Tag Archives: vegetables

Our 1st Garden Experience :)

4 Replies

As a lot of you know, this was our first year putting in a garden and it was a very rewarding experience in more ways than one. It was fun seeing things grow, harvesting the first items and eating what we grew! Sounds so silly but it was amazing to cook and make salads with veggies from the back yard! I am so happy there are still things in life to be excited about. :)

We grew tomatoes from seed and were surprised to realize they were all cherry sized tomatoes. We thought they were regular sized and we had great plans to make lots of sauces and to jar whole tomatoes. “Learn as we grow” became our motto. lol

We planted 6 zucchini plants and quickly realized that perhaps two would have been sufficient. We gave a lot of it away, we have a lot in the freezer and I am still juicing the humongous one!

We planted carrots and realized we should have planted way more so I planted a winter harvest. The potatoes are delicious and are in a box in our cold store-room. Sometimes I go down there and just look at them…like a proud mommy gazing at her newborn. Crazy right?

I tried eggplant and they did grow but I won’t plant them again. Same with celery…it didn’t take. Now the broccoli? We had five beautiful crowns of the best tasting broccoli ever. I was going to pull the plants out but was told not to as they will produce florets all summer. I was skeptical…see? no knowledge! No lie, we have been eating broccoli all summer long and I just this week harvested another bunch. It’s October… That was an awesome discovery and I am so glad I was told about the florets before I took the plants out not after! To learn about our food is so much fun. :)

We planted green onions, cabbage which I took to eating as a snack every day. Just tore off layers and ate them. The brussel sprouts are still out there…doing something. They are not ready yet and it appears that they were infested with something…surprisingly, this was the only plant to be affected by anything. My favorite in the garden? Pumpkins! We actually grew pumpkins! There were 5 flowers initially but only two grew into the beautiful orange Halloween markers…so exciting.

I definitely learned a great deal about the seed to table process our food goes through. It made me really re-think our food buying habits. When we shop at the grocery store we just toss things into our carts without really thinking about where the food came from, who grew it and how far did it travel to get there. Now I do think about it and I am buying almost everything organic or locally grown.

I used organic soil and veggie food. I only hope the soil itself was not pre-contaminated before we moved here. I suppose I could have taken soil samples but I didn’t think about that until I started writing this post! Maybe something to do for next year.

My list for next years garden goes like this: broccoli, carrots, potatoes, cabbage, all sorts of lettuces, spinach, kale, tomatoes, cucumber, pumpkins, zucchini and onion. I suppose I might add to this list but these are the items I know I love to eat and are easy to grow.

do you have a garden?

what was the hardest veggie to grow?

in health

Denise ♥

 

Loving our garden…

Leave a reply

Spent close to 4 hours in the garden today. It needed a lot of work! I am always amazed at how fast the weeds take over! Actually to be fair, we don’t really get a lot of weeds but we get horsetail…cannot get rid of horsetail. If anyone has a way though, please share it here!!!  Their roots go on forever so basically I am just topping them to make the garden look presentable!

The novelty of having a garden has not worn off yet and I am still wildly excited to get our very own veggies out of our very own garden. It’s like I didn’t know you could grow your own food! It’s definitely been a lot easier than I had expected…pleasant surprise.

weeding,

harvesting – my favorite part :)

and planting!These are carrots in the foreground and that hump just behind contains newly planted organic carrot seeds. I also plan to plant turnip and beets once I get to a seed supplier! this is called succession planting and it allows you to harvest fast growing produce and plant another, more cold tolerant plant that can grow up to the frost period. I was thrilled to read this in one of my newly acquired gardening books. I find I learn a little more about gardening each day!

I am amazed at how fast the time went by while we were in the garden today. It seemed like maybe 2 hours and I was shocked to go inside and see that nearly 4 hours had passed. It was dinner time!

If you or anyone you know has a garden then you/they have probably planted zucchini. This squash is a prolific grower! There are even cartoons about too many zucchini.

hahaha

I have so many zucchini harvested and more growing so I set about slicing them up tonight and freezing them for later uses. Next I will grate them and use for baking in the winter months.

