soodyers' thread about pasta sauce has had responses that would suggest that some here are into 'growing their own'.
We are now heavily into this. The results so far have been rewarding. Hard work at times, particularly when preparing a sloping site. We are now well into the early stages of fruit growing as well as being reasonably well established on vegetables.
Just try your own strawberries, and then compare them to the standard Elsanta variety in UK supermarkets. If you are normally a supermarket shopper you will suddenly be confonted with what a strawberry should really taste like. Just grow any variety recommended for flavour. Ours typically only stay good for a day or two maximum after picking. But that should hardly be a problem if you're growing them in your garden! Supermarket Elsanta typically last for several weeks from picking. Hardly fresh!
I am reliably informed that the Guinguette is a common variety in French supermarkets, and is superior to Elsanta in taste, but still not up there with a good home grown.
Anyone else 'growing their own'?
Do you 'Grow your own'?
Melon....have had lots in the last couple of weeks.
Even though they were planted at decent time intervals to try to prevent a glut, it appears they are all ripe at about the same time.
So I'm thinking of digging out the juicer from the back of the cupboard, and 'juicing' some. Wonder if that can then be frozen?
Or make some small 'melon balls' and freeze them. But that sounds like more work.
Even though they were planted at decent time intervals to try to prevent a glut, it appears they are all ripe at about the same time.
So I'm thinking of digging out the juicer from the back of the cupboard, and 'juicing' some. Wonder if that can then be frozen?
Or make some small 'melon balls' and freeze them. But that sounds like more work.
My boss is only part time, rest of his time he tends his farm. He brings in his own organic veg for us. The potatoes particularly I can tell the difference in the taste and the cabbage - yum (and cabbage and yum don't often go together!).
I live in a terraced town house with a back yard and pocket hankerchief sized front garden which I barely have time to look after. The cottage garden has to be as low maintenance as poss for us so no lovely fresh veg from my own efforts. I must admit the price of organic stuff in the supermarkets does put me off but I guess at the end of the day the taste is worth the extra.
My sister used to keep hens at one time, fresh eggs every day (if you could find them) and I used to have fun feeding them too.
I live in a terraced town house with a back yard and pocket hankerchief sized front garden which I barely have time to look after. The cottage garden has to be as low maintenance as poss for us so no lovely fresh veg from my own efforts. I must admit the price of organic stuff in the supermarkets does put me off but I guess at the end of the day the taste is worth the extra.
My sister used to keep hens at one time, fresh eggs every day (if you could find them) and I used to have fun feeding them too.
soodyer,
The organic veg from your boss sound great. I would definitely encourage him to 'test' more stuff out on you!
We are not organic at the moment, although we try to minimize any chemical use. Perhaps once we feel more confident of what we are doing we will investigate organic 'farming' more fully. I certainly think carefully before resorting to chemicals. After all, we are going to be eating the produce in the end!
I remember the excitement of visiting the local shops for vegetable seeds and being completely stumped when confronted by a choice of about 50 different carrot varieties, or 20 different cucumber ones. I felt like going and asking them to point out which varieties were the 'normal' ones! Then being worried when our chosen cucumbers turned out rather shorter and fatter than the supermarket ones. What had gone wrong? Now I view our produce as being just a portion of the complete range available. And the supermarkets choice of, typically, just one variety as a bit pathetic!
As essentially a 'city boy and girl' its been a great learning experience, and one that still has a long road ahead.
The organic veg from your boss sound great. I would definitely encourage him to 'test' more stuff out on you!
We are not organic at the moment, although we try to minimize any chemical use. Perhaps once we feel more confident of what we are doing we will investigate organic 'farming' more fully. I certainly think carefully before resorting to chemicals. After all, we are going to be eating the produce in the end!
I remember the excitement of visiting the local shops for vegetable seeds and being completely stumped when confronted by a choice of about 50 different carrot varieties, or 20 different cucumber ones. I felt like going and asking them to point out which varieties were the 'normal' ones! Then being worried when our chosen cucumbers turned out rather shorter and fatter than the supermarket ones. What had gone wrong? Now I view our produce as being just a portion of the complete range available. And the supermarkets choice of, typically, just one variety as a bit pathetic!
As essentially a 'city boy and girl' its been a great learning experience, and one that still has a long road ahead.
I admit I've never really tested to see if I can tend a garden at all, I've just assumed I wouldn't be good at it and wouldn't like it.
We're moving from an apartment to a house this year, so I may try my hand at some easy vegetables (suggestions welcome). But overall it has always seemed like a huge time and effort investment, given the huge number of farmer's markets we have around here. My Mom tried it one year with tomatoes, and although we had a wonderful crop, she never did it again.
They were really fantastic, though. That could really be worth it. Of course I'd have to grow basil as well!
We're moving from an apartment to a house this year, so I may try my hand at some easy vegetables (suggestions welcome). But overall it has always seemed like a huge time and effort investment, given the huge number of farmer's markets we have around here. My Mom tried it one year with tomatoes, and although we had a wonderful crop, she never did it again.
They were really fantastic, though. That could really be worth it. Of course I'd have to grow basil as well!
