Each year we reviewed what worked and what didn't work, sometimes we decide again to try while other times it just isn't worth the work.  New crops this year were Jerusalem artichokes, French tarragon, fennel, cherry bomb peppers, shallots, and kohlrabi.  We also grew - carrots, beets, various greens, potatoes, sweet potatoes, various fruits including goji, grapes, currants, strawberries, blueberries, haskaps, blackberries and rhubarb, onions, garlic, brussel sprouts, broccoli, turnip, cauliflower, parsnips, squash of various types.  New preserves we did this year included pickled cherry bomb peppers, pickled jalapenos, Salvadorian sauerkraut.  Regular preserves - bread and butter pickles, dill pickles, green tomato mincemeat and salsa.

Successes Mulch - we used seaweed mulch in the garden this year and it worked very well. Kept the slugs at bay, seemed to add nutrition to the soil and kept the weeds down considerably.  Will do this again!Sweet Potatoes - last year we had a good crop and this year we used our own slips from last year's crop - even better crop this year.  We will expand our crop for the 2016 season.Nematodes - the good kind.  We tried Scanmask from Richters on our trouble spots and it works.  Basically, it helps to eliminate cut worms and other bad critters from ruining your crops.  We plan on researching this more and using a spray for our entire garden in 2016.Pickling peppers worked well and we plan to do more pickling in 2016.Sauerkraut is easy and delicious...continuing to make more.Cold storage - we set something up and it is working well.Dug in ground beds rather than raised beds - had some success but learned it is very important on PEI to add peat or something similar to prevent soil from becoming too compact.Shallots are a great crop.  We planted fall shallots and plan to also plant spring shallots.Drying parsley is better in a dehydrator than hanging to dry. Other herbs work best hanging i.e. mint, sage, oreganoLessons LearnedTurnips and rutabagas are two different crops both grow well but turnips are smaller and don't taste quite the same.  We will grow rutabagas in 2016.Jerusalem artichokes - nope, not again.Need to start seed earlier for brussel sprouts, cauliflower, and cabbage.
It was a fun garden year and this coming year we will focus more on herbs, as always, our focus is to grow our own food etc. adding more herbs will allow us to again save from buying in the store.  The big advantage besides the cost savings, which are huge, is that we know exactly where are food is from. We continue to work on storage methods.