 

ready to freeze :)

So, I now realize why so many farmers are slim and fit! There’s a lot of fitness going on out there while you are working on your garden. I was dripping with sweat, my obliques were getting a workout while I was hoeing, I was simulating yoga by stretching and reaching for weeds and my hamstrings and quads were getting a workout by bending down…squat? and rising up…deadlift? continuously for 3-4 hours! I like to call all this work functional fitness. No I didn’t coin this phrase but I use it a lot! That’s why I don’t like weight machines…there’s no way to simulate those movements in your everyday life but free weight and bodyweight workouts? Yessir!

pic is from the spring but you can see what I mean about ‘functional’

Well I will keep you posted weekly as we ‘bring in the harvest’ lol. Such a rewarding venture we undertook this spring with not a speck of experience in either of us. Just the desire to eat healthier and locally. :)

how is your garden this summer?

post any zucchini recipes you may have…I made need a few lol

in gardening and health

Denise ♥

 

 

Gardening Update :) and my Quest to find a new BIKE! :)

Leave a reply

our garden today

Went out to weed the garden tonight and I am happy to report that the zucchini are growing, the carrots are very slow, the brussel sprouts are unruly, the tomatoes are taller, the peas are starting to climb, the onion is almost ready, the potatoes are filling out, the cabbage is huge…the plant not the cabbages, yet, …the bugs love the eggplant leaves, why aren’t the marigolds deterring the bugs? the deer love the fruit trees, phew, sure is a lot of activity going on in our backyard!!! :D

The gardening experience/experiment is coming along nicely. It’s been a ‘wing it’ kinda garden, being our first, but progress is being made. I think I planted too many brussel sprouts…will be freezing a lot of those! Found out today from a local farmer that carrots don’t grow too fast here. :/

Went out bicycle shopping yesterday. Who knew there were so many different types of bikes!!! I want to reduce my driving even more than I already am and my present bike that I ride to work is not really practical being that it is a mountain bike. I want more of a cruiser type bike with gears as we live in a hilly area. I found two bikes I like and now I just need to determine which one feels the best. I also need to sell my present bike. :) I will take a pic once I buy one this week.

:)

any bike suggestions?

do you have a garden?

in Health

Denise ♥

 

 

 

Shop the Perimeter

2 Replies
I shop the perimeter of the grocery store. Why? because that’s where all the real food is! The food we should be eating, like all the fruit and vegetables, the meat, dairy, whole grain breads…stuff that will feed your mind and body. Once you venture down the inner aisles you enter the processed food abyss. Not all but most of the food lining the aisles contains additives, preservatives and calorie laden snack foods. ‘Food’ that will make your body toxic and sluggish. ‘Food’ that causes weight gain, exacerbates ADD in kids and has names in the ingredients list that you cannot pronounce.

When you enter the store you first encounter the produce aisle. Fill your shopping cart with all the produce you can eat in a week. Enough for salads, snacks and sandwich fillers.

I then stop into the deli to buy parmesan reggiano cheese, goat cheese and feta. Small amounts of a good quality cheese add flavor to many dishes including spaghetti and salads. Also in the deli are sliced meats; you need to be very selective here. I usually stick with a store oven roasted turkey breast. Most of the other meats contain MSG and are very high in sodium.

As you move along there is the meat section. Search here for grain fed beef, free range chicken and turkey. Look for lean cuts and for a very lean meat try Bison!

Once in the dairy aisle, stock up on skim milk, greek yogurt and chocolate milk- very good for a post workout drink! Try to stay away from the ‘fruit on the bottom’ yogurts as they are filled with sugar, and high in fat and calories. Of course you can get eggs here too but I get mine from a farm so they are so fresh and delicious.

If your store has a bakery, you should buy your bread here. It probably has no more than 5 ingredients in the listed, unlike the pre-packaged breads.

So that’s the perimeter. Now what you ask? Well there are still things I buy that come in a jar or can like tomatoes, or some packaged food like real peanut butter, whole wheat spaghetti and oatmeal. You cannot totally avoid the the aisles! You should however totally avoid the 100 calorie snack foods, the pop, chips, cookies the list goes on. I do indulge my son with Dr Oetker pizza’s ;)

I also buy some frozen items like frozen berries and veggies. I make sure to check the ingredients…I found one type of frozen berries with added sugar!!! WHY? Produce is flash frozen at peak growing season so it retains the most amount of nutrients for you to enjoy. I also enjoy Nature’s Path organic waffles.

Today's produce :)

 

the other half of my cart

 

It’s not easy to only buy healthy foods when you shop but it is so much better if you do try. Never shop when you are hungry, this is a sure fire way to fill your cart with all those foods that you crave rather than the foods that will make you healthy. It has taken me a long time to commit to this way of eating/living but I can tell you I feel so much better since I have made these positive changes. I feel happy when I prepare my meals with healthy foods that I know will feed my brain and cells which in turn will fuel my workouts, keep me sated and provide me with a strong foundation of long term good health.

in food and health

Denise