Carolyn, good for you! I've been been gardening most of my life at home and in community gardens and even at work, and I would love to do that too, but I have other stuff going on, and I'm not sure that I have the temperament . You admit that growing food, especially a variety is challenging, especially at the subsistence level. No kidding. You have to be really interested in it, and willing to get dirty, sweaty, and you have to deal with bugs. People have been leaving the farm to go to the city for centuries for a reason.

I have a community garden going in my workplace because there is a fence around it, and there are deer around that will pillage a crop in one night. I'm almost at the end of my tomato sauce, and there's a lot of winter left. I broke down and bought some high dollar sauce at the supermarket and it tasted like catsup with garlic in it.