Am extremely jealous of all you who grow your own food.
Even though I’m in Florida... I tried to grow tomatoes. They died. I tried to grow bell peppers. They died. I bought a perfectly healthy small pink grapefruit tree and planted it in the yard. You guessed it... it, too, died. Each one gave me a couple tiny fruit before giving up the ghost. I did everything I was supposed to, but... pffft. I’m the queen of the brown thumbs.
Someone gave me a very small potted avocado plant in 2004, and I planted it in the yard. It began fruiting within 3 years, and now it yields at least 7-800 lbs. of wonderful, humongous Florida avocados each summer. I don’t know what I did to deserve that, but I have plenty to give away to neighbors, people at church, and still have more than enough for myself.
Too bad you can’t can avocados... you can barely freeze them, and only if you make guacamole and only for a week or two, tops.
AVOCADO GARDEN SLIDE
Can Avocados be dehydrated?
Regarding your brown thumb - I used to be the same way-I think it was because I killed them with attention-too much water etc.
Anyway, my daughter gave me a book on sq. ft. gardening. So I tried it, and the first year I had more than I thought possible, in a 3x4 ft. area. I think the secret is in the “soiless” ie Mel’s mix. Equal parts peat moss, vermiculite, and compost. Almost impossible to over-water. Ha.
Check it out:
https://squarefootgardening.org/2017/07/our-method/
“The Square Foot Gardening method is estimated to cost 50% less, uses 20% less space, 10% of the water, and only 2% of the work compared to single row gardening. Additional benefits are: virtually no weeds, no digging or rototilling, and no heavy tools are necessary.”
It looks like you can dry avocados in the sun, oven, or microwave.
Look up the book “How to Grow World Record Tomatoes”, I forget author but it was an old Alabama guy. We had to fight them off. I had standard tomato plants growing OUT of the tops of 15 foot high cages made with cylindered sections of sidewalk reinforcing mat (Home Depot) and cherry tomato’s that put berry bushes to shame.
It discusses using the methods for other vegetables too. The Authors plants got close to 30 feet high. 17 Foot corn, etc...
Plants are finicky....could be the soil not quite right....or too much watering.....and keep weeds from growing around the base of the plant
Walk around the 'hood and find a garden with great tomatoes and peppers.....get the scoop on the soil (no pun intended}.
Hardest thing to grow is the medicinal herb St Johns Wort.