calories and condiments

As I weed things like leeks, that most people would think a luxury or novelty, not a staple, I have thoughts.

If you start out wanting to grow your own food, that desire can be daunting. How in the world do you grow that much food? Which is why I implore folks to just get an upside down tomato and a basil plant. Because a little success there and the ideas will grow as well as the produce.

But what most folks are growing is entertainment and condiments. And I don't mean that in any sort of belittling way. I always say our garden "budget" comes out of our entertainment budget. Of course, we don't actually have an entertainment budget and if we did, servicing the vehicle's transmission and my dental needs would have wiped that out for the next, oh, decade. But picking up a sweet potato or three doesn't strain the budget. Going to see my friend on her horse farm and picking up pawpaws doesn't strain the budget. Saving toilet paper rolls. . . you get the idea.

Here's the thing: your calories are potatoes and grain and beans, all of which you can buy bulk if you don't grow it. We don't grow rice, but we eat a good bit of it.  We do grow hard corn, so we've learned more different ways to incorporate it into our lives, including tonight's hominy soup.

The rest of the stuff is condiments. Onions, for example.  Onions make darn near everything better. Ditto garlic. You almost couldn't grow too much of that (include shallots and leeks and the like in with that) -- IF you can figure out how to preserve it in a way that you will utilize it. Because nothing is more disheartening that growing and preserving something and then NOT eating it. It happens all the time. We've certainly done it. And that has led to several mantras, like "don't save it -- eat it now". Because if you eat it now, you will also eat it when you preserve it.

For reasons I don't understand, I have always gotten a kick out of wildcrafted things -- picking the wild blackberries, finding all the poke, making locust blossom fritters. And none of that is going to feed you long term but it just might make life worth living. This year my amusement has been pawpaw trees and sweet potatoes. There's the whole permaculture thing of making guilds. It doesn't take a big space to grow a lot of lettuce, and if it's shady in the summer, all the better (in the south anyway). All this to say two things: no matter where you are, you can grow something; and it can be a great amusement to do it too.