It’s time to get dirty.

In my garden, everything is starting to wake up

Amigos,

You know, because I have told you this before, but I love vegetables — not that I am going to become a vegetarian, but as I have said before, fruits and vegetables will be sexy and interesting in a way that a piece of fish or meat will never be. With a piece of steak, you can grill it, saute it, or broil it. Boom, done! But a carrot? You can do so much to a carrot and it will taste different with each variation…shave it, pickle it, make the stems into a pesto, puree it into a soup, make it into a juice, roast it until it is sweet and caramelized, so many options! 

That’s why Spring is so exciting to me, because it’s getting us closer to peak vegetable time. This is when I love to go out and start to plant in my little outdoor garden. We will have our vegetables for spring and summer: carrots and peppers, radishes and peas, tomatoes, eggplant, and squash, tons of herbs, all planted in raised beds and getting ready for spring and summer. 

Two beautiful, small, incredibly expensive (in terms of amount of work put in!) carrots

I’ve been planting in my home garden for many years now and have learned a lot. Some things were pretty humbling, like learning that not everything is better from your garden. It’s true, even mine! It’s hard to grow a tomato better than a farmer who has dedicated her life to it. Also, if I am being honest with you, you probably will not save money. It takes a lot of time and investment in the soil and beds, and seeds (and the deer, rabbits, birds and squirrels who may come eat it all, so maybe put up a fence or some netting). After everything, those homegrown potatoes may cost you a fortune. It also takes some time to get the science of it, understanding the soil, temperature, pH levels, and seed behavior. And you need to invest love and patience. 

But the rewards are huge! Gardening is an easy way to bring more vegetables into your diet and your life, it’s an amazing way to teach your kids how to grow food (and you know when they grow it, they will be much more interested in eating it!). It helps clear your mind and bring some calmness to a chaotic life, and there is a serious satisfaction from sitting down to a meal that you not only cooked, that you grew and nurtured from seed to plant. And when you think about the big picture, that by 2050 we will have more than 9.5 billion people on the planet, that’s a lot of mouths to feed. If we all have our own home farms, we can help reduce our reliance on big food and agriculture. Every little bit helps. 

So, my friends, let’s get you started with a garden. If you have an outdoor space of any kind you can do it: you can use wooden boxes, a wheelbarrow, goldfish bowls, pots and planters, a used tire! Even a little windowsill can grow herbs. If you don’t have an outdoor space, there is so much indoor gardening technology that will amaze you—I’ve used a Farmshelf, a Grow Tower, and a Back to the Roots mushroom farm in my home. I’ve even experimented with growing a bed of sprouts over a goldfish bowl, and the nutrients from the sprouts drop into the bowl and feed the fish. In a perfect world new kitchens would not just come with a refrigerator and a stove, but with a mini garden built into it. 

Happy spring and let’s get dirty!