The First Ripe Strawberry
I’ve been watching the strawberry patch like a hawk, waiting for that first glimpse of red. We’ve had a lot of blooms this year and lots of tiny green fruit setting on. Strawberries are one of my favorite things to have in the garden. They’re so easy I don’t know why more people don’t grow them. The flavor is so much better than the ones in the grocery store and you can grow them organically without chemicals and pesticides. I’d never buy conventional strawberries at the store because they’re one of the worst offenders when it comes to chemical pollution (and they’re about to get worse, read this).
Last week I noticed the first slight blush on one of the berries when I was out weeding. If you have your own strawberry patch you know exactly how excited I was. I started thinking about strawberry shortcake, my favorite way to eat strawberries.
Yesterday when I was out picking lettuce for our lunch salad, something red caught my eye. It was the first deliciously ripe red strawberry. Mr Chiots and I split it, we each enjoyed half a strawberry on our salad. They pair perfectly with balsamic vinegar! I’ll be eagerly watching the patch waiting for enough berries to make the first strawberry shortcake of the season.
I’m considering adding a patch of ever-bearing strawberries to our garden. That way we can harvest strawberries all season long, instead of just having a flush of berries in the spring. I’ve heard that Tri-Star is a great variety so I may try some of them.
Do you grow your own strawberries? What’s your favorite way to enjoy them?
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Update on the Garden Pond
Last week I told you about the new pond we were adding to the garden. We’re quite excited about it and were waiting for the right time to fill it! I didn’t want to use city water and I wasn’t about to use the water from my rain barrels until I knew some rain was on it’s way. Last Friday night was the night, we were out at midnight emptying our rain barrels into the pond since a huge rain storm was coming. On Monday I went out to plant a waterlily in the pond and I spotted two toads already enjoying our new water feature! (more on planting a waterlily later).
When you live a half hour from everything, you always plan your errands on the same day to save time. Yesterday we decided to spend the day Holden Arboretum with my parents and figured we’d stop by the pet store on the way home to buy some gold fish for our little pond.
We didn’t want to invest in expensive koi, especially since these cheap feeder goldfish often do better. They will help control mosquitoes and provide some beauty in the pond. We’re hoping at least 3-5 of them survive (we bought 10), I’ll keep you updated.
We arrived home at sunset with just enough time to float them in the water for 30 minutes before setting them free. Of course it was too dark to take photos them. I can’t wait to check on them today!
Anyone else have experience with fish in a small garden pond? Anything new and exciting going on in your garden?
The Seed Starting 101 Series will resume next Monday.
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The First Tomato Seedling of 2010
Exciting things are happening in the Chiot’s Run basement seed starting headquarters. On Saturday morning while working in the basement, I spotted the first tomato seedling of 2010. Can you guess what kind it is?*
This is when that new macro lens Mr Chiots got me for Christmas comes in handy, I never would have been able to get this close with my other lens. It’s a thing of beauty, since I was working in the basement so I caught it before it even fully emerged from the soil and stood up. I had just checked them that morning and didn’t see anything, later that afternoon there was a tiny speck of green.
I still haven’t started all of my tomato seeds yet, that will happen this week when I can leave the flats on the front porch to warm (it’s supposed to be in the high 60’s). Of course I ended up with more variates than I wanted to grow, but fewer than last year. I’ll give you the full list when I start them.
Do you have any tomatoes growing yet?
*It’s a San Marzano
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We Have Winners!
I chose winners for the Renee’s Garden Seed contest.
So our winners are Misti and Beverly. If you didn’t get my e-mail make sure you send me your address so I can send out your prizes. Contact me at: susy (at) chiotsrun.com.
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Book Report: The Unhealthy Truth
I’ve been reading The Unhealthy Truth: How Our Food Is Making Us Sick – And What We Can Do About It
The first 7 chapters are spent detailing the information Robyn found during her research into GMO (Genetically Modified Organisms) and artificial chemicals, preservatives, and dyes in manufactured foods and the link between these and allergies, autism and other immune diseases. I won’t recount the information here, read the book for all the gory details. You might be interested to know that the top 12 GMO foods in production the United States are: corn, cotton, potatoes, tomatoes, soybeans, canola, sugar beets, rice, flax, squash/zucchini, papaya and chicory (radicchio). I knew about corn, soy, sugar beets, cotton and canola, but I was surprised by the other crops on the list. Yet another reason to shop locally and grow your own!
The last chapter, however, is a HUGE let-down as she details her “meal-plan” for getting your family on the healthier eating road. I was excited to hear about her great ideas of incorporating fresh organic food into her new diet, but her new diet is just like her previous one, she just switched conventional processed food for organic processed food. I’m sure organic processed food contains fewer chemicals than conventional, but this doesn’t really get to the root of our screwed up country-wide eating disorder. We no longer eat “REAL” food; none of our food looks like it does in it’s natural form and most of it is processed, comes in a box and is shipped thousands of miles. Are organic processed packaged granola bars really a healthier option than an in season peach from a local farm? Her meal plan is also severely lacking in the area of fresh fruits & veggies, not even getting close to the 7-11 servings a day we should be getting.
I also completely disagree with her statement that eating organically and healthfully are more expensive than eating conventional boxed food. Sure if you’re just switching all of your processed food from regular to organic you’re going to pay more for it. But if you buy real fresh food that’s in season it’s actually much much cheaper!
Buying fresh local apples is a better investment nutritionally than buying a bag of chips and you’ll get more servings out of it (not many people sit down and eat 3 apples at once, but many people will sit down and eat 3 servings of chips). A better cheaper option is buying locally grown fruit and veggies in season. A .75 zucchini from the farmers market (or picked in your back yard) that will serve 5 really is much cheaper than that bag of organic baby carrots you buy each week at the grocery store (and much fresher).
I do love that she mentions getting your kids involved in the process of healthier eating, which is very important. Here’s an idea: instead of buying all the expensive organic processed food at the grocery why not load up your kids and head to the farmers market. Let them each pick out one new veggie each week and get them involved in choosing their own healthy food. Not only is this local food much healthier because it’s fresh and local, but it’s much cheaper than grocery store food. You could also try growing a few veggies in pots on your front/back porch. It’s amazing how willing kids are to try something new if they’ve nurtured it from a seedling.
I believe buying good quality local organic produce is an investment in your health and in your future (not to mention it tastes much better as well). It’s also very important for the preservation of our farmland. In the last couple years as we transitioned to local whole foods we actually started spending less on our groceries (and that includes buying $8/gallon raw organic milk). There are a lot of things I would go without in order to eat good quality food, cable, cell phone, the second car, vacations, new clothes, eating out, etc, but I don’t have to because I’m actually spending less on my healthy diet. Some things are more expensive, like dairy & meat, but we eat a little less of them and the savings from buying in season fruits and veggies helps off-set the cost. There’s great peace of mind knowing that you’re feeding yourself in the healthiest way possible, giving yourself and your loved ones the best chance to live a long healthy happy life.
I would highly recommend reading this book, but only if you’re ready to making changes in your diet. If you don’t want to hear about all the chemicals, pesticides, and genetically modified organisms lurking in your processed foods and the health problems they cause, do not read this book. Ignorance is bliss, at least for a while.
Are you taking steps to cut out GMO’s and trying to include more whole real foods in you diet?
