Life and Garden via Instagram

From the top, L to R:

1. Produce basket from our nightly harvests 2. Making fresh rainbow salsa
3. Refrigerator pickles 4. Eggplant Crisp
5. Cohen's Red Mini Bell Pepper 6. Cale's huge pumpkins
7. Making garden veggie soup  8. Cale's favorite place to be

Grow Your Own: Fixing the Broken Food System

I don't often force my opinions on others. And for the most part I am of the opinion that people have freedom to choose. I don't care if you stay-at-home or work. I don't care who you marry. I don't care who you believe or don't believe in. I don't care who you vote for. We all should have the freedom to make those choices for ourselves with out fear of retaliation or loss of rights.

Things get a little hazy when it comes to more global issues. I do care if you throw your trash somewhere it shouldn't be. I do care if you pollute the air. I do care if you recklessly and thoughtlessly hurt the Earth in various ways, because the truth of the matter is we are hurting the Earth, and ourselves,  and for the most part the people of this world just don't care. And that's not right.

But today I am going to voice my opinion, my opinion about food and the current government run food system we have in the United States. I have been reading Joel Salatin's Folks, That Ain't Normal and while his words aren't completely new to me, they do get my heart pumping and my brain screaming about all the people in the world who just don't realize or care about what they put in their bodies or how it got there. About how some people in this day and age don't know where their food came from or what is in it. About how out of touch we are with the fact that we are leaving one of our most basic human needs in the hands of someone else, who may or may not have our best interests at heart.

Just down the road from where we live is a tomato farm. A huge farm with acres of tomatoes. It's a beautiful sight to see. That is until you see the warning signs. These aren't your run-of-the-mill No Trespassing signs, but danger signs warning you of the health risks the chemicals used on the fields might cause. When they spray the fields the workers wear what look like Hazmat suits. The beautiful fields are also marred by rows and rows of red, ripe tomatoes. Not on the plants, but wasted on the ground. Only the green tomatoes are wanted. I would suggest donating those ripe tomatoes to homeless shelters, but I am not sure I would endorse giving Hazmat tomatoes to the less fortunate either.

I  believe that our current food system is unnatural. It's unnatural that food be shipped for thousands of miles. Its unnatural that milk in it's natural form is illegal to buy or sell. It's unnatural to eat watermelon in Maine in December. And it's unnatural that some children today don't know how, when and where the food they are eating came to be, or worse yet that the food they are eating is so far removed from it's natural state that they might as well be eating cardboard.

But how do you fix a broken system? That's a big job. The only current solution I have is that every capable person should be growing something. Anything.

Live in an apartment?

• Grow plants in pots on your deck or balcony. Tomatoes, peppers, herbs, strawberries and a ton of others do well in containers. 
• Ask the managers of the complex about starting a community garden on the grounds.

 

Live in the city? 

• Look into local cummunity garden plots available for rent
• Can you grow on the roof of your apartment building?
• If you have a sunny window or room for artificial lights you can grow plants such as greens, roots, and herbs that don't require pollination. 

 

Can't afford it?

Gardening doesn't have to be expensive. You can get seeds as cheap as $0.99. Are they heirloom? No, but they will grow into food nonetheless. The local Dollar Tree sells reasonably sized bags of potting soil. Plant your seeds in recycled egg cartons, use milk jugs with the tops cut off and holes poked in the bottoms for containers on your deck. And remember that one zucchini plant, one tomato plant and a container of bean seeds can give you virtually free food all summer long.

Don't have time?

Yes you do. If you have time to read this article you have time to plant a couple plants. Big gardens have the potential to be time consuming, but 1 or 2 dozen plants or a few pots on the deck will add less than 15 minutes of extra time a day. Not having time is an excuse and I am sure most people know that.

 

Have a big back yard?

What are you waiting for?! Get growing! And don't forget to share or trade with neighbors and friends who may not be able to grow as much as you.

The only way to fix a broken system is by taking it into your own hands and hope that everyone else does too. We grow a lot, but still are much too dependent on a grocery store for our food. But we are a lot less dependent compared to 5 years ago. If every able-bodied person began to take back control of their own food, we'd get a whole lot closer to a more natural, healthy way of living and eating. It all starts with one person taking small steps to fix a problem. Start small, work your way up, but the most important thing is to start.

Note: All quotes in this post come from Joel Salatin's Folks, This Ain't Normal. No matter what your thoughts are on food and farming I recommend reading this book. If you agree with him it might help push you on to the next step. If you are still eating McDonald's and buying processed foods on a regular basis, it just might open your eyes. 

This post has been linked to Freedom Fridays,  From the Farm Blog Hop, The Clever Chicks Blog Hop, The Homestead Barn Hop, The Backyard Farming Connection,

Garden 2013: Indoor Seed Starting

 

It's late January and nothing is growing outside. It's winter and it's cold (sort of) but we've been in garden planning mode for a few weeks now. And today we started some of our earliest crops inside. The Brassicas- cauliflower, cabbage, kale and broccoli. Some eggplant, to get them good and strong before transplanting outside in a few months. A few herbs and some really early tomatoes- in hopes that we can get them pretty big by transplanting time and get tomatoes earlier and longer this season.

