sauces dining the winter.

  77. Strawberries! My kids love them right off the vine or mixed with yoghurt and granola!

  85. My favorite right now are radishes – they come in so many varieties and are almost instant gratification since they mature so quickly. They are also one of those veggies that is just not the same store bought. Hooray for gardening!

  88. Herbs! Only thing I have tried so far, but we do have radishes, spinach, strawberries, pea and onions in our square foot garden

  89. Oh, I’m sorry…my message came through twice. Totally unintentional! I’m not able to delete. Would you be so kind and delete my duplicate?

  91. I’m not very good of a gardener. I like tomatoes, but I have to say the best for me is delicata squash. It’s the one thing that I’ve grown without trying. The last two years it has just grown out of my compost pile. 🙂

  94. Right now I would just love to plant a garden but I love to plant green beans- rattlesnake and white half runner do well in our garden

  96. I love to grow blueberries because my daughter can pick them with or without me. Last year after she turned one, she already knew how to pick the berries and eat them, this year will be even better as she can determine which ones are ripe enough to eat!

  98. I love to grow lemon verbena; not only does it make a delicious tea, but the plant is beautiful as well.

  100. Strawberries. I have a little kitchen window planter with a few plants and I used to have those special pots when I was a kid. I still buy them, since I don’t get many and it’s my favorite food (I can, and have, eaten a whole flat in a day. I maybe won’t be doing that ever again, but it totally seemed worth it at the time.)

  104. My favorite to eat is tomatoes but there are never enough and many times the birds and squirrels beat me to them. Jalapenos are my favorite to grow. I have a small patch of sunshine that I chase all summer long.

  105. I like to grow peppers in containers.. They are so easy to grow. I am still using the ones from my garden last year.

  106. absolutely love growing heirloom tomatoes. i save seeds and start them from seed the next year. purchasing 2 new varieties each year….. soon to be called the “tomato lady”.

  108. I LOVE tomatoes, and cherry tomatoes are fun to grow, since you can just grab a few and pop them in your mouth on the way by 🙂 Thanks for blogging Mavis! Seeing new posts is one of the highlights of my day!

  109. Strawberries — it reminds me of my mom tenderly tending to her strawberry patch each year.

  110. Tomatoes. I know, sounds boring, but even when I didn’t have room for a garden, I always grew at least one tomato. And this year, I’m growing 7 heirloom varieties. 🙂 Nothing beats homegrown tomatoes!

  112. Tomatoes!! All kinds! Started my heirloom tomatoes from seed this year and am hoping they do as well as the starts I used last year! We shall see 🙂

  114. I loved last year’s raspberries (we had a prolific bush!) and sugar snap peas—me and the girl go out first thing in the morning and eat them!
    Sarah M

  115. I have not planted much, so right now it is tomatoes. Nothing beats a tomato on toast with mayo!! I hope to grow more this summer. I have started cucumbers, three different peppers and squash. Wish me luck with these.

  118. I love to grow peas because they are a great way to start the growing season! Thank you for the opportunity to win Mavis!

  120. My favorite thing to grow is herbs… basically any kind because fresh herbs make such a difference in any cooking.

  121. This is a neat giveaway! Thanks!

    I’d have to say my favorite it tomatoes because I love the sweet deliciousness that only comes from home grown but zucchini is so easy and prolific (and the gophers don’t like them, so I actually get them).

  123. tomatoes!!! I tried a couple of heirlooms last year that were outstanding. This year I am going to plant some grafted ones. They are like regular tomatoes on steroids! And there is nothing better than cruising the back yard with a handful of sun-warmed cherry tomatoes.

  126. tomatoes..

    and asparagus…

    and green peas (although the bunnies here in VA keep eating my plants )

    and…ok i’ll stop…since moving to VA, I can grow cayenne peppers like mad so that is fun

  130. I’ve been gardening since a was a wee little thing. I have lots of favorites but I would have to say that this year, my favorite is going to be Tomatoes! And probably Cucumbers too because, due to our location and moving around with the USAF, I have been unable to grow them for many years. I finally have permanent roots of my own and a greenhouse — seeds are sprouting even tho it’s snowing outside and blowing a gale.

