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I always plant more than we can use, knowing I can contribute extras to a food bank and that sometimes production is less than expected.

In previous years I have planted “a little bit of this and a little bit of that.” When one variety failed, that was the end of it. When one was super productive, I could give a little bit more to the Food Pantry or the Food Bank.

This year I planted more of fewer things - lots of melons, summer squash, winter squash, and pumpkins. And all did quite well. I had Farthest North melons filling up buckets in the gaps between distributions at the food banks, and not enough friends and neighbors to absorb the additional produce.

I noticed a change of attitude about this abundance of production. In years before I would attempt to save any ailing plant, save slightly damaged fruits and attempt to consume or preserve them.

I noticed that I had begun to feel that the vegetables were less valuable - the loss of one to slugs, splitting or disease mattered less. That I couldn't find enough people willing to take the excess became justification for composting anything that wasn't perfect.

My thinking changed about the value of a vegetables when they became so numerous.