7/14: Our Backyard Grocery

Yesterday's temp wasn't too bad - high 90's. We had harvested so much lettuce for Saturday's salad that we had a big bag left over so yesterday we took it to Doug's mom. It appears that Black-Seeded Simpson lettuce likes to have it's outer leaves cut so it can grow more and faster. Felt around the carrots and beets but they aren't ready. Realized I had planted the onions in with the soybeans, and since beans don't like onions and vice versa, we probably won't get one or the other. Bummer.

I'm really looking forward to the day that we can start eating only what we've grown - kinda having a grocery in our own backyard. Breakfast could be half a cantaloupe with a couple of scrambled eggs. Want a salad for a light lunch? Grab the collander and scissors for lettuce, carrots, scallions, and a few string beans. Toss in a few homegrown peanuts. Make a little dressing with olive oil and homemade apple cider vinegar. Dinner? Boil some edamame (soy) and serve with a baked sweet potato, a bit of broccoli and a bowl of blueberries.

My mouth is watering! Theoretically, we could grow most of our own produce. Ever since I can remember, I've had strawberries or a tomato in the windowsill or under a grow light. Even at our last apartment, we had a yellow pear tomato, a cherry tomato, a yellow summer squash, a few green beans, and a cucumber.

Yes, we have more room at this house, but since the soil is so VERY bad, almost everything is either in a pot or in a raised bed. And we have some good south-facing windowsills and grow lights so this winter we'll have some window boxes with lettuce, carrots and radishes. Maybe a tomato, a few green beans and a squash.

I know many other people are frustrated with the rising costs of food, especially produce. And this tomato/jalapeno/cilantro scare - who can trust what's available at the grocery?! Let's start a dialogue about how to raise some of our own food - even if we only have a windowsill or a grow light in a corner. Vikki