Today I reached a milestone in my gardening and my quest to be more self-sufficient. Tonight I looked at our dinner plate and realized that everything but the pork tenderloin came our of my garden! We’re not looking to do meat production of any kind at this point so for me, this is about as self-sufficient as it gets!
This year I made a point of planting potatoes for the first time. The tops were looking great but I wasn’t sure how the spuds themselves looked yet. I was able to snitch a few by digging down with my fingers and finding some up near the top of the soil. I found some big ones! I got enough for dinner and then turned to the herb bed for chives, sage and thyme to add to the potatoes while they roasted in the oven.
I had one summer squash and one zucchini to harvest and decided to use a bit of sage and chives for those when I gave them a quick saute in olive oil.
I harvested the last of my second planting of sugar snap peas and a few green beans. I ended up popping the peas out of the sugar snaps because the pods were looking a bit sad. The peas are just as sweet and tasty!I also had a previously harvested cucumber in the fridge.
In the end, our dinner was roasted pork tenderloin with a reduction flavored with the garden herbs and maple syrup (which I made this past March), oven roasted herb potatoes (all homegrown), sauteed squash, steamed peas and sliced cucumbers and homemade bread. Granted, I didn’t grow the wheat for the bread, but it’s still homemade.
The boys couldn’t believe we grew almost everything on our plates. It was very rewarding! Here’s my harvest for dinner.
I also harvested my first ever batch of onions! Here is a picture of my first onion braid!
November 20th, 2009 at 8:39 pm
I live in Los Angeles, where water is scarce and costly. My plants were looking thirsty, and I was advised to put down a three-inch layer of bark mulch to help retain moisture. I have a very large front yard and a smallish back yard, so we’re talking mucho mulch. One bag at the nursery is about six bucks and I needed about 30 bags.
I went on Craig’s List and looked for freebies. Several tree services would deliver, but you had to take an entire truckload. This seemed risky. I had a nightmarish vision of getting a huge mountain of pine chips dumped on my front yard which I would never be able to use. Then I noticed another ad from a private person which said “A tree service dumped a huge mountain of pine chips on my front yard. I will never be able to use it all. Come and take as much as you want.” Perfecto!
We filled our station wagon twice – which barely made a dent in the poor girl’s mountain – and our formerly parched garden is now thriving. What a deal!