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Grow What You Love to Eat

April 24th, 2013

This is the third installment in the 5×5 Garden Challenge Series. Every Wednesday I’ll be posting about the challenge, covering topics that will help all the new gardeners get started. If you haven’t heard about the challenge head on over to the 5×5 Challenge Website, we’ll also be putting up a page here that pulls in all the 5×5 Challenge posts.
5x5 garden challenge
I had high hopes of getting the raised bed build for my 5×5 Challenge garden, but the rain conspired against me. So this week we’ll talk about vegetables.
Romanesco_Zucchini_from_Renees_garden_seeds
For the 5×5 Challenge I’m going to be growing the Rainbow Kitchen Garden from Renee’s Garden seed. It contains: zucchini, tomatoes, scallions, beans, and lettuce. These are all vegetable that I love. If you don’t like any of these, feel free to choose the 5 vegetables that you like.
renees garden seed
The point of growing your own food is to grow things that you love. If no one in your family loves tomatoes, don’t grow tomatoes. That being said, if you’ve never tasted a homegrown tomato before, it’s completely different than a store bought tomato and you might actually like it. The same goes for most vegetables.

Which vegetables do you love and which vegetables do you dislike?

19 Comments to “Grow What You Love to Eat”
  1. Jennifer Fisk on April 24, 2013 at 6:55 am

    I love almost all veggies but my favorites are tomatoes,garlic, kale, patty pan squash, broccoli, brussels sprouts and corn. The one I refuse to eat is iceberg lettuce.

    Reply to Jennifer Fisk's comment

  2. Adriana on April 24, 2013 at 7:22 am

    I don’t think I’ve met a vegetable I didn’t like. One exception is the Jerusalem artichockes we planted a couple of years ago. The little plot is still getting established, but last year we dug a couple of tubers to try and they were not good at all. I don’t know if there is a right time to harvest them, but I’m willing to give them another try.

    Reply to Adriana's comment

  3. Sheila on April 24, 2013 at 7:28 am

    So far haven’t met one I didn’t like if it’s harvested and eaten at it’s prime. Although, if my only experience with brussel sprouts was from the frozen dept of the grocery store, I’d hate them.

    Reply to Sheila's comment

  4. S on April 24, 2013 at 8:00 am

    This is a simple idea but SO important for beginners :)
    Now that I have the hang of it a bit I usually try to grow something new-to-me every year too, just a little, for fun and to keep myself from getting into ruts (this year, broccoli raab).

    I’d have to say tomatoes are my stand-alone favorite if only for the long anticipation and payoff. I’ve also learned to love kale in the last few years, which is the opposite–easy to grow, plentiful, and delicious in all sorts of dishes. We tried Radicchio last year, and it was lovely, but just didn’t appeal that much taste-wise.

    Reply to S's comment

  5. Maybelline on April 24, 2013 at 8:03 am

    Garlic and onions are essential.
    Turnips are to be avoided at all costs!

    Reply to Maybelline's comment

  6. misti on April 24, 2013 at 9:17 am

    I don’t really have any vegetable I don’t like, some less favorable than others. I really enjoyed our turnips we grew last year, still have some frozen that need to be eaten, sorry Maybelline!

    Though I’m not doing the 5×5, I do have tomatoes, potatoes, squash, peppers, melons, okra, corn, and a couple rows of beans planted. Last night I planted two rows of amaranth as an experimental plot. Should be interesting!

    I wish we could grow lettuce in the summer! Seems like such a shame when everyone else is having magnificent salads. I tried the malabar spinach last year but I wasn’t found of the mucous it makes. It was ok in green smoothies though.

    Reply to misti's comment

    • Susy on April 24, 2013 at 11:13 am

      I’m with you, we tried malabar spinach a few years ago and just didn’t really like it much.

