A man has to know his limitations

I gave blood today. This is the first time the Phlebotomist had to "stick" me twice in the 40 years I have been giving blood.

The first one worked fine as long as the blood was flowing even though it seemed to take much longer than I am used to.

But the "hub" clotted up after I filled the bag and they had to do a second poke on my other arm to fill the vials for blood typing and all of the other mysterious things they need to do.

Waste

One of the advantages of a simple diet is that there is less waste than a diet that demands a great deal of variety.

When I clean my refrigerator I see that I never throw out milk or mustard, apples, shredded cheese or eggs. I do toss celery, green onions, weird sauces, chip-dip and other exotic items.

The point is that the high-runners in my diet have enough demand and turnover that very little gets wasted. The "Hey, I need to buy some of this for this one recipe I want to try" invariable results in 3/4 of it being tossed a few weeks later.

I have to keep reminding myself of that as I drool over the seed catalogs. The Baker Creek catalog came today and every page is a work of art.

If I was forced to engage in triage, my list of vegetables might look something like this. If I could only grow ONE vegetable, it would be tomatoes. If I could only grow TWO, it would be tomatoes and potatoes, and so-on...

1. tomatoes  
2. potatoes
3. zucchini 
4. Turnip/Kale/Daikon (cover-crop/late fall greens/roots) 
5. green beans
6. sweet pepper
7. cabbage
8. Butternut squash
9. cucumber 
10. field corn
11. Romaine lettuce
12. beets
13. broccoli

On the other hand, if I only had a few square-feet of garden the list would look different:

1. Hot peppers
2. Garlic
3. Cherry tomatoes
4. Rosemary
5. Mint 

Some vegetables are notable for their absence. No onions, carrots or sweet corn on my list because they are grown commercially by local farmers. I can buy a 50 pound bag of carrots for $7...and I am not very good at growing carrots.

Adding more crops usually adds more complexity. There are exceptions. Turnip/kale/daikon seeds can be broadcast into the canopy of your squash/pumpkins/melons in early July (in Michigan) and will give you a second crop with no fuss or bother three or four months later. But those are the exceptions.

I admire the people like Leigh and Lucky who seem to be able to effortlessly grow a boundless cornucopia of delicious, garden edibles. Alas, I am living proof of Dirty Harry's opinion that "A man has to know his limitations".

All opinions will be much appreciated. Since choices of what you grow are very sensitive to climate, please consider listing what state or region (i.e. Intermountain West) you are in.

Added later:

For those of you who worry that my lack of success (so far) this hunting season will render us to a meat-free diet, rest assured that my friends who HAVE been successful cheerfully donated the hearts, livers, kidneys and tongues of their kills.

I have been pressure canning them. Zeus really likes a little bit of real meat added to his dried kibbles, and if push-comes-to-shove, it is plenty good enough for me to eat.

Is it OK if I characterize my deer hunting season as "Offal good so far"?