an eager sprout

So awhile back I mentioned my baby steps into some form of agricultural self-sufficiency.  My family’s started it’s own recession garden and bumped up our take from the csa.  Well, we’ve made it about a month into this new cycle so it seems appropriate for an update.

First, let me tell you my family ate egg rolls for dinner.  Made entirely from scratch.  With everything (except the actual wrappers) local sourced.  And we have about 20 in the freezer, waiting for a fierce round of late-night snacking.  I mention the egg rolls because this entire experiment has forced me to bump up my kitchen skills substantially.  It’s been fantastic and, if I must say so myself, the proof is in the pudding.  Swiss chard with bacon and shallots.  Kohlrabi slaw.  Beet chips.  Arugula pesto.  It’s inspired me to even start baking almost all our own bread (I’ve cheated on some sandwich loaves here and there).  And the tomatoes haven’t even come in yet- my most favorite of all things summer and really, the entire reason I started gardening for reals.

Oh, the tomatoes.  I can expect (if this summer is anything like last) about 5 pounds of tomatoes per week from our farm share for about five weeks.  From the garden plot, I’m guessing we’ll have just as much.  I planted a total of eight plants, all heirloom variety of some sort.  And each plant is particularly imperialistic.  They have completely taken over.  Seriously.  Some are taller than me (and, funny guy, I’m five-foot-six).  They have eaten my pepper plants and are in a standoff with the brussels sprouts.  If given the opportunity I’m sure they’d take over the whole damn box.  And they just might.

In all this bounty though we have had some losses.  The peppers I already mentioned, but the tomatoes have also claimed my leeks and most my onions as casualties in their march for homestead colonialism.  My cucumbers never really took though in hindsight it just might have been because they knew the tomatoes were coming for them.

So, I put this first quarter into the success column.  We’ve already agreed to expand our lot by about 3 for next summer, found a great fruit-sharing program for the winter, and I’m prepping to fight the man and get us some chickens.  Kelly’s even agreed to clean out the scary room for a cellar.  For those not in the know, our house is old and used to have a well.  The well is still there, sealed shut, in a cement room that we lock from the outside.  It basically looks like every torture prison used in serial-killer movies.  The scary room.  But anyways, a cellar!  

Seriously, two years ago I was drinking martinis at The Chambers and now I’m giddy over a cellar.  Not how most would measure progress, but here in Greenacres, we wouldn’t have it any other way.