Patty and John Fitzurka live in a hidden corner of Robinson, close to the railroad tracks, on a short street with neatly kept older homes.

It's a place you'd never find, unless you were looking. After seeing photographs of the vegetable garden the couple entered in the Post-Gazette's Great Gardens Competition, we made a point of finding them. We were not disappointed.

The sizable garden, which Mrs. Fitzurka says has been tended by family members for 50 years, is now cared for by herself and her husband. Both are retired custodians at Montour High School. They've kept the garden for 20 years.

Sitting behind the home, the garden is pristine and fenced from the deer. It feeds the family most of the year. So while my colleague Kevin Kirkland and Mr. Fitzurka toured the landscape and talked plants, Mrs. Fitzurka and I talked food.

She is an intuitive cook -- "just knows" how to do things. As a result, many of her recipes don't have to be exact, except, she laughs, for baked goods, and "then you'll get a measurement."

Everything that comes out of their garden is used -- either eaten immediately, canned, vacuum-packed, frozen in two large freezers or preserved. Mrs. Fitzurka's 88-year-old mother Henrietta Borden, who lives next door, also helps.

The couple start all their seeds in a greenhouse that Mr. Fitzurka made. They keep unused seed from year to year, ordering only what they think they'll need after assessing what is left from the previous season.

"This year I knew we needed to grow more cabbage," she says. The couple make their own sauerkraut and also use it for stuffed cabbage, which she makes and freezes. They have harvested about 80 heads of cabbage.

This year they also grew hot peppers, green peppers, zucchini, cauliflower, green and Italian beans, onions, carrots, garlic, broccoli, kohlrabi, tomatoes and brussels sprouts. They also have grapes, pears and plums.

The list of what they make is long: sauerkraut, hot cauliflower, hot zucchini, pickles, tomato juice and tomato sauce, grape jelly and grape juice. They freeze broccoli, cauliflower, beans and corn on the cob. Extra hot peppers are dried in a dehydrator, crushed and vacuum-packed, then stored on a shelf for later.

There is little waste, and the couple, like most gardeners, are generous with their harvest. We left with sauerkraut, pickles and a jar of hot cherry bombs.

"I don't remember when I started cooking," she says. "When you get married, you start cooking. I never really cooked when I was younger. My family, my grandmother and mother canned, and my mom still does. She's doing tomatoes today."

Cherry Bombs

Cut off tops of the hot peppers and remove seeds inside, wash. Roll up together a slice of prosciutto and a slice of provolone, slice into rounds and insert one inside each pepper. Put in clean jars, cover with extra-virgin olive oil and seal jars. Eat immediately. Peppers will only stay for a short time, a couple of weeks, and can't be refrigerated because the oil will coagulate.

Mrs. Fitzurka makes batches of these as they eat them.

('Cherry Bomb' peppers are a small variety of hot pepper.)

Fat-Free Zucchini Bread

• 3 eggs
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 cup applesauce
• 2 tablespoons vanilla
• 3 1/2 cups whole-wheat flour
• 1 heaping teaspoon baking soda
• 1 heaping teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 cup nuts, if desired
• A handful of raisins, if desired
• 4 cups zucchini, shredded

Spray 2 loaf pans with cooking spray. Combine the eggs, sugar, applesauce and vanilla. Add the flour, baking soda and baking powder, then nuts and raisins. Mix in zucchini. Bake in a 400-degree oven for 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until knife inserted into loaf comes out clean.

Frozen Corn on the Cob

Shuck and wash corn and blanch about 3 minutes in boiling water for young ears, 5 minutes for older corn. Remove from boiling water and immediately plunge into ice water. Drain, bag and freeze.

Henrietta Borden's Three Bean Salad

• 2 cups of green beans
• 2 cups of yellow beans
• 1 (15-ounce) can of kidney beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 medium sliced green pepper
• 1 medium sliced onion
• 1/2 cup oil
• 1/2 cup vinegar
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper

Cook the green and yellow beans until tender, drain. In a bowl, mix all the beans, the green pepper and onion and stir gently. Combine the oil, vinegar, sugar, salt and pepper, pour over the beans and mix gently. Refrigerate overnight.

Zucchini Boats

Wash and trim the ends off a zucchini. Cut the zucchini into about 6-inch lengths then cut them in half lengthwise. Clean out enough of the center of the zucchini to make a boat. Brown ground meat with seasonings of your liking. Add tomato sauce to the meat mixture. Fill the zucchinis with the meat mixture and bake in a 400-degree oven until zucchini is fork-tender. Top with cheese and serve.

Ice Water Pickles

• 4 quarts thinly sliced, unpeeled cucumbers
• 1 1/2 cups sliced onions
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1/2 cup canning salt

Slice onions (we use a food processor to slice both onions and cucumbers) and place in a large bowl. Add garlic and canning salt. Cover vegetables with crushed ice or ice cubes and let stand for 3 hours. Drain.

In a large pot combine:

• 4 cups sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground turmeric
• 1 1/2 teaspoons celery seed
• 2 tablespoons mustard seed
• 3 cups white vinegar

Bring mixture to a boil. Add drained vegetables and bring back to a boil. Simmer, uncovered, for 5 minutes. Pack into clean, hot pint jars, seal and process for 5 minutes in a boiling-water bath.

Bean Soup

The Fitzurkas dry green and yellow beans on sheets of paper in their greenhouse. When the beans are dry, they are shelled and then stored in glass jars for use in soup. If they get too many jars, some are put in the freezer for longer storage.

• Dried green beans
• Ham hock or shank

Put the beans in a pot with the ham shank, cover with water and simmer until beans are soft. (She does not pre-soak her beans). If desired, add carrots, celery, onion and small cubes of potatoes to the soup.

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