Do you have a favorite productive hobby?

I'm using the word hobby loosely, meaning anything one does for pleasure, even if it technically falls within their job responsibilities. As far as the term productive goes, I'm defining this as something that develops needed skills, produces items needed for living (such as making clothing, or obtaining heating for the home, produces/gathers/acquires food or water, or builds/maintains shelter), produces items or services that bring in income, or elevates the living experience through one's talents. The key is, you derive pleasure from doing any of the above.

So what is your favorite productive hobby?

Can you guess what mine is?

I love to bake. I would bake even if it wasn't part of my job description. 

I began baking when I was 8 years old. My best friend and I went to different schools. But on Saturdays we would get together, and instead of playing Barbies, we'd bake something in her mom's kitchen.

I suppose some of the motivation was that I got to eat some of what I baked. But also, I just enjoyed baking. 

Over time it became something I could do with success, most of the time.

I have other productive hobbies. When my husband and I got married, we talked about how we could spend our free time in ways that brought us closer to our financial goals. I pledged to vegetable garden, sew and repair clothing, bake, and learn to make our spaces more beautiful with little money. 

I don't always love vegetable gardening. Today was just a lot of hard physical work, as I dug compost into another bed. But I reminded myself that not only am I working toward providing more fresh food for my family, but I am keeping myself fit as I grow older. 

Sometimes sewing holes in socks is boring. But it's something I can do that will extend the life of clothing and postpone the purchase of new items. I enjoy making things, using the skills I learned as a girl. I sometimes sew clothing (like pajama pants) for family members as gifts. By buying fabric thoughtfully and carefully arranging the pattern pieces on the fabric, I can make a pair of pajama pants for less than the cost of a new pair of quality ones. 

I know my baking is very productive. I can bake a loaf of really good wholegrain bread for a lot less than buying commercial loaves. And it's just fun to bake. I take a bunch of ingredients, combine them in specific ways according to recipes, and poof, a wonderful baked good results. That's really satisfying.

What productive hobbies do you enjoy, and which one is your favorite? Has anyone here turned a hobby into a side hustle?

Vegetable garden two-fers

Really wanting super fresh veggies today, but the seedlings for this coming garden season look like this.

However, my Brussel sprout plants and kale plants look like this, all over.

So I picked a large container of Brussel sprout and kale buds. They have the texture of broccoli and are mild.

Some (but not all) of the cabbage family vegetables are biennial in my garden, including the different kales and Brussel sprout plants. After fall has shut down the growth of those plants, they go dormant and just sit there, holding on to their weathered leaves. In late winter they come back briefly and produce lots of new leaves and these tiny buds. I get about 3 weeks when I can harvest whatever growth these plants put on. By mid-April, the plants no longer produce leaves of decent size, seeming to be in a hurry to produce seeds.

Biennial vegetables are planted in one year, when they produce an abundance of leaves and develop good roots. Then the second year, early in the season, they put on a small amount of leafy growth, but mostly focus on producing flowers, then seeds. The roots of biennial root vegetables will be very woody by the second year, but the leaves will be tender, especially early in the season. 

Carrots, beets, parsley, cabbage family, turnips, and onions are all biennial. Some planting zones are too cold for some or most of these plants to survive until the second year. But in mild to moderate climates, a gardener can get a small leafy harvest just before these plants bolt. If one collects their own seeds, this is the timing for seed production. I save parsley seeds from second year parsley. The parsley I used on the deviled egg platter came from second year parsley. Those plants will flower soon and seeds will follow.

Carrots don't overwinter for me due to our extremely wet winters. But I saved 1 carrot in the fridge all winter, and will soon plant that out with hopes of collecting seeds this summer. I have the same problem with onions and the wet winters. So last year I saved a small onion, replanted it in spring and by the end of summer, I had a flower head of seeds. Those seeds are now germinating in a flat to plant for this year's onions.

So far this year I've harvested kale, (and their buds) Brussel sprout leaves and buds, beet greens, turnip greens, and parsley. 

Early spring weather in my area is cold and wet, and not at all good planting weather. These bonus harvests come at a time when the longest I want to be outside is about how long it takes to pick vegetables for dinner. 

Have you ever had a vegetable plant come back the following year? Were you able to harvest anything from it, food or seeds?