      Reply to Susy's comment

      • Joan on April 25, 2013 at 6:05 am

        Me too. I tried it, and really disliked the black color of the juice produced when I cooked it. The color alone turned me off from the vegetable.

        to Joan's comment

  7. Caroline on April 24, 2013 at 11:36 am

    I loooove tomatoes! Not on their own, but on a nice burger or on a salad…. Yum! Also onions. Radishes are OK. And…. well…. that’s about it. Fortunately my hubby will eat pretty much any veggies so I’m doing pretty well with growing what we’ll eat. I am planting green beans which nobody in my house loves (but we will eat them), but I just think they’re so cool…. so I’m sure I’ll be giving a lot of those away :)

    Reply to Caroline's comment

  8. Colleen on April 24, 2013 at 12:45 pm

    Garden fresh tomatoes are like candy. I am not sure I have a favorite vegetable they are all so good right out of the garden. However, a couple I haven’t quite figured out how to prepare properly, brussel sprouts and beets.

    Reply to Colleen's comment

  9. Kay on April 24, 2013 at 3:10 pm

    I like almost all veggies except corn.

    Reply to Kay's comment

  10. Lemongrass on April 24, 2013 at 6:04 pm

    Great topic. Am doing the 3X7. I love all vegetables, but am crazy about broccoli raab, brussels sprouts, swiss chard pear tomatoes kale, collards……… the young leaves in smoothies and fava beans. I am growing amaranth for the second year. I harvest young plant before the seed stems mature………millions of tiny seeds.
    Colleen roast ;your brussel sprouts in olive oil, garlic, a pinch of sea salt and a teaspoon of lemon/lime juice…….the best:-)

    Reply to Lemongrass's comment

    • Colleen on April 25, 2013 at 12:02 am

      Thanks… I will try your recipe for brussel sprouts.

      Reply to Colleen's comment

  11. kathi Cook on April 24, 2013 at 8:56 pm

    Tomatoes are my top favorite,but I also love growing garlic and all sorts of fresh salad greens. Pretty much I love anything home grown.

    Reply to kathi Cook's comment

  12. Crinia on April 24, 2013 at 11:01 pm

    No radishes in our garden.

    Reply to Crinia's comment

  13. The Groundskeeper @ See You In The Garden on April 25, 2013 at 12:19 am

    I tend to grow only what I love. I tried a new kind of tomato one year, and grew it the next three because I thought I would learn to like it – cream sausage tomatoes. Never happened, and I decided to give up and move on.

    Tomatoes (cherry and beef steak types), cucumbers, green onions, peppers, basil, cilantro, thyme … I know that last few are not vegetables, but I like growing them.

    I usually grow beans because I don’t love them, but I do like to have them on the table every so often and hate having to buy them. I don’t like turnips so I don’t grow them. Also due to small space I don’t grow corn currently, though I have in the past when we lived somewhere with more space and less access to fresh corn.

    Reply to The Groundskeeper @ See You In The Garden's comment

  14. Pat in Nebraska on April 25, 2013 at 4:24 am

    I’ve gotta have tomatoes, broccoli, brussel sprouts, potatoes, and ground cherries. I’m pretty successful with those. I also try for peas, beans, cucumber, pattipan squash with only occasional success. I put in radish for my sister sometimes. I’ll have basil and dill, too.

    Reply to Pat in Nebraska's comment

  15. Joan on April 25, 2013 at 6:54 am

    Snap peas are probably my favorite. I grow a huge row of the tall ones so that I have enough to snack on in the garden and to freeze. I love tomatoes, carrots, lettuce, pole beans (much better than bush beans!), just about everything except summer squashes (zucchini and yellow squash) so don’t grow them anymore.

    Reply to Joan's comment

  16. Sierra N Hampl on April 25, 2013 at 5:16 pm

    I’m weird, and have never really enjoyed vegetables. Over the past five years I’ve been trying to diversify my diet and have slowly added some vegetables. Gardening helps because it forces me to experiment a little more.

    Reply to Sierra N Hampl's comment

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This is a daily journal of my efforts to cultivate a more simple life, through local eating, gardening and so many other things. We used to live in a small suburban neighborhood Ohio but moved to 153 acres in Liberty, Maine in 2012.

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