Growing the organic garden
I had a friend ask me what some of my favorite things were to grow in my organic garden. We chatted at length and it was fun to talk about all of the things I have growing! I love the idea of having fresh veggies and going out and having the makings of dinner a few feet away from my back door! I don’t use any pesticides and try to use companion planting whenever I can ( planting plants to benefit each other.) to control pests. After I talked with her, I thought it was perfect timing to round up some of my gardening posts and a few fresh from the garden-based recipes!
If you are thinking about starting a garden, read this first timers garden post here.
One of the easiest, most pest resistant plants to grow is green beans. In this post I share how you can make a green bean teepee.
You can also use this for Peas and Cucumbers. And with all of those extra green beans and cucumbers, you can make yummy refrigerator pickles!
My favorite veggie to grow are potatoes. There is nothing like a potato out of your own ground.
If you have patience,asparagus are a wonderful spring veggie.
Tomatoes can be grown in the ground or in a planter, as long as they are kept well watered. I am a sucker for this fried green tomato recipe with all of my unripe ones.
Are you going to get a hard frost? You can also extend your tomato season when it gets cold by doing this.
I had a nice sized strawberry bed in my yard. The trick to that is planting enough to share with the birds and ground squirrels. 🙂
But they make really yummy refrigerator jam and syrup!
And I love an easy garden pasta with simple ingredients! And this is always a great summer night recipe.
I have several blueberry and raspberry plants, and pie is one of my favorite desserts. I don’t normally get enough for a huge pie, but I do get enough to make a few baby ones.This blueberry chia uses healthy chia seeds as the thickener.
One of our favorite veggies is beets, and my family loves this beet and onion pickle.Just open your windows when you make it!
We always eat them on one of our favorite dinners, Steak salad, with homemade ranch dressing.
I also love being able to pick herbs from my organic garden for our meals.
I grow Parsley, Garlic, Mint (2 kinds),
basil and Rosemary. It’s easy to grow your own Rosemary and Lavender.
And every year I try squash and pumpkins. I love squash!
I make a mean roasted butternut squash pasta sauce,
and a super yummy pumpkin sour cream soup with sausage. In face, I am getting excited thinking about it.
That doesn’t always go so well. Like the year I planted 2 varieties too close together and got frankenpumpkins, and used them for display at the Nada Farm sale.
It’s fun to garden and see what kind of bounty you can get out of it. I would say it’s one of the most rewarding hobbies I’ve ever had. We are on 1/3 acre, and can get quite a bit of food. Imagine what I could so with an entire acre! 🙂