Brooke
The first year we were here, I tried a veg garden as all of our neighbours did it (so I thought it would be easy) and having so much land it seemed the obvious thing to do. I planted a lot, probably too much, but unfortunately due to project managing a renovation project and painting it, teaching, and looking after my 2 yr old, it became too difficult to control the weeds. I would love to try again, the fruit trees are no problem, but after becoming the laughing stock of my French neighbours with my inabality to grow vegetables, I don't know if I dare try again..
Susan, me too a laughing stock with the neighbors! When I first arrived in America, my mother-in-law was horrified to discover that I intended to do my own gardening. She said I would be the laughing stock of the neighborhood. Everybody had "landscapers", which was a euphamism for illegal immigrants who did not know one plant from another and just hacked or sprayed everything with chemicals, and charged highly for the privilege. Over my dead body. My husband, bless him, backed me up. Every Thursday evening he would go out and cut the front lawn so that when the "landscapers" arrived on a Friday morning to attend our neighborhood, ours was the neatest to be seen. We didn't stay long in that neighborhood.
I'm still not an expert by any means, but very content to learn by trial and error, and the successes more than make up for failures. I have learnt to plant edible things as close to the house and kitchen as possible, then they get my attention and are not a chore to water. When dealing with Mother Nature, nothing is predictable, but there is nothing to beat going into the garden at 5pm to pick the evening dinner.
Herbs tend to do better indoors here, especially basil, which has proved temperamental. I brought a couple of those inside a week ago as they were struggling in too hot sun, but they are lemon basil and chocolate basil varieties, whereas the common basil is still doing OK outside. I have also given up trying to grow rosemary outside, same for bay leaves, but all these herbs those do extremely well in Europe, indoors or outdoors, and you can even make hedges out of rosemary and they look wonderful. Here, I never see one more than a foot tall.
As this is a farming community, how things are growing is their favorite topic of conversation, and only too happy to compare notes. "Are your tomatoes late this year as well?"..."Yes, it's because we had no Spring, we went straight from winter to summer." OK I learnt something. Can't wait for another year when we go straight from winter to summer, then I can say, "The tomatoes are going to be late this year". Now, I'm really fitting in!
Often, I find that the problem is not special to me. I am especially proud of my peppers this year because so many people seem to have lost them. Melon sounds good as something new for me to try next year and I am still looking for a source to buy French Tarragon, which I hear is the best.
New for next year, we are seriously thinking about cultivating Oysters, but first have to go to Oyster School. They will then give us 150 to cultivate in the waters off the beach house, which they say is an ideal location. We would need to tend for an hour once every two weeks and rely on tenants not interfering with them. This would not even be an option if we had been using chemicals of any kind there. For this reason, I am very, very anti-chemicals of any sort. As well, if we used chemicals at home, they would seep into the ground water that supplies our well from which we drink.
Not to mention that the run off from people's lawn chemicals into the bay/ ocean does more damage to the ecosystem than anything else generally. I hear there are no lobster in Maine right now for that reason, also that Martha's Vineyard has a big problem with red tides. I haven't seen it with my own eyes, but I can confirm that we're receiving an increasing number of bookings for our beach house from folks who either live there, or normally vist there, but chosing our location instead.
I'm still not an expert by any means, but very content to learn by trial and error, and the successes more than make up for failures. I have learnt to plant edible things as close to the house and kitchen as possible, then they get my attention and are not a chore to water. When dealing with Mother Nature, nothing is predictable, but there is nothing to beat going into the garden at 5pm to pick the evening dinner.
Herbs tend to do better indoors here, especially basil, which has proved temperamental. I brought a couple of those inside a week ago as they were struggling in too hot sun, but they are lemon basil and chocolate basil varieties, whereas the common basil is still doing OK outside. I have also given up trying to grow rosemary outside, same for bay leaves, but all these herbs those do extremely well in Europe, indoors or outdoors, and you can even make hedges out of rosemary and they look wonderful. Here, I never see one more than a foot tall.
As this is a farming community, how things are growing is their favorite topic of conversation, and only too happy to compare notes. "Are your tomatoes late this year as well?"..."Yes, it's because we had no Spring, we went straight from winter to summer." OK I learnt something. Can't wait for another year when we go straight from winter to summer, then I can say, "The tomatoes are going to be late this year". Now, I'm really fitting in!
Often, I find that the problem is not special to me. I am especially proud of my peppers this year because so many people seem to have lost them. Melon sounds good as something new for me to try next year and I am still looking for a source to buy French Tarragon, which I hear is the best.
New for next year, we are seriously thinking about cultivating Oysters, but first have to go to Oyster School. They will then give us 150 to cultivate in the waters off the beach house, which they say is an ideal location. We would need to tend for an hour once every two weeks and rely on tenants not interfering with them. This would not even be an option if we had been using chemicals of any kind there. For this reason, I am very, very anti-chemicals of any sort. As well, if we used chemicals at home, they would seep into the ground water that supplies our well from which we drink.
Not to mention that the run off from people's lawn chemicals into the bay/ ocean does more damage to the ecosystem than anything else generally. I hear there are no lobster in Maine right now for that reason, also that Martha's Vineyard has a big problem with red tides. I haven't seen it with my own eyes, but I can confirm that we're receiving an increasing number of bookings for our beach house from folks who either live there, or normally vist there, but chosing our location instead.
Waves from America