contentment • conserving • creativity
Our conserver lifestyle is underpinned by preparing food from the garden now to enjoy during the winter. Normally right now I would be creating soup bases and tomato sauce to store in the freezer. But time is tight so I turn to the simplest way to put food by.
I’d like to introduce you to a plant that is a hard-working staple in my food garden, but was a complete stranger to me a dozen years ago. Commonly known as New Zealand spinach, this plant has so much to offer that it’s the only “spinach” I grow these days.
Vivid red and white balls of crunchy spiciness. Plant them early in the spring and eat them twenty-eight days later. Plant them again in late summer as a quick succession crop. But there’s even more to know about why to grow radishes.
I’ve decided that I am a nature gardener. I’m getting older yet still want to grow as much of our food as possible. Don’t want to overthink or overwork. Hence my new code words for using strategies from nature to simplify my gardening for ease, efficiency and economy.
Herbs are a valuable resource for the urban homestead. Most are easy to grow, and need very little attention once they are established. They offer a myriad of benefits, both in flavour and in health-giving properties. Learn how to conserve them for use all year round.
Chives are one of the easiest herbs to grow and one of the earliest you can harvest. It’s satisfying to pick a few leaves from your chive plant and snip them up for a garnish. When the chives are in bloom, my favourite thing is to make Chive Flower Apple Cider Vinegar.
As a urban homesteader, I rely on my grow lights to get a head start on the growing season. Space is at a premium and every plant is precious. My indoor lights and trays are hard at work all spring. And so, it seems, are the little flying insects. Every year.
These sun scarce months give us time to dream and plan next year’s gardens. Do you have even a pocket of land you’d like to convert to growing food? To help you turn small spaces into food gardens, here is a shortlist of books I highly recommend.
For most of my gardening life, I’ve merrily gone along browsing instore seed racks and pouring over seed catalogs to plan my food growing. I never gave seed supply a second thought. But … what if one day there weren’t enough seeds to go around?
A few years ago, as often happens at the garden, I was chatting with a stranger. When I told her I had no use for Swiss chard and didn’t grow it, she was shocked. “It makes the very best cabbage rolls,” she told me. Turns out she was right.
In pain? Jittery? Anxious? Restless? Out of sorts? There’s a plant for that!
I have discovered many plants with known soothing properties that are easy to grow in a small space. This might be the time to consider creating a peace tea garden.
Food security. What can we do to make sure we’re not completely dependent on business systems to provide our food? Growing some our own vegetables brings us a little closer to the goal. Saving seeds is the next step to additional self-sufficiency.
