This past Tuesday, my three-person familial gardening contingent began preparations for this year’s Food Garden Of Awesomeness. It was a quiet, unfortunately dreary morning, so most of our efforts happened under roofs or indoors. We did manage to dig some wild ramps, which grow in abundance in the wooded space beyond the yard to the west of the house. Ramps are a type of wild onion, similar to leeks, and I can’t for the life of me tell them apart from young lilies and other similar-looking plants yet, so thank goodness for my aunt who can spot them with ease. Ramps grow in many parts of the eastern and middle United States and also in Canada. We were careful not to pull up too many. It is important to leave some in the ground to ensure that they will continue to grow.
There was a constant, very fine, penetrating rain, and the temperature was unsure whether it wanted to be warmish or chilly. We started the day by transplanting some recently-started tomato and marigold seedlings into larger containers, which we made out of newspaper by simply rolling it around a drinking glass and using a small amount of masking tape to hold them together. These can be directly stuck into the ground, as they will degrade and decompose easily.
Damp, grey days like this seem to feed a restless sort of inspiration in me, so the rest of the morning was easily spent putting pen to paper & drawing up plans for where we will be putting things when we reach the point of planting, and poring over books about gardening, canning, and the like.
Things that I am most excited to grow this year (all of the seeds I have purchased this year are marked "OG" which stands for "organically grown"):
- Popcorn - I have never grown popcorn before, but I have bought it from the farmer’s market. I’m always hearing how terrible microwave popcorn is for you, and frankly making it from scratch is way more fun. I grew up using an electric popcorn popper and topping it with melted butter, salt or garlic salt, and sometimes nutritional yeast (surprisingly tasty, kind of similar to parmesan cheese in taste). Plus, popcorn on the cob is pretty.
- Brandywine Tomatoes - These are the absolute most delicious tomato I have ever tasted. I am not a plain-tomato eater, I prefer them sliced and diced and thrown in with other ingredients, but this is a tomato I will devour straight up. Just straight into my face. They are super sweet and juicy, and I recommend that you eat one sometime. The seeds I bought for this year’s crop are an heirloom variety.
- Watermelon - I have procured a pack of Sugar Baby Watermelon seeds from Fruition Seeds, a recent addition to the local food & farming scene. Founded in 2012 and based in Naples, NY, they are now beginning to offer organic, regionally-adapted seeds. I am very excited to give them a shot! In the past, we have had difficulty growing melons, but I’m going to do my homework thoroughly this year and see if I can’t coax some melons out of the ground. Fruition's Kickstarter campaign was successful as of July, 2013 and their video for it is worth a watch.
- Jalapeños - I need something to grow at my own apartment, and I have a very sunny porch which will be perfect for jalapeño peppers and Roma tomatoes. I am getting my seedlings and containers prepped & ready as we speak, although the dog destroyed my jalapeño seedlings last week, so I will have to start those over... But once I have some peppers grown, maybe I’ll try pickling them.
- Beets - They are a new infatuation of mine. I used to dislike beets, but my tastes have changed dramatically over the past few years and I now enjoy many foods that I never did when I was younger. Beets are at the top of that list. I love that you can roast the root and sauté up their greens as well, and like many other highly pigmented vegetables they are chock full of nutrients to boot including manganese, folate, and phytochemicals which are purportedly good for liver and heart health.
I could go on. I’m also very pumped about radishes, kale, asparagus, mustard greens, raspberries, potatoes, spinach, bell peppers, and rhubarb. Among other things. Name your favorite veggie, ‘cause we will probably be growing it!
0 comments:
Post a Comment