Sunday, December 28, 2008

I dreamt I was Farmer Joe

It's really a shame that you won't get a picture of this one... I just had the best salad in the history of salads! Right from my own garden. I had some red leaf lettuce, some moon leaf lettuce, some cilantro and added an avocado from the local farmers market with a side of steamed asparagus tips- also from the farmers market. I struesseled some butter on them and adjusted my pepper grinder to crack the pepper corns really coarsely. Topped the whole thing off with a few wedges of an orange. Mmmmm! They are so perky! I love that!

Those of you who don't grow your own stuff are missing one of the pleasures of life. How cool is it to step out your back door on a chilly evening and pick a few leaves of lettuce and make your own meal. It didn't take any longer than going to the store. The seeds cost about $4. I'll have fresh salad 3 or 4 times a week until March!

The things purchased in a traditional grocery store are engineered to look good or last longer on the shelf rather than to taste good or be nutritious. I'll harvest the last of my lettuce and peas and turnips about February and I'll plant more cilantro, peppers, tomatoes etc. Those will make it until about July before they just get too scorched. Then I'll plant pumpkins on about July 20th and harvest those just before Halloween and then back to the winter stuff on the first week of November. If you haven't planted them already, it's a bit late, but anything that is in the ground like radishes or turnips and anything that you eat the leaf, like lettuces and cabbages and a few things that are in pods like peas or some green beans can grow from November to March here in Mesa.

3 comments:

Cynthia said...

We often plant a spring garden in February or so, but I forget how much will grow through the winter. We ought to get going on that next year.

Cynthia said...

by the way, very funny about the "crow"bar.

Lauri said...

I definitely need to take farming lessons! I used to enjoy that in California but haven't been much of a gardener here in AZ. You've had some fun adventures these past several weeks. Has Lesa joined you on any of them?