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I’ve had a raised bed veggie garden for a couple years now and love it, saves my back! I used four large scrap lumber boards for one, an old worn out wood toybox for another and am adding a third this year.
We are liking Spinach salads, and the Spinach is already being eaten; it’s an early plant and during hot weather try to eat a lot of cold foods and grow Spinach, Lettuce, Peppers of all colors, Tomatoes of course and even tho the squirrels do take a bite or two right at first, they generally leave them alone as long as I keep feeding them their seed diet (which is the discarded seeds from the bottom of the three bird cages – lots of good stuff there). Maybe they left them alone when I planted some HOT PEPPERS, lol come to think of it. Grew a couple of Cucumbers last year and I even planted a Peanut plant and it grew a couple of Peanuts which was just for fun. This year in the mulch pile I am seeing that a Pineapple is growing but I’m not sure it will amount to anything. I have some lovely Grapevines that produce a ton of grapes, and I eat a few but let the birds have them all as that was my intention. I love Herbs too and in various flower beds have prolific plants of Lemon Balm, Nasturtium, Spearmint and Peppermint, several Sage plants, Rosemary and Lavendar, Anise which is awesome and Patchouli for nostalgia sake. Lots of wild Strawberries in the yard, but those are for the birds, inside and out lol Have had a couple of Plumb trees that produced really nicely, but lost them both during bad springtime storms 🙁
Everyone should have at least a potted cherry or grape tomato plant, you can have that on your sidewalk or step! Slip a yardstick in to tie it up when it becomes a tree. There is absolutely no better fruit or vegetable than a fresh tomato!
Thats awesome that so many folks have at least a little garden. I would SOOOO love to have a few hens and gather my own eggs, but they wont allow livestock on post. I cant wait to move to a house and then I will get a few chickens. I am looking forward to making my own salads. We buy the pre-bagged stuff and that costs, like, $4 a bag. I think we will save some money there. I dont like to eat tomatoes whole, but I love them IN stuff, like them in sauces and such, but not salads. I am alone there… my mother and hubby love them.
I hear everything grows in Hawaii, so I am excited about the variety and only hoping I manage to get a decent return.
I do love using fresh herbs. A neighbor came over once and asked if I had some parsley… it was something like that… and I said ‘sure’ and cut her some fresh from my moms collection. She kinda looked at me wierd, said thanks, and walked out. I am wondering if she was looking for dried flakes or something and mine went in the trash… 😀Oh goodness yes! It’s not only much healthier but in time will save you money, and it’s much better for the earth.
I have a garden and in time plan to make it larger. I used to hate plain tomatoes but then I had a fresh garden tomato (not a hothouse one like at the grocery store) and it was like eating an entirely different kind of food! I actually like them now, to my embarrassment, having claimed that I hated them for most of my life.Whatever I can’t get from the garden I love going to the local farmer’s market for things. The quality and price can’t be beat, and being able to drive up the road and see the farms the items came from is very reassuring.
I hope to keep hens soon, once I can afford it. The initial investment of course tends to be more than the long term cost, but I want to make sure to have some money stored up for whatever reasons, such as needing a vet visit. I am committed to only keeping animals if I can be sure of their wellbeing and quality of life.
Mini rant ahead, read at your own risk!
I actually take things a step further and do something that some people might not agree with, but hear me out. 🙂 I go out of my way to make sure the meat we eat (and we eat it sparingly) is totally environmentally friendly, healthy, and has had the ‘life intended by nature’ if you will. I do this by responsible hunting. 90% of the meat we use has been harvested from wild animals whose populations are sustainable (if not expanding). I know some people are bothered by this idea, but even if you disagree with my ideals, you can probably agree that the deer, turkey or squirrel I have in my freezer lived a full, wild life without being penned, abused, mistreated, or otherwise caused to suffer at the will of a human. It was never injected with hormones or had tons and tons of its waste run off into waterways where it causes great ecological damage. It didn’t require huge amounts of land to raise, nor did it ruin the land upon which it lived. My turkey was never forced to live a short miserable life in a battery cage or has been bred and fed in such a way that it can no longer fly. Etc etc. I’ve always felt ‘If I’m going to eat meat, I should make sure the critter didn’t suffer just so I could enjoy it”, and I’m trying to follow that example. I’m not perfect; I still eat out every few months and of course I can’t really control where that meat comes from. And sometimes when I have company they want something other than wild game, and so I will cater to that. But I’m trying. 🙂Along that note, but a bit more off topic, for those that love seafood please do consider your seafood choices carefully. Unlike land animals, fish often don’t get the exposure they need when they are in danger of becoming extinct, which is very sad indeed. Bluefin tuna are in very serious danger and yet you can still order them on the menu at many places, and most people have no idea that they’re eating something that could be extinct within a few years. As always, education is key! There are some good seafood choices and bad ones. Here’s some info:
http://www.edf.org/page.cfm?tagID=1521
http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/cr/cr_seafoodwatch/sfw_recommendations.aspxVolunteer mod- I'm here to help! Email me for the best response: nambroth at gmail.com
My art: featherdust.comI saw a listing that I had of good seafood choices that can be put in your wallet for when you eat out. I’ll see if I can dig it up. 🙂
I’m for hunting, but my mom gets the geebies from the idea of it. I’m not so big on guns, as I’d prefer to use a bow. When I acquire a new one, I’m tempted to go out bow hunting in the future. 🙂
Wow, very good info Jennifer!