  131. We like anything that can grow in containers! We live in SoCal and have 32 containers on our patio plus a small square foot garden. We just started gardening year round. I think my favorite is our nectarine tree.

  133. Strawberries for spring rebirth, cucumbers for summer salads, and pumpkins for autumn magic.

  134. We love to grow blackberries,raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, elderberries and plums. We also grow tomatoes, peppers, squashes etc

  135. HERBS! I love being an herb lady…Rosemary, thyme, oregano, sage, so on and on. I love going out to harvest a handful of flavor throughout the year, and then having that intoxicating smell of Rosemary and sage on my hands for the rest of the day. Magical, I tell ya! Plus, herbs are pretty darn forgiving…they don’t demand too much. 🙂

  136. If I have to pick one thing, I’d say Lucinato kale. Every week I have a new favorite, though!

    Tanks for the giveaway.

  137. I love growing strawberries, they taste SO good compared to the big grocery store ones!

  140. My favorite vegetable to grow….. hmmmm – probably cucumbers…or maybe tomatoes? Kohlrabi was awesome this winter – and those little bitty round carrots, too! No – has to be cucumbers – nothing like eating one straight out of the garden with a little salt! mmmmm!

  146. Last summer I had the most prolific little cucumber plant, it was a leftover that my mom couldn’t plant and it was just a little machine. I also found that I am REALLY good at making pickles, so I’m going to have to go with Cucumbers!

  148. Tomatoes all the way. My toddler and I love watching our plants grow and he’s great help when it comes time to harvest.

  149. Salsa garden-tomatoes, cilantro and peppers every year. Just can’t get enough of them.

  152. I only like to grow mint. Because I can’t kill it! But I would love to grow spinach next.

  153. Lettuces because they keep giving and giving. And because cold weather crops do well in Wisconsin! 🙂

  155. Hands down its tomatoes. There are so many varieties and NOTHING tastes like a tomato fresh from the garden. Cherry tomatoes for salads, romas with fresh mozarella cheese, big beefsteaks on the summer barbequed hamburgers. I love em all!

  156. I am a newbie gardener and will be growing tomatoes, salads, greens anything for a salad!
    I would love to win this book…thank you for the giveaway opportunity!

  157. Right now I would have to say lettuce because it grew really well this past fall. Right now where we live the wind is so bad I can’t plant yet – we had snow on Thursday and high winds!

  159. I’d be happy to grow ANYTHING at this point… Last year all I got was sprouts & no veg :/ That’s the point I’m at now with my radishes & snap peas.. Sprouts are cute, but they don’t feed ya much! I’d loooooove to grow some cucumbers! But apparently that’s asking a lot in WA 😉 Every farm I hit last year, they were short on cukes from the lack of sunshine even in summer.

  160. How can I pick just one fruit or vegetable? I love almost all of them. Favorite to grow…again? asking me that questions is like Sophie’s Choice. I think when you train yourself to mostly eat seasonally you appreciate the fruits/veggies for the season you are currently in. Summer is on its way…love summer berries.

  163. Eggplant! So versatile, what’s not to love? Appetizers, side dishes, meatless main dishes, bake , fry, grill. Grows super well in the desert SW where I live.

  165. I can’t narrow it down! Peas, carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers, broccoli! I don’t have much luck with lettuce or spinach and would like to do better at those!

  166. Tomatoes! I love to see how excited my husband gets to be able to eat a home-grown tomato like an apple!

  169. strawberries. Such a great return on an investment as nothing beats a strawberry straight form the garden. And they are my daughters favorite!

  170. Lettuce! Delicious, fresh, straight from the garden yummy lettuce! And tomatoes, and basil, and cilantro- it’s hard to pick just one thing!!!

