Garden meals

This was my first year with a veggie garden, and it turned out great, but I've learned a lot about planting-which plants require chemicals, which ones don't, Which ones I get tired of eating and those I wish I had more of.

Last night, realizing that I was tired of eggplant I looked at the kale and cabbage and tossed them into the garlic butter with cauliflower and broccoli with homemade tomato soup and Italian pasta... wow. Who needs meat? Well, I do but not as often as I thought I wanted it.

When I eat some types of plants like kale I feel like Popeye after he squeezes the spinach can- some nutrients go down the throat into the bloodstream, and through the body to the tips of the extremities causing muscles to bulge and flex.

Ok, so I exaggerate but you know what I'm saying.

So cool to look at a plant that I used to frown upon and be so satisfied.

Its time to rip rip out the cucumber, squash, etc because the vines shriveled from squash vine borer and plant garlic, radishes, and other cool season veggies.

The heirloom tomatoes are as big as basketballs and the plants are puttin' out so many it's not even funny. Every single day they are served up sliced with balsamic vinegar and Morton seasoned salt as an appetizer while everything else is cooking.

Grocery store trips are now only for non-food items. Awesome. I've probably lost eight or ten pounds, eaten the healthiest food on the planet, and saved hundreds and hundreds of dollars not to mention time and fuel going to the store.

Sure wish that:

1. The season was longer
2. I knew how to preserve excess food
3. That I knew about more varieties of food
4. That I knew which plants needed which chemicals applied on which schedule.

​I guess there's more to it than meets the eye and growing your own food requires effort, knowledge, skill, and education.