I'll tell you one thing, all you gardeners and would-be gardeners out there: Year-long eating from your garden is an admirable goal if you feel like gardening is just too much work.
I'll be the first to admit that growing food is not for the lazy. Even though I like to call myself lazy in jest (and even not in jest in certain respects), the truth is that the "hobby" of vegetable gardening is a lot of hard damn work. Of course, it's worth it when you're chowing down on an all-you-can-eat heirloom tomato buffet in August. But then, in August, you're still working your ass off in that garden. So that kind of dims the enjoyment a little bit.
No, the real reward comes when you're not doing a damn thing to tend your garden, and yet are still eating food from it. Last night, we had potatoes, collard greens, and shallots in our dinner. All still fresh, all from the garden. And I haven't set foot in that patch of soil, except to harvest, in months.
And that's the best kind of reward.
Once again, as so often happens, I read a post like this and am consumed with jealousy. Sigh. I wish I was a member of a CSA, and that it ran through the winter. You guys don't want investors do you????
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Maybe the govt. should do a little 'garden investing'. Maybe they could learn something. ;)
ReplyDeleteword verification - ' nonening '
the sound an old fashioned cash register made
Totally jealous over here. That mancub is in for some good eating.
ReplyDeleteThis year I have to plant my measly "garden" (usually just tomatoes & herbs) in pots, because the dude who painted our house over the summer commented that our soil probably has assloads of lead in it from the ancient house paint. WEEEE!
Nice, Kristin! I wish I could be eating all my delicious amaranth and sprouts and whatnot, but that hard freeze over the South destroyed everything we had planted for winter and has pretty much kept us indoors for the last three weeks.
ReplyDeleteSoutherners do not keep well at subfreezing temperatures.
You know it's bad when you have to go out and knock off the scrim of ice on the animal water bowls on the INSIDE of the barn...
PS: I actually moved to a farm, if you can believe it. No more apartment gardens for me!
*dances*
Totally! I agree.
ReplyDeleteI mean, yes, I enjoy wading through the garden in the summer and coming out with a basket full of great stuff for dinner, but when I can pop open a jar of tomatoes, simmer them with my frozen pesto and serve them with frozen green beans after doing zero work out of doors, I'm very pleased with myself.
It's like, Thanks garden! I didn't even have to get my shoes muddy for this meal.
Love it. We're still eating raspberries from the farmers' market last summer; we didn't grow enough of our own, but I froze those we bought downtown.
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