  172. i have tried to grow fennel with not so much luch but it is fun to try!! i enjoy mu grape vines!! thanks

  173. So far it’s been LETTUCE.
    I love the variety and color.
    I plant it ni my garden as well as use it as foliage to potted plants (bonus)

    …Colleen…

  175. So far it’s been LETTUCE.
    I love the variety and color.
    I plant it ni my garden as well as use it as foliage to potted plants (bonus)

    …Colleen…

  178. Raspberries and green beans are my favorites. Then again everything I grow can be a favorite. I don’t think I would grow fruits or vegetables that I didn’t like.

  180. I grow a lot of standards, including herbs, but a couple years ago Barbara Damrosch wrote about French breakfast radishes in her Washington Post column and got me hooked! (I know…radishes, right? Not one of the big boys of the garden, but just try them and you might be hooked too.) The first one I harvested was about 1-1/4 inches long, and the last one was at LEAST 18 inches long and 3 inches thick! I left it in the ground, hoping it would go to seed, but it never did…just kept growing right through the fall.

    I use both the radishes and the greens – they’re great to sauté like arugula or Redbor kale, and I figure if I grew it, I don’t want to throw it away!

    I was hoping to buy the book anyway, but now I’ll wait and see if I’m a winner. Thanks for such a cool offer.

  181. thanks for explaining bolting. would love to have a copy of this book. Mary in Cincinnati

  185. Since this is our first year with a garden we are focusing on tomatoes and pepper … also trying a few herbs and making a game plan for next year 🙂

  186. I like to grow peas. I never seem to grow enough to make a meal because they are my favorite garden snack 😛 My other garden favorite is raspberry. I grew up going to grandma’s house where she grew several long rows of raspberry plants and I was allowed to pick and eat!

  187. I love tomatoes and cucumbers but really really love all fresh vegetables from the garden. They taste so much better than those you buy in a store.

  190. I loved growing eggplant last year. This year I think I will enjoy the sugar snap peas I have planted. Thanks for all you do.

  192. strawberries…store ones give me hives but I can eat homegrown to my hearts content. No sprays on my berries.

  193. Has to be tomatoes! I love to go and pick one off of the vine and chomp down. That is one of the fun parts of summer! Plus the chickens love the ones on the bottom of the plants!

  194. Has to be tomatoes! I love to go and pick one off of the vine and chomp down. That is one of the fun parts of summer! Plus the chickens love the ones on the bottom of the plants!

  196. I love to grow tomatoes, because they are just so different from anything found in the store. And because I have a reasonable success rate, unlike just about every other veg 🙂

    Thanks for the giveaway!

  197. Tomatoes are my favorite to grow because nothing beats a vine-ripened tomato fresh from the garden!

  201. Hmmm, my favorite fruit/veggie to grow would have to be pumpkins. Every year I keep working on growing the biggest pumpkin I can! The ones I don’t save for carving go to my pigs, who think they get the best treat in the world! 🙂

  202. Carrots, definitely. Last year we grew four different varieties and this year I think we’re up to six… a couple orange, red, yellow, white and my favorite RAINBOW!!!

  204. Zucchini! My kids all love zucchini bread so I bake several loaves at a time and its a great breakfast , we like it sautéed with butter and onions , I use it to make ag sweet relish also and use it in egg salad , tuna , chicken salad or on hot dogs. We also slice it almost all the way through and put sliced onions between the a pat of butter salt n pepper, wrap it in foil and throw on the grill! Yum , come on summer!

  205. I love to grow tomatoes. But I am trying asparagus and rhubarb new this year.

  207. I was thinking tomatoes because nothing is better than a fresh tomato picked off the vine warm from the sun but then I thought of another one I really love that is not as easy to get…kohlrabi. So I will say kohlrabi, yep, that is my answer 🙂 Kim

  208. my favorite thing to grow so far has been my asparagus we get it out of the garden and my husband will eat it but if I buy it at the store he won’t……but to be honest I like most vegetables that are right out of the garden ….

