What's the growing season like for vegetables?
In Crook County, the growing season might be as long as May to October. A hard hailstorm like last year could change that quickly. This year, I think we planted a lot in May and the rest in June.
We got good early crops of snap peas and lettuce. We got some cilantro, but it wanted to go to seed pretty quickly. Our carrots were a waste of time, as well as our onions, even though we started with "sets". The potatoes grew like crazy and almost certainly kept their neighbor plants from doing as well as they might. (Note: grow potatoes in a completely separate area!) Tomatoes produced nicely this year, especially the cherry tomatoes started from seed.
Corn grew well for a while, then pooped out while the ears were still rather small. We enjoyed eating them though. The squash, eggplant, cucumber, and bell pepper plants are trying to produce, but they really need a longer season. Yes, I know that squash should be dead simple and a big performer -- anywhere! Go figure! With some luck, we may have a few more weeks of growing so we can harvest two or three bell peppers and maybe one eggplant. I doubt that we will get even one squash or watermelon before the frost kills the plants.
To make the story short: tomatoes, snap peas, and lettuce are good performers. Corn is a decent second place. Potatoes take care of themselves and produce a small but easy harvest (just keep them away from the other plants). If you like radishes (I don't), they give a decent early harvest. Beets, onions, and carrots are a COMPLETE waste of space and effort, from my experience. The herbs basil and rosemary do produce, but very slowly. And cilantro may or may not produce well before going to seed (coriander).
How's the jobs? I'd work anything I could find, and around here there is nowhere to work...
That sounds like a good reason to just move here and throw the dice. You have probably read the reports of jobs at the mines, and rumors of high pay for overtime and company buses to get the workers to the job site easier. I am sure there are worse jobs than driving a truck around a coal mine.
