Well, this is the week that I scheduled to start some of my seeds, and I am woefully unprepared. I don't even have my lights up or anything!
Note to self: get on it, girl!!!
I received a fabulous package in the mail yesterday containing the books "The Four Season Harvest" and "Root Cellaring". I am so excited to read them!!!! I have so many dreams of fabulously productive veggie gardens, of enchanting floral gardens, of pantries full of home canned goodness, of root cellars brimming with bins of home grown food.
I dream of a life where I can provide healthy and tasty food for my family, and they actually eat it.
See, that is the rub. Mr. Barefoot likes salads, but he doesn't eat them often. Big Sprout is picky about what veggies she will eat (though I have noticed that home grown is much preferable to store bought in her mind). Little Sprout is the only one who seems to enjoy whatever I put in front of her, and I harbor no illusions that will continue for the rest of her life. She is just too young to care one way or the other if she is eating broccoli.
I am determined to keep putting healthy meals in front of my family, and to keep reducing the amount of junk that is allowed in the house.
Maybe someday I will get my way...
12 comments:
YEAH for the new books!!! I picked up "Root Cellaring" for $.50 at the library a couple of months ago, but haven't had a chance to look through it yet. (Have I mentioned how much I love my library's book-sale bins?!?! Paperbacks for $.25, hardbacks for $.50, no matter what subject. And book-sets for a grand total of $5, regardless of how big the set!)
If you haven't seen it yet, check out Carla Emery's "Encycolpedia of Country Living". That's another one that I found in the book-sale bin (for a quarter). Unfortunately my copy is 2 years older than I am, and I'm rather wishing I had the $$ to buy a newer edition (because the book was being revised & added to right up until she died a year back, from what I understand).
Best of luck with getting your seeds started!!!! I'm still trying to decide what I want to do about ORDERING my seeds, and starting them won't happen (and over at FIL's if at all) till sometime next month.
Looking forward to seeing your garden growing!
You need a sign in your kitchen " Tonight's menu... take it or leave it!" :P
I can't wait to see your little seedlings! I had to put up a second rack yesterday to hold mine, now that I'm having to repot some of them into bigger pots! I may post some pictures on my blog later today... or maybe not!
Just think! Soon it will be time to put your little seedlings into your new raised beds and watch them take off!
I LOVE when my local library has their book sales! I can get such great deals...
I don't know how you can stay so patient. Your winter is so much longer than mine, and so much colder. I would be half out of my mind knowing that it was still another month before I could start!
Lisa
I am so jealous that you are able to get started ahead of me. With my new book, maybe I will finally figure out how to garden year round even here in the Frozen North. Then you can be jealous of me with my stuff in January!
I sure hope you post pics, so I can drool over your seedling goodness.
Root Cellaring is great. I have the other one too, but I haven't had an opportunity to read it yet. I have similar issues: Sr hates most veggies and his oldest son seems to be following in his path. Maybe Lyndon will be more like mama and love his veggies!
Good luck on the seed starting-I am in the midst of that myself!
Hey Barefoot, what seeds are you starting? I have a bunch circled in my Seed Saver's catalog, but haven't ordered yet because it's still too F'in cold!
I saw a cool book at Menard's the other day, "Square Foot Gardening"....some good ideas that might produce enough good stuff for just two of us plus a little more to give away to Mom & Dad.
I have both of those books. I think perhaps Elliot Coleman should take a visit here to Minnesota to see if his four season ideals hold up. But I think it's a wonderfully inspiring book. I also have his "Complete Organic Gardener" book, although I think we may have loaned it out.
My husband likes to buy processed junk and, lately, Chilean produce! Arrgghh... when will they learn...
Our daughter is picky too. Ugh.
Gina-
Big Sprout loved her veggies until she got older sisters and friends at school who told her they were "gross". I keep hoping that if she keeps seeing me munching cheerfully on veggies, she will come around. *wink*
Ruthie-
I am going to start with broccoli and cabbage, maybe some onion from seed (even though it is late for that). They can handle cooler weather. Then in a little bit I will get my tomatoes and peppers started. I am hoping to do everything from seed this year, though my onions will most likely end up from sets again. I will most likely do a post about everything I start, so keep your eyes peeled!
"Square Foot Gardening" is a fabulous book. I am trying his method for the first time this year, and am very excited. I already love the look of the raised beds, and I am hoping that this system will work as well as I have heard it does, because if I rip out any more of Dad's lawn I think he will kill me. Hehe.
Deb-
I have been curious about that, as well. I think I just read that Eliot is in a zone 5 area, not nearly as cold as the zone 3 area you and I am in! Still, I have been very interested in season extending, so I am hoping to get some ideas. Maybe one of these years I will try the winter garden thing and let you know how it goes!
Brad-
Kids...
You know, I have had luck with a couple of small row covers this winter. I put them in when I planted fall lettuce and spinach. I just stuck 8 or 10 foot lengths of 1/2 pvc pipe (cheap) in the bed on one side, bent it over and stuck it in the soil on the opposite side. i covered it with some fabricky material I got at Garden's Alive.com. Do you know that even with the (unusual for us) snow and some pretty good freezes, that I still have lettuce thriving under there?
You might need to use plastic covers, or occasionally throw an old blanket over it all when it's really cold, but you might be able to extend some of the cooler weather crops that way!
Ha! Ha! Ha! I have both of those books ... and I bought them at the same time, too!
Gawd! That's funny ;).
Mr. Barefoot sounds a little like Deus Ex Machina, and my kids would have eaten PopTarts for every meal, if I had let them. Thing is, they helped with the garden, and once it was coming from OUR garden, we all started to get into having it in the kitchen and on the table. My girls really enjoyed harvesting - at least at first - and they all enjoyed the canning experience (initially).
Our diet has changed so drastically over the past two years, and while we don't eat homegrown veggies every day, we do eat much more wholesomely than we did, and a lot of what goes on our plates comes from the freezer or from things we canned ourselves, either from our garden or from a local farmer.
Baby (Barefoot) steps! You'll get there, and you'll wonder why you were ever anywhere else ;).
By the way, Eliot Coleman is from DownEast Maine. He lives about four hours northeast of where I live, and he practices his four-season gardening here in Maine, where it's cold and snowy from late October until early May and sometimes into June. As his book says, it's not about the temperature, but about the amount of sun.
Wendy-
I am not blessed with an over-abundance of patience, I am sorry to say. Baby steps seem so hard! I just want to do it. But, I know you are right, taking it one step at a time and getting the family involved will help a lot.
I have to admit I keep thinking of you while I am reading Eliot's book. :)
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