  209. My first comment did not go through so I am trying again.

    I was thinking tomatoes but then I thought about kohlrabi. So I would have to say kohlrabi. I love to peel and eat it like an apple. Kim

  211. Red Potatoes…..love the sweet little ones with peas and the large ones keep most of the winter!

  212. I love to grow mini pumpkins and mini gourds for fall decorating and then beans and tomatoes for eating.

  214. I love growing peppers and sweet potatoes. Last year I got an amazing harvest of both and they were so delicious!

  217. I just love growing strawberries. Very tasty, very versatile, and with the runners plenty of new plants to share with friends!

  218. I am choosing garden peas. Everyone keeps telling me how hard it is to grow garden peas where I live and how my grandfather always grew the best garden peas. The best compliment I got was when my mom told me my garden peas looked just as good as her dad’s used to look!

  220. What?! Choose just ONE favorite?! That’s a tough one! I love my tomatoes, stevia & peppers. But I think my favorite that I’ve always loved is the lemon cucumbers!

  222. It would have to be tomatoes. Nothing beats the taste of a fresh home grown tomato straight of the vine. Picking the first tomato of the season would have to be one of my favourite things in the world.

  225. I am a 2nd year farmer to be…my husband decided we needed to grow more produce rather than buy it, I agreed. He plowed up an acre for his darling bride to maintain and cultivate. gooooooooooodness! it’s a lot of work. Last year my success came from the tomatoes and the crooknecked squash, mostly everything else produced very little. I taught myself to can and learned a whole heck of a lot about plants in general. Because the tomatoes and the squash were so easy, I’d say those were my favorites. However I am hoping to put all that learned to good use. My goal is to move onto bigger, better and trickier things. Of course then I would need to know how to cook such items 🙂

  229. Swiss chard is my favorite! The whole family loves it steamed with garlic and butter! Mmm I can taste it!

  230. I’m still relatively new to the gardening scene, so I love how sugar snap peas and zucchini make me feel so super successful. 🙂

  232. I love spinach. And kale. And cucumbers and tomatoes and beets and beans. How are we supposed to choose just one???

  235. I have planted my first garden this spring. I was too intimidated to try growing my veggies from seed, so I bought the plants and planted them carefully into my raised beds. It has been exciting. However, my curiosity got the better of me and I planted some garden beans from seed. I noticed yesterday they are peaking through the soil!!!! They are my favorite veggie to grow now! And I can’t wait for them to creep and crawl all around their tepees!!!

  236. My favorite thing to grow is something NEW every year. I love learning about new vegetables that i haven’t tried yet. so far this year its potatoes and broccoli. Strawberries are always a favorite here though.

  237. Peas – because the flowers are delightful and fresh picked peas are sweeter than candy, they never make into a cooking pot.

  239. Onions. There’s something about them being so tall. They seem classy and different somehow.

  240. It’s so hard to choose my FAVORITE- but I think I’ll go with Cherry Tomatoes- Because the kids have such a blast picking them (There’s always a ton to go around!) I love cooking summer dishes with them.

  244. My favorite thing to grow is pretty simple….it is whatever will survive…. We have tomatillo plants that come up every year and seem to do very well…..makes awesome salsa verde as well!

  246. Asparagus, because they are perennials. Once and done!
    Okay, I love sugar snap peas, carrots, lettuce, chard, and tomatoes , too.

  247. Strawberries are probably my favorite fruit! My husband helped our pups develop a taste for them, however, so now I have to compete with them for the juiciest ones!

  249. Hey Mavis! I love your blog, and am always checking to see if you have posted anything new. I live in a small town in south western Ontario, Canada and am so ready to get out there and garden, but our weather is not co-operating like yours…still very cool at night. My favourite fruit to grow are figs! I grow figs year-round,- outside in pots during the summer, and inside my sun porch in the winter. Right now I have a large crop of figs forming on two of my 6 fig plants, and can hardly wait until they are ready,- summer in the sun porch! I have a jack pug named Audie,-she looks a lot like your puggle! Thanks for all the effort you put into your blog,-you really are awesome!

