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Photo Diary: A Homegrown Meal

by: Jill Richardson

Thu May 19, 2011 at 21:26:08 PM PDT

Today, the majority of food in our dinner was homegrown. This is very exciting, since most of my winter crop was a complete bust (the chickens ate half of it, and the plants I put out of their reach were in our worst soil). We've now got fences around all of our beds to keep the chickens out. Tonight was our first big harvest (besides the mountain of fava beans we've been eating for weeks).

My harvest: Green onions, fava beans, lettuce, beets, and chard. Not in the picture: Strawberries.

Jill Richardson :: Photo Diary: A Homegrown Meal

Close-up of the beets, some chioggia and some ruby queen. I like the chioggias for two reasons. First, they are fast-growing. Second, I tell the kids they are "candycane" and that grabs their attention... although the gimmick would be more successful if the beets tasted like candycanes.

Our salad, minus the lettuce and dressing: Peaches, strawberries, raw beets, raw carrots, cooked fava beans.

Oops! I forgot to get the herbs. I wanted dill for the salad, & my roommate asked for rosemary & thyme. I asked if he'd like some parsley and sage too...

I did everything up to this point, and then I left it in the very capable hands of my chef-roommate. Here's what he came up with:

Salad... he made the dressing and added green onions and avocado to it.

Roasted potatoes and a stir-fry of chard, onions, and beets.

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Photo Diary: A Homegrown Meal | 13 comments

The beets & onions (4.00 / 2)

coulda been bigger, but the plan is to get that bed cleared out so I can put my squash in there. And some compost into the bed too.

"I can understand someone from Iowa promoting corn and soy, but we are not feeding the world, we are feeding animals and soft drink companies." - Jim Goodman

by: Jill Richardson @ Fri May 20, 2011 at 04:40:04 AM UTC

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oh and the lettuce (4.00 / 2)

is totally going to bolt any day now. Might as well pull the whole plant out and eat it all.

"I can understand someone from Iowa promoting corn and soy, but we are not feeding the world, we are feeding animals and soft drink companies." - Jim Goodman

by: Jill Richardson @ Fri May 20, 2011 at 04:42:30 AM UTC

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You sound like me (4.00 / 3)

I've been trying to use up all the mustard greens I have in one block in tunnel #1. I keep cutting it way back and it keeps coming back. Same with the leaf celery, I've got 20 or so of those. I'd really like to plant something else there but I just can't yank the things out all at once, I need to keep harvesting for the shares.

I did finally put my foot down on the second crop of calcots. Those are all getting harvested over the weekend so I can till that area (I have onions and leeks that need to be transplanted there and I've got a lot of snow pea seedlings that would really like let out of jail too).

I finally decided to tear all of the short tunnels down and relocate them to the arena garden. That way I can till the ground in the east barn garden for corn and squash.

That dinner looks delish!

Normal people scare me.... But not as much as I scare them.

by: JoanneRigutto @ Fri May 20, 2011 at 06:23:33 AM UTC

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favas (4.00 / 1)

Please say more about the favas. Are they a variety that does not need to be peeled?

by: count @ Fri May 20, 2011 at 11:45:59 AM UTC

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I'm growing favas (4.00 / 2)

but didn't know there were any that don't have to be peeled. There is NOTHING like fresh favas with a little oil oil and salt

by: LeeN @ Fri May 20, 2011 at 13:25:11 PM UTC

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fava peeling (4.00 / 1)

I don't know if there are varieties that don't need peeling, but if Jill has found one I'd like to know!

by: count @ Fri May 20, 2011 at 13:42:18 PM UTC

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Nope, I peeled 'em (4.00 / 1)

but you know what? If you pick them when they aren't too mature you can just eat them raw, unpeeled. These ones were pretty mature so the outside of each bean would be tough. I brought the water to a boil, put them in for 90 seconds, and then put them in cold water to stop the cooking. Then I peeled them. And I re-used the boiling water to cook the beets. It drives me nuts to bring an entire pot of water to a boil just to cook favas for a minute and a half!

"I can understand someone from Iowa promoting corn and soy, but we are not feeding the world, we are feeding animals and soft drink companies." - Jim Goodman

by: Jill Richardson @ Fri May 20, 2011 at 16:53:45 PM UTC

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mint (4.00 / 1)

Your "candycane" nickname makes me wonder if mint would be good with beets. I bet it would.

by: count @ Fri May 20, 2011 at 11:47:38 AM UTC

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I grow about 5 different kinds of mint (4.00 / 2)

and I use it all the time in salads. I have no luck growing root vegetables here. Even with compost and rototilling soil is compacted. I'm sprouting sweet potatoes and hope it will help.

Anyway I grow orange mint. I bet that would be really tasty with the beets.

by: LeeN @ Fri May 20, 2011 at 13:19:25 PM UTC

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I use coco-peat (4.00 / 1)

the ground up husks of coconuts. It is nice and soft but also not so rich in nitrogen that it will burn the plants, so you can use a lot of it if you want to help with soil compaction.

"I can understand someone from Iowa promoting corn and soy, but we are not feeding the world, we are feeding animals and soft drink companies." - Jim Goodman

by: Jill Richardson @ Fri May 20, 2011 at 16:55:02 PM UTC

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I love coco coir (4.00 / 2)

I use the shredded stuff all the time. It's nice and loose and it's supposed to be neutral in PH, so you don't have to worry about raising or lowering the PH of the soil or potting mix. I use it a lot when I work with the plug trays growing microgreens. It doesn't cap as bad as some other materials and when it does cap it shakes off the seedlings very easily.

Normal people scare me.... But not as much as I scare them.

by: JoanneRigutto @ Fri May 20, 2011 at 21:00:53 PM UTC

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