I have always started my own seeds. It's not as hard as you may think. In terms of simplicity you can buy peat pellets (pictured at the top) and stick your seeds in and make sure they get light (sun or artificial) and keep them watered. That is usually all it takes. If you don't want to make the extra purchase you can make pots out of newspaper or soil blocks and plant your seeds directly in to them. This year I am using what I had left of my peat pellets from last year and some seedling trays reused and refilled with a mixture of potting soil and peat moss.

The main difference this year is that we don't have a good sunny window to place seed trays in anymore. Last year's starts ended up pretty long and straggly. So a few weeks ago Paul and I built a seed-starting shelf. It was made simply out of boards we had laying around. Today we added 3 4-ft shop lights to grow the seeds under and got to planting!

My kids are always part of our garden each year. They take part in most aspects from planting to weeding to harvesting to eating. But this year, Rylan's interest has really spiked. I am not sure if I have mentioned this, but the #1 item on his Christmas list this year was seeds. A gift certificate from Baker Creek to be exact. Today he planted his Purple of Sicily Cauliflower,  Romanesco Italia Broccoli,Thai Yellow Egg Eggplant, and a couple of his tomatoes- White Tomesol and Golden King of Siberia.

 Here's what went in today:

20 Purple of Sicily Cauliflower
20 Snowball Cauliflower
15 Early Purple Sprouting Broccoli
17 Waltham 29 Broccoli
16 Romanesco Italia Broccoli
12 Russian Red Kale
10 Mammoth Red Rock Cabbage
10 Copenhagen Market Cabbage
3 each of these Eggplants: Turkish Orange, Thai Yellow Egg, Black Egg, Crystal Apple, Ping Tang and Long Purple
9 Lavender
4 Purple Basil
4 Genovese Basil
3 each of these tomatoes: Golden King of Siberia, Dr. Wyche's, Amish Paste, Super Sioux, Chadwick's Cherry, White Tomesol
2 trays of onions seeds: Wehtersfield Red and Red Torpedo

Now they are happily sitting under their lights, ready to sprout! Have you started this planning/planting this year's garden? What's on your list this year?

linked to the Homestead Barn Hop

The Statue

 Yesterday we went to the NC Arboretum. They currently have an exhibit on Wicked Plants. While going through that exhibit I came across something that made me laugh. 

This statue.

Can you read the label?

Enough said.

Trick or Treat

 Annika's first Halloween.

 A dinosaur joined us for school

 So did Super Cow

 And Spiderman

 Posing before heading out to our Halloween Party

 Lots of posing

 He wanted to be duct tape man....but settled for Super Cow when we ran out of time and tape to make his costume.

 But check out his cape....silver and black duct tape using a trash bag as a base.

 Spider climbing

 Obligatory group shot.

 And another group shot once we got where we were going. 

Party Time!

 Lollipop spiders

 Witches Stew contest

 and race

 Jack-o-lantern luminaries 

Jack-o-lantern pizza

 

Bone pretzels

marble painted spider webs

and faux trick-or-treating

Happy Halloween!

Roasted Tomato Sauce

Tomatoes are our big crop. I plant a lot of plants and we bring in more tomatoes than anything else. When it comes to preserving them though...I am not too fond of the standard process. Most canning guides have you boil them, ice them, skin them and take out the seeds. There are 2 things I don't like about that process. One, it takes way too long and way too many dishes. Two, it's a lot of waste. I want to use all the tomato.

I have been asked for my sauce recipe. I posted it a couple years ago, Val at Collecting the Moments has posted her version as well.

Here's what you will need:

tomatoes
garlic
onion
olive oil
balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper
basil
oregano

And I will warn you, I am one of those process cooks as opposed to a recipe follower....

Step one is to halve your tomatoes and place them in a large roasting pan. I tend to over-fill mine. I use mostly Roma tomatoes as there is less water in them and more meat. But when I make this my pan looks like the picture below. And this is a large, Thanksgiving turkey kind of roasting pan.

Next add garlic. I use a whole head. I bruise it, take the skins of and cut the cloves in half.

Next up, onion. I use about 1 medium. Cut in quarters. You can omit it or add more depending on your taste.

Sprinkle liberally with [sea] salt, pepper, drizzle with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Don't skimp on either of these.


Dig your hands in and toss it all up until everything is nice and coated. Then stick it in the oven for 45 minutes or so at 400*. You want the skins shriveled and starting to blacken in a couple places.

When it's done cooking, transfer the tomatoes to a large bowl. I use my crock pot. It's up to you whether or not to get all the juices. I find the sauce too thin when I add them all. So I just make sure to get all the onion, garlic and tomatoes.

Add a whole lot of fresh basil and oregano (I am sure dry would work too). Then blend it up. I use my immersion blender. I have used my food processor in batches too. Keep blending. Then give it a taste. Add more salt, pepper, balsamic, olive oil, a drizzle of honey...until it tastes how you want.

Then you can place it in jars, containers, freezer bags and freeze it for later. If you check out Val's page, she can tell you more about canning it....be sure to read the comments.

Then go out to the garden and repeat the process again.