  251. I do not have a favourite to grow as I love growing anything that is edible. Providing food for the table is such a rewarding past time no matter if it is a tomato or a raspberry all are super.

  253. I love growing sugar snap peas and green beans. Although you can’t beat tomatoes too.

  254. Spinach and kale tie for first, they are easy to grow and they are best when organic…we juice them so we go through a lot.

  256. I may be cheating a bit by saying ‘Salad Mix’ because the salad mix at the farm I work at is more than just lettuce.

    It changes from Spring to Winter. But we always have at least 3 types of lettuce in it, ‘weeds’ such as lamb’s quarters (which is packed full of vitamins), beet tops, herbs, arugula, baby spinach,etc. In the middle of summer there is more stuff in our salad mix than lettuce.

    I never realized how amazing salad could be before I started working at this farm 2 years ago. Now even when there is snow outside I still get to enjoy freshly cut salad from the greenhouses.

  263. Meyer Lemons in the greenhouse and raspberries in the garden. Raspberries are my very favorite food. In the world.

  264. Limes, because fresh limeade is so delicious. Plus the lime zest is great for cilantro lime rice.

  267. BASIL. (I have very strong feelings about this.) I’m also growing strawberries for the first time this year–they may become my new favorite.

  268. Green onions – I just used the root ends from green onions and now have a constant supply. I’m collecting seeds from them now! These have been growing for a year, for FREE

  269. My favorite fruit to grow is peaches — but the tree does all the work, I just watch! My favorite veggie to grow might be garlic because you plant it in the fall and it decides when to grow (and because everything is better when there’s lots of garlic involved) — or it might be brussel sprouts because they’re very cute and because you can harvest them in the snow!

  270. I’m a newbie gardener, but I have grown berries (raspberries, gooseberries, currants) Love the raspberries, Hate picking the gooseberries. Ouch!

  271. Swiss chard, because it grows all year-long! (And still tastes good even when it is bolting; in other words, it doesn’t taste like barf–nor does it taste bitter, even). My Swiss chard is bolting right now. If I don’t hurry up and pull it out it will get 6 feet tall or more.

  272. Planted a peach tree last year and it has small fruits on it now! I’m hoping home grown peaches will be my favorite fruit this year.

  276. I would have to say my favorite fruit to grow is strawberries they are so yummy right off the plant and there are so many things you can make with them.

  278. I’ve only been successful with tomatoes and cucumbers so far, the tomatoes are my favorite!

  279. There are so many to choose from, but I would say tomatoes. They never make it in the house because I eat them all!

  280. Even though I’m 68, I’m just now starting to grow my own food. If I have to pick one, I guess I’ll say strawberries. They are just starting to produce. But I am raising several other fruits and vegetables and I want to learn how to cook them more healthily.

  281. Strawberries!! Oh, how I wish I could grow REAL tomatoes where I live…but it just doesn’t get hot enough. But I love my strawberry plants!

  284. Tomatoes! I love watching them grow and picking is like a treasure hunt. Eating them is the best though.

  285. Tomatoes and basil! I can’t make it through the summer without them! Add some homegrown peppers and cilantro, and you are most of the way to fresh pick or salsa!

  287. Okra is so easy. But I think I like growing cucumbers best. This year I plan on growing pickling cucumbers.

  288. There are so many fruits and vegetables we enjoy growing. I think we enjoy the process just as much as we love any one particular fruit or vegetable. What I really enjoy is when I can pick garden fresh tomatoe, onion, pepper, corn and cilantro and whip up a batch of salsa. My oh my.

