So Much Food!

Diner, mostly from my garden

OK, the wine and cheese are purchased at the store and come from somewhere else.  But the main ingredients are from my garden ( green beans and yellow zucchini).  In fact, during the last month and a half (since my last post) our family has eaten primarily from our gardens.   In the past, and I assume like most American families, the wife asks, "what would you like for diner honey?"  And she goes to the store and buys the ingredients.  Now, we walk our gardens and see what must be harvested.  That is what determines our meal planing.  We have had so much food needing to be harvested that we cannot eat it all.

Anyone can do this!  I only work in the gardens part time on weekends!  I purchase no fertilizers, and just let the microbes do the work nature intended.

This has been a positive change for me.  I am definitely feeling better.  I know I am eating much better.  My base diet is grown naturally, without chemicals or fertilizer.  I get all the vitamins and minerals the way nature intended.  And my food is fresh, typically harvested that day, transported from my garden a few feet to my kitchen.

starter bench

Each month I plant seeds into my starter bench.  You can see peanuts, corn, sunflowers, lettuce, beets and cilantro germinating now.  It takes two to four weeks for the seedling to be ready to transplant, and when they are I transplant them into my gardens.  Then the next month I repeat the process.  I started on 1/1/11, and by April I had more food than our family could eat.

basil on 3/19/11

same garden on 5/15/11

The pictures above illustrate just how amazing natural farming is.  Look at what happened in just eight weeks.  Pesto anyone?  There is no way we can use / harvest all this.  Jennifer has made some incredible pestos.  I have it on fish, pasta, vegetables, whatever....  The same is true with our zucchini, tomatoes, swiss chard, cilantro, lettuce, kale, beets, sweet potato, squash, bok choi, and cabbage. 

Twelve pounds of cherry tomatoes,  harvested one evening

beefsteak tomatoes

How many uses can you find for tomato?  Salsa, using our cilantro, hot peppers and lime.  Spaghetti sauce, using basil and other garden spices. Soup.....

My apologies for not posting more often.  I intend to be more diligent about documenting what we are eating.  The farming is almost second nature for me now.  On weekends I'll do a little garden prep, spread some IMO's, mulch, spray with Cho's ingredients, do a little weeding.  It is so routine and so easy I don't think about it much, and as such don't feel like I have anything worth sharing.  The meals we are creating from our gardens are probably more noteworthy and something people might be interested in.