I’ve never tried to grow my own food before, but I would love to learn how! Unfortunately I don’t have the option of hunting for my own food at ease, living in the heart of Kansas City. I could go out into the country, but I’ve never actually attempted the act before. Admittedly I don’t know the first thing about hunting either. LOL! 😈
Jasmine wrote:Just curious, what do squirrels taste like??
I understand that they taste like rabbit, but I have not had rabbit to compare. To me it tastes like the dark meat part of chicken, but it can vary quite a lot depending on how it is prepared. I have prepared it before in a way that my family didn’t even know it wasn’t chicken (though they didn’t mind, as they’ve had squirrel before; it wasn’t as if I was trying to fool them).
machineguts wrote:Wow, very good info Jennifer!
I’ve never tried to grow my own food before, but I would love to learn how! Unfortunately I don’t have the option of hunting for my own food at ease, living in the heart of Kansas City. I could go out into the country, but I’ve never actually attempted the act before. Admittedly I don’t know the first thing about hunting either. LOL! 😈
I wish you were closer, I’d love to teach. Even if you decide taking an animal is not for you, the experience of learning the woods (or whatever setting you are in), the animals, plants, signs of what has been there, and general experience is worth it for me even if I never ‘got’ anything ever again. 🙂
In a way it’s a more honest approach to food, because you truly understand where it comes from and what it takes for it to be a nice ‘package’ ready to eat on the table. 🙂 Not that I don’t hold great respect for those that would choose not to or even disagree with what I do. I support that everyone has a right to their food choices! And if they have an educated opinion of such all the better right? The only people that bother me are the ones that tell me that hunting is cruel, if their lifestyles support cruelty to farm animals, albeit indirectly.
Volunteer mod- I'm here to help! Email me for the best response: nambroth at gmail.com
My art: featherdust.comas some may or may not know… i’m very much against eating animals and anything that comes from an animal. BUT. i have to say that i do agree with your hunting practices, Jen. i know lots of people who will easily go to the market and pick up a package of hamburger and turn around and say how horrible hunting is. huh?? okay. i admit, there is no way i could ever kill an animal intentionally ((yes, i think i hit a bird in my car once. 😥 that was a sad day)) But, these people have no knowledge of what happens to make this hamburger. Funny thing is that if they just KNEW how this ‘product’ got to the shelves, i bet a lot of people wouldn’t buy it. :puke: if people still had to hunt for their own meat, i think there would be plenty more vegetarians out there! 😆 😉 I definitely think it is more humane, more natural, to let an animal live out their lives in the wild and if fate has it that its path should cross with a hunter (be it a wolf, mountain lion, human), then that is how nature intends it.
(okay. i’m off my soapbox now 😳 )
oh yeah… and home grown tomatoes rock. :yum:
I wish I were closer too, Jennifer! That is an experience I would appreciate very much. Such a way of life runs deep with my Cherokee heritage, but I never had the privilege to fully immerse myself in their traditions through family members. Unfortunately there weren’t any left in our family that kept the Old Ways alive in my generation.
That definitely makes sense DD!
FOOD, inc!!! I’m tellin ya! Watch it!!
I would much rather hunt my own food than eat those poor cows and chickens that are penned up all their lives and fed nothing but CORN!! I think that is awesome, Jen, and I wish I could hunt my own food. I gues I could hunt pig… they have lots of those here. That is so awesome.
My moms vegetables have sprouted already!!! She’s about to transplant them into the new garden!!
FOOD, inc!!! I’m tellin ya! Watch it!!
I would much rather hunt my own food than eat those poor cows and chickens that are penned up all their lives and fed nothing but CORN!! I think that is awesome, Jen, and I wish I could hunt my own food. I gues I could hunt pig… they have lots of those here. That is so awesome.
My moms vegetables have sprouted already!!! She’s about to transplant them into the new garden!!
daydreamer wrote:But, these people have no knowledge of what happens to make this hamburger. Funny thing is that if they just KNEW how this ‘product’ got to the shelves, i bet a lot of people wouldn’t buy it. :puke:
This, pretty much exactly.
Thanks to you, Ski, I put Food, Inc on my Netflix list (though it might be a few months before I get to it)
Although, as I already largely eat vegetarian (except when visiting family or the food they give me) the movie will probably just make me hot under the collar. 😆
The politics part of it made me angry… Basically the people who regulate our food used to invest or were major heads of the food products they are supposed to now regulate. 👿 The rest was just SUPER educational and interesting. I didn’t know most of it, but that movie is going to change the way I grocery shop. I have already looked into buying eggs from people in town so I can see how their chickens are kept (free range claims, etc, on egg cartons are not regulated by FDA so are not worth anything) and I am looking towards a local butcher for our meat.
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