  291. Tomatoes, potatoes, beans, asparagus, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, who can choose?

  292. Nothing like a pot of fresh green beans, and cucumbers & onions is salt water! Cannot wait until Summer.

  295. My favorite vegetable to grow is cucumbers; everyone loves them fresh out of the garden! I have read Eliot Coleman’s Four Season Harvest and his daughter Melissa Coleman’s memoirs – This Life is in Your Hands – what an interesting life this family has lead, they have worked hard to live a lifestyle that they believe in!

  299. My favorite thing to grow is green beans. When my kids were young they loved seeing so many to pick and had such a great time doing it! Hearty plant and fairly easy to grow.. but the memories are the best part!

  301. Any kind of berry! Brings fond memories of picking them with my Grandpa on “the farm”!

  304. Tomatoes!! Easy to grow and taste so much different than store bought. I have learned alot from you and been inspired as well.

    Thank you Mavis!!

    God bless you.

  306. My favorite has been tomatoes which I made into sauce. I’m dying to have a peach tree, though, because a rip juicy peach straight off the branch is pretty much the best thing ever.

  311. This is hard to make a choice, pumpkins and squash followed by tomatoes! I just couldn’t name one!

  312. Besides all the early, cold weather vegetables that do so well in the PNW, my favorite is my little plot of alpine strawberries. It produces tasty, little jewels that you can’t buy at the store. My favorite are the Pineapple Crush variety.

  313. I’m just a beginner, but I absolutely LOVE to grow Sweet 100’s, a variety of cherry tomato. I plant them beside our deck in the back garden which makes staking easy – I cage them low and then tie them up to the decking posts when they outgrow their cages .

    Last year they grew to be about 8 feet tall (must be the composted “horsie ferti” I added to the soil! I’m thinking of renaming them “Sweet 1000’s” because over the summer they produced well over a thousand sweet pieces of juciness!!

    My west highland terrier is allowed to nibble on low-hanging fruit, but she shares with the garden’s two chipmunks I’ve named Hansel & Gretel.

    I also tried growing squash and zucchini – but because I’m not using pesticides and fungicides – those were enjoyed by mildew and insects after producing me a rather modest crop.

    I have SO much to learn – SO enjoy your blog, Mavis! <3

  314. beets!, no tomatoes!, no broccoli, wait raspberries! or do i mean sour cherries!! yeah – berries and cherries for pie! oh and rhubarb too 😉

  318. My favorite fruit or veggie to grow? That’s tough! I love them all – anything that ends up actually growing and producing is a total win in my book! But, if I had to choose then I would say bush beans. It is just so rewarding to be able to eat some beans while checking on the rest of the garden!

  319. I love growing Kale and parsley and I kept both growing all winter without a green house. Now I have a little pop up green house with lots of seeds started.

  320. Lettuce and Tomatoes. Just add some homemade bread, bacon, and mayo. Perfect summer sandwich! 🙂

  321. I love to grow all kinds of vegetables and fruits, but my favorite is potatoes.

  323. I love growing hot peppers, they are so pretty and come in so many different shapes and colors!

  324. Yay! I’d love to win! My favorite fruit or veg regularly changes, but the first thing I thought of was the cantaloupe that we grew in the garden last year. One plant yielded 8 ‘loupes!! And they were soooo sweet. Ugh, I love harvest time.

  325. My tried and true favorites are tomatoes, raspberries and lettuce. Trying my hand at carrots, beets and watermelon this year. Can’t wait!

  326. Well, peas and kale NEVER let me down. But what do I WISH was the most successful?

    Tomatoes!!

  329. Don’t know yet, this year will be my 1st attempt at gardening to become self-sufficient.

  336. Tomatoes for sure. I’m down to my last quart of canned tomatoes in the pantry…it will be a sad day for sure when we use it. But we already have a couple of flowers on the vine. Yay!

  337. Just harvested some radishes from my first attempt at gardening, my 6 year old twin grandaughters helped me plant and harvest them. What a joy to watch their excitement and mine! But I am most excited about the 40 crowns of asparagus I have ordered. They will be here any day now. The book VERY INTERESTING. I can’t get enough reading material on gardening these days.

