I try to shop as locally and as organically as possible for our food. We have three great farmers’ markets within a 20 minute drive, including one that is a ten minute walk from the house. I am able to get a variety of foods at all three, but have wanted to grow as much as we can at our own home. It’s part Operation No Lawn and part Operation 0 miles Foods. I’ve been influenced a lot by books such as The 100 Mile Diet, This Organic Life, and everything that Michael Pollan has written. So, I try to make wise and healthy decisions about what we eat and how we source it. I’m lucky to have local access to honey, eggs, meats, tons of veggies and fruits. Many are organic, but we do struggle to find things like apples and berries that are local. As we get closer to the summer, I will be looking in earnest to find local pick-your-own farms that are organic in the area. Fingers are crossed to find them!
In that effort to live organically and locally, we have started a kitchen garden at our home. Last year was our second year and we definitely expanded from the first year. We went from one to two raised 4 x 8 beds, continued our pumpkin patch and maintained our blackberry and blueberry bushes. In the two beds, we had a variety of heirloom tomatoes (Romas, Japanese Black Trifeles and Mortgage Lifters), Rosa Bianca eggplants, a variety of hot peppers (from Pepperoncinis to Fish), cucumbers, zucchinis, bush beans, and Scarlet Nantes carrots. In the pumpkin patch, I just threw whatever pumpkins and gourds we had from the front porch fall decorations against the garage and let the squirrels do the planting. So, we ended up with some Cheese and sugar pumpkins and many, many bottle gourds. Overall, the yield was okay.
We had some setbacks that were out of our control, like this tree that crashed in from the neighbor’s yard.
Additionally, I purchased a great cucumber trelllis from Gardener’s Supply. While it was great for our cucumber yield, it definitely dwarfed the carrots’ sun. I also was overzealous in how many peppers and tomatoes we planted in the one bed, and we ended up with some fungus that even took the Master Gardeners at the Rutgers Co-op Extension a while to diagnose. It’s a all a learning curve though and I take my time with the garden and work from my mistakes.
We have a lot planned for this year’s garden. I will be adding three more raised beds. We are going to be planting a greater variety of foods and I even researched what the Tomato will be starting to eat in the next six months, as she begins her foray into solid foods, so that I have those veggies planted in order to make her baby food at home. We yearn to add some fruit trees, but also need to plan out a fence for the backyard so that the Tomato can play safely in our space. So, I may have to wait on those trees for another year. Oh apples, figs and plums, we are ever hopeful that you will join our garden!
Below is our wishlist for our 2011 garden. I will be combing through the seed catalogs this week and plotting distances in order to see what we can achieve. I am very excited to place our orders and get things moving for this year!
2011 Kitchen Garden Wishlist:
Butternut Squash – Pumpkins – Zucchini – Heirloom Tomatoes (definitely Romas for sauce) – Hot Peppers (Pepperoncinis and Jalapenos are definite) – Eggplant – Cucumbers – Carrots – Potatoes – Sweet Potatoes – Apples – Plums – Figs – Watermelons – Onions – Asparagus – Edamame – Pole Beans – Peas – Garlic
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