Gourmet Food - Asparagus

Asparagus is so tasty. I don't know very many people that don't love asparagus and it is really easy to grow. If you know someone that has a patch of asparagus that is not an all male variety, then you can look in the spring for seedling asparagus plants to transplant and start your own patch. I got these beauties this summer, put them in a pot for a few months, and then transplanted them about a month ago. They are already looking pretty good despite being transplanted during the summer heat.

Why pay for asparagus at the store that is shipped all the way from a foreign country like California, Mexico, or some other foreign country? Yes, California is almost a foreign country at least in terms of the distance to ship produce across the continent. This is just an idea if you want to eat local food that you've grown yourself. A lot of good quality produce does come from around the world including California, but if you want to get the local microbes and associated benefits of eating locally grown food, the best way is to grow it yourself.

 The Seeds from which these asparagus plants sprouted were dropped from the variety Mary Washington. They could be crossed with the all-male variety Jersey Giant as a pollinator. Some are probably Mary Washington x Mary Washington and others are Mary Washington x Jersey Giant.

Onion Greens and How to Save Money

I don't know about you, but I eat a lot of green onions in and on everything from salads to homemade chili. Onion greens seem to be one of those staples, that you need a continuous supply for most of the year. A simple idea that I've been doing is to plant some left over green onions or bulb onions from the grocery store out in the garden instead of waiting for the few extras to go bad and end up throwing them away. Soon enough you'll have enough green onions growing that you won't need to buy any at the store, that is if you don't pull them up and only harvest the greens.

Here are some pictures of the onions in my meager kitchen garden. You can see where I've been breaking off the leaves on some of them. Pruning or picking leaves off of a plant usually stimulate it to grow more leaves. It still has the same amount of roots, but less leaves to feed nutrients too. The onions quickly regrow leaves. It works really well.

Green Onions (store bought)

Dutch Yellow Shallots

Yellow Rock (storage onions)

When I need some green onion for your next recipe, then I just walk outside and break off a few green onion leaves, leaving the bulb and growing tip intact. I have several kinds of onions planted for greens. I have some yellow rock onions that I had in storage for over a year. I planted the ones that hadn't gotten soft or started to rot. Hey maybe I'll get some good yellow rock onion seed next year for onions that will store exceptionally well. I'll have to wait and see. I also have some Egyptian Walking Onions, Dutch Yellow Shallots, one Yellow Potato Onion, and Green Onions (store bought). I grew up once in a while eating onion greens dipped in salt and bread with milk on it as my parents like to remind us what my grandparents had to eat every day for dinner during the great depression. Well at least it would probably be healthier than what most people eat today. You'd be getting your major food categories, energy, protective, and building foods. fresh onion greens as a vegetable (protective food, vitamin rich), homemade bread (energy food), and milk (building food, complete with essential amino acids for repair and building tissue/muscle). The basis of these simplified nutrition is from the Benson Institute, which helps teach people and families in developing countries how to improve their nutrition and decrease death and disease from malnutrition.

Brown Cucumbers, Rotten or Not?

I was intrigued by the variety of brown cucumbers listed on Heritage Harvest Seed companies website called Kaiser Alexander. I have never seen or eaten a brown cucumber. Unfortunately or fortunately depending on you take, they are only brown when they are overripe and going to seed. It is very odd looking as many cucumbers turn yellow when overripe. Check it out for yourself.

I've always wondered why we ended up with the characteristic colors of vegetables in the grocery stores, especially when most crops historically had several color variations maintained in heritage varieties or in the wild. Is it due mainly to the vast crop monocultures, marketing and customer preference or just a system that was setup and never changed? Maybe people and society at large forgot that corn, potatoes, and carrots and many other crops can have multiple colorations, shades, and hues.

Radish Greens Are Edible

I never considered eating radish greens until I read that they were edible and eaten in some parts of the world. Radishes are one of the fastest growing crops maturing in as little as three or four weeks. If you use the greens as well as the roots, then you will get the equivalent of two crops in the same space, radishes and greens. Rather than throwing those greens away when harvesting the roots, save them and steam or sauté them. The greens actually remind me of very mildly flavored turnip greens. They taste pretty good. We've actually had them about three times in a couple weeks. I have always liked radishes, but thought that they were bit of a waste space when you only get to eat the root crop. Using the leaves is a great idea to get more use out of your garden space. Radishes are in the Brassicaceae family and are related to other similar tasting greens like turnip greens, mustard greens, cabbage, and broccoli among many others.

Bag of leftover radish greens waiting to be eaten in a bag in the fridge.

Higher Omega-3 to Omega-6 ratio

I've been looking up foods with a higher omega-3 to omega-6 ratio to try and eat more of those types of foods to balance out all of the omega-6 that I get from grains and non-grass fed beef. Grass fed beef is too expensive for me at this point. I think the ideal thing to do will be to raise my own livestock in the future, but that is a dormant plan right now. I looked up a whole host of whole foods on Nutrition Data to see the amounts of omega-3 to omega-6. I found a short list of mostly vegetables that have more omega-3 than 6 and here it is.

Omega-3 Higher Than Omega-6

Broccoli
Radishes
Spinach
Lettuce
Collards
Green beans
Green cabbage, cooked is best
Oregano
Basil
Pak choi
Rapini
Brussels sprouts
Kale
Cantaloupe
Summer squash
Zucchini
Hubbard
Turnip greens
Turnips
Spearmint
Sage
Arugula
Sweet marjoram
Tarragon
Thyme
Purslane

A number of other vegetables were close to a 1 to 1 ratio but had slightly more omega-6 than 3 like rosemary. Most vegetables are closer to a 1 to 1 than grains or meat. So eat your vegetables.