  338. I love both of these authors! I love growing lots of veggies but my favorite is tomatoes. I freeze whole tomatoes and also make sauce.

  342. I love growing cherry tomatoes- the kids swing by and just pluck them off and eat them like grapes. I think this has helped them grow their variety on what veggies they eat since they can go right out and pick to eat.

  343. I love to grow basil! Nothing beats fresh basil in a dish. I love trying new varieties too — my favorite must be lime basil!

  345. we love growing pink eye purple hulls, mainly because our 3 year old can tell when they are ready to pick by the deep purple! She gets the biggest kick out of it and loves that her fingers turn purple when she helps to shell them.

  346. Love growing potatoes! Both sweet and irish. To dig in the soil and see what they have produced is so much fun.

  348. Just ONE!? That is hard to choose. Maybe peaches because there is nothing better than a sticky, fresh peach while wandering around the yard, spending time outdoors with the dogs, chickens and horses after a long day at work. Food for the soul!

  352. We just moved into our own home, so no garden this year, but I am soooo looking forward to having my own! However, I do consume veggies that a friend grows in her garden and my favorite and the ones I’m looking forward to growing are peppers!!

  353. I love growing purple sprouting broccoli! It is very delicious, looks pretty in the garden, can be planted in the fall and will over winter for an early spring harvest, AND the leaves are very tasty too (use like kale). An awesome return on a $2 pack of seeds. Oh, and I have never seen purple sprouting broccoli for sale at the store or at the farmers market. I must grow my own.

  355. I love to grow strawberries -thanks to you 🙂 my kids are so excited about all the plants we put in a tower.

  358. My favorite thing to grow is tomatoes! They taste so much better than store bought ones!

  359. I enjoy growing my herb garden and coming up with new ways to use my herbs and storing them for the winter. I also really enjoy growing multi-color carrots!!

  361. Mammoth Jalapenos!! Great appeatizers stuffed with cream cheese, sausage, and parm cheese?

  366. Lemon Boy tomatoes, cherry tomatoes (LOVE them dehydrated and sprinkled on a salad) and peas. YUM!

  367. Hands down — tomatoes!!! I’ve been enjoying trying out different varieties — love the sungold (yummy!!!). April 29th is my anniversary — the book would be a great gift:)

  368. Do I have to pick just one? Early spring I love the peas, but then it is the asparagus, however, that first homegrown tomato can’t be beat…and what about fried okra – can’t beat fresh, nothing like the frozen stuff….

  369. Basil.
    Thanks for all your inspiration…I have BIG plans to grow all sorts of stuff this summer in the 4 new 8×4 foot raised beds my husband just built me!

  370. I would have to say zucchini! It was the first thing that I tried to grow that actually grew!

    Thanks for the chance to win a copy of this book – it looks awesome 🙂

  371. Tomatoes, garlic and onions for sure. Last year I made your awesome crockpot tomato/pizza sauce with tomatoes, garlic and onion that I grew…and I can’t wait to make a few more batches. Thank you for the opportunity to win.

  372. I am super excited about growing sugar snap peas. They are so awesome, my favorite is to eat them raw or in stir fry. Hoping I can grow enough to put in the freezer for winter.

  377. Love to grow strawberries and cherry tomatoes, what I pick is usually gone before I even make it back in the house. So good right off the vine.

  384. My favorite veggies to grow are tomatoes, but my kids’ favorite are pole beans. It IS fun to watch how high they can climb in just a day! 🙂

  386. I guess we like to grow cherry tomatoes, mostly because they do really well for us. Thanks Mavis! We love the things we learn on your site!

  388. We are still such newbies that I don’t know if I have a favorite yet. So far I guess our tomatoes and lettuce are growing the best! 🙂

  391. I love to grow Sugar snap peas because when my grand daughter is with me in the garden planting we grab a sweet snack and plant on. She loves to see her plants grow and especially loves to harvest all the carrots she carefully ( umm maybe not so much) planted.

Mavis Butterfield Etsy