Today I decided to write about vegetables, to be specific, our home-grown vegetables.
A couple of years ago Scott created a vegetable garden in a neglected garden bed along our fence line. Once the plants got established, we have enjoyed lovely home-grown, chemical free, vegetables.
How successfully….
Scott has tried growing several different things, some with success, some not so successful.
We have had success with Heirloom Carrots. The first time we harvested some we were quite surprised at the variety or colours that we had. Apart from the common orange, we had yellow, red, white & purple carrots, they really add colour to the plate. We continue to plant these seeds so that we always have some carrots.
Sweet potatoes have been a challenge. We planted 2 varieties, the common ‘Gold’ and the less common ‘Hawaiian’ sweet potato. The plants were quite large and healthy, but the crop was small. Hopefully next time around the results will be better.
Scott has had some great success with growing zucchini. We have had some large enough to stuff and roast.
We have not had success with growing cauliflower. As we don’t use any chemicals on our garden, our cauliflower plants were attacked by bugs and died.
At the beginning of winter Scott planted Purple Sprouting Broccoli seedlings and this week we harvested the last head of broccoli. It was quite large and really purple. It is also quite good for us.
A bit about the Broccoli,
There are differences in the nutritional values of green and purple broccoli.
The purple broccoli has higher levels of vitamin C, folate, iron, calcium, isotonic, glucolin, and anthocyanins.
Purple sprouting broccoli also contains the phyto chemicals ulphoraphane (thought to help prevent cancer) and may provide resistance against heart disease, osteoporosis and diabetes. Overall, purple sprouting broccoli was found to contain higher contents of antioxidant compounds than green broccoli.
After cooking, the purple sprouting broccoli retains higher levels of antioxidant. (Sources; https://academic.oup.com/biohorizons/article/ ; https://drizzleazure.wordpress.com)
We have also had a pumpkin vine growing in our garden. It is growing quite well, taking up lots of space, and we have been looking forward to harvesting some pumpkins. However, we are not having much success.
The pumpkins are forming but don’t mature.
Scott was ready to pull up the plant. He spoke to one of his Uni lecturers who advised that the little immature pumpkins were quite good steamed.
We have since tried steaming them and they taste like button squash. So, I guess the pumpkin vine isn’t a complete failure. We are continuing to harvest the tiny pumpkins and are also going to try roasting them.
All in all, our garden is providing us with some lovely, chemical free, whole foods. By trying to grow different varieties, we eat a more varied diet.
Till the next post,
Live Clean n Prosper