Storing food -- garden fails and so on

My garden is pretty much failing this year. Sad tomatoes are not ripening all that quickly. Beans are just now thinking about blooming. The squash plants have not set fruit. The only thing that is doing well is the cucumbers. 

I'm tired of rain. Last year, I was picking zucchini and raspberries. This year? Not even close. And of all of our fruit trees, two apple trees have a few apples--no pears or plums this year. We do have a few bunches of concord grapes coming along-- those will be fun and tasty, but not enough to make jelly.

I'm glad that the federal government is collecting official data for northeast farmers to maybe get some help for their lost crops-- hard freeze in the spring, followed by floods, makes for a very lean year. For us home gardeners, there is no program to help, and the price of food is going to rise because of the lack of commercial produce.

My brother-in-law runs a food service program at a hospital, and he was able to score 50 pounds of flour for Meg and I to share. I feel better putting something aside, "just in case." 

Generation upon generation squirreled away food for winter months; we do not do so, not on that scale, at least, not many of us. An even smaller number of people even know how. I feel torn; I don't want to have to do all that prep, and I don't have a lot of storage space. But yet, putting some extra aside seems prudent. I won't go through the canning process, but I don't mind freezing things. 

Here's a little hint: instead of blanching green beans in boiling water and all that before freezing them, par-cook them in the microwave and then freeze them. I did that as an experiment, and it worked wonderfully. If I get enough beans (and the weather gods are in charge of that), I will likely freeze some. I don't mind going to the local farmers' markets, too, but the prices are a little higher than I can swing for large-scale "putting food by" practices. We have a produce store that is open just a few days a week, in which "seconds" can be purchased reasonably. I might do that; get some things and freeze them. I hate tin-canned veggies, unless I absolutely have to use them. 

I'm reminded of the ant and the grasshopper story: as much as I want to laze about in the sun and while away the summer days, the weather is making me ant-sy. 

(Sorry/not sorry for the pun.)

Have a good day,

C